Magdalen Monday Movies - Magdalen College

Magdalen Monday Movies is a film club that runs every Monday during term time. We have a different theme each term. The club runs in conjunction with the Oxford Film Studies Network.

Our curator, Peter Kessler, introduces each film. Sometimes we have guest speakers, and occasionally we follow screenings with interviews with the director. We also have a regular strand called ‘Desert Island Movies’, where a celebrity guest takes us through their personal favourite films.

This is all provided for free. Everyone is welcome to come along – but booking via our Eventbrite page is a good idea.

You don’t need to be a member of Magdalen College. Magdalen Monday Movies is open to everyone over the age of 18: students, academics, members of the public. So please feel free to bring your friends and family.

We also offer everyone free popcorn, because that’s (partly) what going to the movies is all about. Content warnings are available via IMDb or DoestheDogDie.

Our new season starts on January 19th. This term our Eras Tour is focussing on Nineties and Noughties. Book now and join us for nine weeks of film-going fascination.

Mon 19 Jan, 7pm: Fargo (1996)
Mon 26 Jan, 7pm: Life is Beautiful (1997)
Mon 2 Feb, 7pm: District 9 (2009)
Mon 9 Feb, 7pm: Song of the Sea (2014)
Mon 16 Feb, 7pm: Sexy Beast (2000)
Mon 23 Feb, 7pm: Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995)
Mon 9 March, 7pm: Only Human (2004)
Mon 16 March, 7pm: Being John Malkovich (1999)

Plus special features this term…

ALEX KINGSTON’S DESERT ISLAND MOVIES: Sat, 28 Feb, 7pm

After our previous guests Mike Newell, Stewart Lee and Stephen Fry, we welcome leading actor, star of everything from Shakespeare to Doctor Who, and dancing sensation from Strictly Come Dancing, ALEX KINGSTON. Come and find out which films she would take to a desert island.

LORD OF THE RINGS FULL-DAY MARATHON. Saturday, 7 Feb, starting at 8.30am

All three films. All extended editions. All in one day. Punctuated by seven Hobbit meals, and (hopefully) including a surprise visitor, this promises to be the cinematic event of the term. Because we have to charge for the food, there is a cost to this event. It has its own booking page HERE.

MEMENTO MORI (1999), with Professor Jinhee Choi: Sun 1 Feb, 7pm

We are thrilled to welcome Professor Jinhee Choi, Head of the Film Studies Department at King’s College London. Professor Choi is an acknowledged expert in East Asian Cinema, and her latest book Forever Girls: Necro-cinematics and South Korean Girlhood explores girlhood and images of death in South Korean Cinema. She will be discussing this and showing the Korean High-School Horror, Memento Mori.

UKRAINE CINEMA PANEL AND SCREENING. Sun 22 Feb, 7pm

In partnership with the Oxford University Ukrainian Society.

WAR IN REAL TIME: HOW DO YOU FILM A WAR THAT HASN’T ENDED? This event will include a screening of 2025’s Animals in War, which tells seven stories of the Russia-Ukraine conflict seen through the eyes of animals. This will be followed by a conversation with the film’s director Andrii Lidahovskyi, and historian of Eastern European cinema Kate Lebow.

THE LODGER. 100th ANNIVERSARY. Sun 8 March, 7pm

2026 is the centenary of Alfred Hitchcock’s breakthrough film. The Lodger may not have been his earliest work, but it was the first to feature the themes that would define his career: suspense, murder and accusations of the innocent. To mark the anniversary, we are delighted to host a lecture from Dr Henry K. Miller of Cambridge University. Dr Miller is the author of The First True Hitchcock: The Making of a Filmmaker, and is the UK’s leading Hitchcock specialist.

This will be followed by a screening of the film, with live musical accompaniment by Magdalen graduate and silent film musician Hugo Max. A very special evening.

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