The Independent is giving away 10 pairs of tickets to special screenings of award-winning movies Ali and Ava, Orlando and Under the Skin, with the first two films being preceded by Q&As.
Claire Rushbrook and Adam Pearson are among the special guests announced as speakers at The Independent’s Celebrating Free Thinkers event at London’s ICA this week.
There are 30 pairs of tickets to give away – 10 for each screening – and they’re being offered on a first-come first-served basis.
The deadline to apply for Ali & Ava is midday Thursday (22 October) and the deadline for the other two films is midday on Friday (23 October). All you need to do is email 40@independent.co.uk and register your interest for the event you’d like to attend.
You’ll have to be quick to snap up tickets to Clio Barnard’s brilliant drama Ali & Ava, which is taking place on Thursday evening (22 October). Rivals star Rushbrook will give fans a glimpse behind the scenes in a conversation about her role in the film.
Barnard’s film released in 2021 and, co-starring Adeel Akhtar, won praise for its tender, uplifting and unconventional love story set in Bradford, West Yorkshire. “One of the most enchanting films of the past decade,” wrote The Independent’s deputy culture editor Ellie Harrison.
Elsewhere in the programme, Pearson, an actor and disability rights activist, will be joining a screening of Oscar winner Jonathan Glazer’s 2013 sci-fi masterpiece Under the Skin, on Saturday (24 October).
Pearson starred in the Bafta-nominated movie alongside Scarlett Johansson, who played an alien sent to Glasgow to harvest human flesh. It’s a surreal and superb watch, “a testament to bold, daring British movie-making”, wrote The Independent’s assistant culture editor Adam White.
The actor will be there to lift the lid on the movie’s “wild” behind-the-scenes story, which saw Johansson walking the streets of Glasgow and interacting with non-actors while cameras hidden in mop buckets and umbrellas caught the action.
On Sunday 25 October, there will be a screening of the acclaimed Orlando, Sally Potter’s 1992 adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel, starring Tilda Swinton in her breakout role. There is not a Q&A to accompany this screening.
Celebrating Free Thinkers opened with an exclusive event for Independent Members on 19 October, with a Q&A between Editor-in-Chief Geordie Greig and Bridget Jones author Helen Fielding, who was working at The Independent as a journalist in the Nineties when she began writing the anonymous column that would become the basis for the iconic character so memorably portrayed by Renee Zellweger in four film adaptations.
The programme also features the premiere of Greig’s documentary Cancelled: The Rise and Fall of Aung San Suu Kyi, about Myanmar’s former leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Kim Aris, the son of the ousted civilian leader, will be present for Q&A together with Greig.
Greig said: “The Independent has always existed to champion free thought and fearless ideas. As we celebrate our 40th anniversary, this partnership with the ICA gives us an exciting opportunity to bring that spirit to life through film, conversation and culture, creating a space for audiences to engage with original voices and ideas.”
Meanwhile, Bengi Ünsal, Director of ICA London, said: “The ICA Cinema has always championed inventive independent film. As a part of this week-long collaboration with The Independent we are delighted to be able to bring an even greater spotlight to this work, in particular the launch of our major retrospective of the work of Japanese filmmaker Shōhei Imamura, whose unruly and inventive approach to cinema is singular in the medium’s history.”
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