This socially distanced Manchester cinema is showing free films in September

Four-storey music venue YES is back open, and this month you can catch a free movie in their socially distanced cinema.

The independent venue on Charles Street has made some changes to comply with safety guidelines, including a one-way system, table service and going cashless – and they have also built a new weatherproof beer garden, so there’s some extra outdoor space.

The free film screenings are taking place in The Pink Room, and include midweek screenings, Sunday double bills and family friendly films.

Food and drink will be available before, during and after every screening. Current traders include Doner Summer, offering vegan kebabs, and Pepperoni Playboy pizza available by the slice or the whole 16″.

Midweek screenings include Queen & Slim (7pm Tuesday 1st and 2pm Wednesday 2nd September). When Slim and Queen’s first date sees them shoot a cop in self-defence, the pair go on the run to maintain their freedom in this super-stylish and timely debut feature from Melina Matsoukas.

There’s also The Shape of Water (7pm Wednesday 2nd and 7pm Thursday 3rd September), Guillermo del Toro’s Oscar-winning picture, which has been called his best since Pan’s Labyrinth.

It sees a lonely, mute cleaner discover a fish-like man creature being held captive in the facility in which she works. After a daring escape, the pair develop an unlikely relationship. 

The following week there’s Searching for Sugarman (7pm Tuesday 8th and 2pm Wednesday 9th), as well as Christopher Nolan’s noir thriller Memento (7pm Wednesday 9th and 7pm Thursday 10th). 

There’s also The Last Black Man in San Francisco (7pm Tuesday 15th and 2pm Wednesday 16th), and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (7pm Wednesday 16th and 7pm Thursday 17th), in which Frances McDorman delivers an Oscar-winning performance as Mildred. Devastated at the rape and death of her daughter and lack of police action to properly investigate, she takes matters into her own hands. 

And the final week includes A Deal with The Universe (7pm Tuesday 22nd and 2pm Wednesday 23rd), and Midsommar (7pm Wednesday 23rd and 7pm Thursday 24th), Ari Aster’s follow up to Hereditary, which sees a group of American teenagers visit a commune in idyllic rural Sweden whose traditions and festivities take a turn for the weird. 

The Sunday double bills, which include a 30-minute interval, include Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia and Phantom Thread (6pm Sunday 6th); Nebraska and Little Miss Sunshine (6pm Sunday 13th); Like Father, Like Son and Shoplifters (6pm Sunday 20th September); and The Glass Castle and Dogtooth (6pm Sunday 27th September).

Weekend family films include 2009 Disney animation The Princess & The Frog (1pm Saturday 5th September) and the 1998 classic Mulan (1pm Sunday 6th September), followed by Moana (1pm Saturday 13th September) and Oscar-nominated stop-animation My Life as a Courgette (1pm Sunday 14th September).

They’re followed by Studio Ghibli masterpiece My Neighbour Totoro (1pm Saturday 19th) and emotional Disney/Pixar animation Up (1pm Sunday 20th September).

Finally, there’s The Breadwinner (1pm Saturday 26th), and Ratatouille (1pm Sunday 27th), in which Remy the rat dreams of becoming a world-class chef, but does not initially realise the disgust with which humans view him. He soon forms an unlikely friendship with a Parisian restaurant boy to make it to the top. 

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