Ten reasons why Bradford deserves to be 2025’s city of culture
From Charlotte Brontë to David Hockney and Zayn Malik, my home town of Bradford has a rich cultural history – and its beauty is balm for the soul
May 2022
Guy Lodge's streaming and DVDs
Streaming: Ali & Ava and other great films set in Yorkshire
From Billy Liar to My Summer of Love, the county’s moors and mill towns have been fertile ground for film-makers. Clio Barnard’s Bradford romance is no exception
Down the rabbit hole
What links The Essex Serpent to a brave De Niro impression and a Taylor Swift T-shirt?
As the TV series lands, come down the rabbit hole for a swift visit to Claire Danes, Cannes and Conversations With Friends
You ask the questions
Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo: ‘I’ve never heard us described as an island of joy before!’
Radio’s odd couple take questions from actors, directors and Observer readers about optimism, the films they disagree on – and biscuits
March 2022
Mark Kermode's film of the week
Ali & Ava review – Clio Barnard’s pitch-perfect Bradford love story
Adeel Akhtar and Claire Rushbrook beguile in this tender, funny romance, which also celebrates the city where it’s set
February 2022
Clio Barnard on her Bradford love story Ali & Ava: ‘Joy is an act of resistance’
The director of The Arbor and The Selfish Giant returns to her favourite city for her new film. She talks about celebrating lives on the margins and how an ice-rink kiss changed her life
July 2021
Ali & Ava review – Clio Barnard’s Bradford romance is an understated triumph
Cannes 2021 week one roundup: saliva tests and strange visions
June 2021
Cannes: Joanna Hogg and Clio Barnard to premiere new films in Directors’ Fortnight
Twelve of the 30 film-makers featured in Directors’ Fortnight sidebar are women, compared to four of the 24 in main competition
May 2020
Peter Bradshaw's film of the week
Women Make Film: A New Road Movie Through Cinema review – paean to neglected talent
Film-maker and historian of the movies Mark Cousins’ 14-hour survey of amazing but overlooked auteurs is a marvel of passionate cinephilia
September 2019
Best culture of the 21st century
The 100 best films of the 21st century
Gangsters, superheroes, schoolkids, lovers, slaves, peasants, techies, Tenenbaums and freefalling astronauts – they’re all here in our countdown of cinema’s best movies since 2000
February 2018
Dark River review – a trauma runs through it
Steve Rose on film
Romanticism v realism: Peter Rabbit digs up cinema’s conflicted relationship with the country
January 2018
Unmissable culture of 2018
Prowling panthers, paranormal spies and vengeful ice-skaters: must-see movies of 2018
The Black Panther roars, Matt Damon shrinks, Aardman go stone age and Jennifer Lawrence takes spying into a new dimension – we preview the best cinema of the new year
April 2017
Sofia Coppola to Michael Haneke: the movies and directors most likely to make it to Cannes
Coppola, Haneke and Todd Haynes are odds-on to be showing this year, but what about Jean-Luc Godard and David Lynch? We weigh the odds on films in the running
November 2016
From Weiner to Making A Murderer: this is the golden age of documentaries
Documentary films have are more diverse, experimental and popular than ever before. Here we consider why, and survey the genre’s game-changers
April 2015
Mark Kermode's film of the week
The Falling review – swoon with a view
Carol Morley joins the ranks of Britain’s best film-makers with this enigmatic tale of apparent mass hysteria at a girls’ school
April 2014
Children in cinema: never mind Nemo, what about finding some funding?
There's more to childhood in the movies – and in real life – than cute fish and happy endings. Danny Leigh explores a strangely neglected genre and audience
December 2013
Film blog
The Braddies 2013: Peter Bradshaw nominates his films of the year
Decadence, violence, love and space – Guardian film critic Peter Bradshaw shares his fantasy award nomination list for 2013
November 2013
Starred Up heads British independent film awards nominations
Prison drama starring Jack O'Connell leads the field with eight nods, with The Selfish Giant just behind with seven
