Bringing bold cinema that inspired generations of British audiences and filmmakers — a festival of screening events with special guests across London this September and October

Long before streaming algorithms decided what the world should watch, Charles Cooper had a better idea. From a single room in Soho in 1951, Cooper founded Contemporary Films on a simple but radical remit: to bring the finest films of ‘all nations and all peoples’ to British audiences hungry for something beyond the mainstream. For decades Contemporary was the most important international film distributor in Britain. A champion of world cinema before the term existed. Through its partnership with London’s beloved Academy Cinema, and eventually its own cinemas, Contemporary opened British eyes to the craft of Andrzej Wajda, Ingmar Bergman, Satyajit Ray, Luis Buñuel, Sergei Eisenstein, Miloš Forman, Věra Chytilová, Walerian Borowczyk, Werner Herzog, Bernardo Bertolucci, Jean Renoir, Lotte Reiniger, Mike Leigh, Jane Campion and so many others. The filmmakers who shaped how we see the world. MUBI, Curzon, the entire arthouse tradition as we know it… none of it looks quite the same without Contemporary’s fingerprints. Now, 75 years on, we celebrate the vision of Charles Cooper, his many colleagues (particularly Kitty Cooper and Eric Liknaitzky) and the enduring legacy of Contemporary Films — and the films that reminded us why cinema matters

More info: cf75.co.uk