Fishguard’s Theatr Gwaun launches inaugural Welsh Film Festival
Theatr Gwaun celebrates 130 years of Welsh cinema with a three‑day festival featuring classics, archives and new talent from across Wales.
Fishguard’s historic Theatr Gwaun will host its first Welsh Film Festival from 23 to 25 October, marking 130 years of cinema in Wales.
The three‑day event, backed by Film Hub Wales of the BFI Film Audience Network, will showcase a blend of landmark titles, new releases, archival treasures and emerging talent.
Opening on Friday evening at 7.30pm, the programme features Marc Evans’ Effi o Blaenau, a Welsh‑language drama starring Leisa Gwenllian and Tom Rhys Harries, adapted from Gary Owen’s monodrama Iphigenia in Splott.
Saturday’s headline screening revisits the 1990s cult classic Twin Town, voted the Festival’s Audience Choice, followed by a live Q&A with director Kevin Allen, hosted by Jamie Rees.
Sunday begins with a free showing of the Oscar‑nominated Hedd Wyn, accompanied by John Parr’s 2025 short A Pack of Five and a live performance by the Fishguard and Goodwick Rugby Club Male Voice Choir.
Later that day the archive programme “130 Years of Cinema: Archive Short Films” will take audiences back to 1898, when Arthur Cheetham filmed Children on the Beach on Rhyl Sands.
The seven‑film retrospective will then trace Welsh filmmaking through silent era footage, early recordings of the national football team, animation, documentary and the work of acclaimed animator Joanna Quinn.
On Saturday the Festival also presents “Your Films, Our Screen”, a free gala of short films selected from an open call to creators across Wales.
The gala will feature work from both seasoned makers and two aspiring filmmakers currently studying at Pembrokeshire College, highlighting the region’s new creative voices.
Simon Coton, a board member of Theatr Gwaun and part of the Festival organising committee, said: “We’re incredibly proud to be bringing together such a rich range of Welsh filmmaking for our first Welsh Film Festival at Theatr Gwaun.”
He added: “To be able to show audiences one of the earliest pieces of film made in Wales, dating all the way back to 1898, while also giving our cinema screen to some of the newest work being made by filmmakers in Wales today really sums up what this festival is about.”
Continuing, Coton noted: “This is a celebration of our remarkable filmmaking heritage, but also of the creativity and talent that continues to thrive across Wales.” We’re proud to be showing some of the very best of Wales here in Fishguard and we hope audiences will come and celebrate it with us.”
The closing night on Sunday evening will feature the premiere of Helen Walsh’s On the Sea, a 15‑minute drama set in a remote North Wales fishing community.
From the pioneering beach footage of 1898 to the fresh stories of Pembrokeshire College students, the inaugural festival aims to bridge the past, present and future of Welsh cinema.
Tickets and the full programme are available on the theatre’s website.