WOW Film Festival 2026 at Pontio, Bangor

Name: WOW Film Festival 2026 at Pontio, Bangor
Start: 2026-03-20T17:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-03-22T19:15:00+00:00
Location: Pontio Bangor

Schedule

Fri, 20 Mar, 2026 at 05:00 pm to Sun, 22 Mar, 2026 at 07:15 pm

UTC+00:00

Location

Pontio Bangor | Bangor, WA

WOW Wales One World Film Festival at Pontio
📍 Pontio, Bangor
📅 Friday 20 – Sunday 22 March 2026
Join us in Bangor for the opening weekend of WOW Wales One World Film Festival 2026 at Pontio, with three days of bold, award-winning international cinema, special guests, and thought-provoking post-film conversations. Across the weekend, audiences can experience films from Thailand, Palestine, France, India and beyond, alongside a family animation, environmental cinema, and a special Q&A with marine scientists and filmmakers.
Celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2026, WOW Film Festival continues its mission of connecting Wales with world cinema. As Wales’ longest-running film festival, WOW brings stories from across the globe to screens across the country, inviting audiences to engage with films that explore identity, environment, memory, justice, culture and community.
Our Pontio programme opens the festival with a rich and wide-ranging selection of films: from deep-sea wonder and surreal Thai satire, to a sweeping Palestinian family story, contemporary folk horror, environmental documentary, and a tender Himalayan drama of love and endurance.
Come for one screening or spend the whole weekend with us and experience the world on screen.
What’s on:
🎬 Friday 20 March, 5pm: How Deep Is Your Love (PG) + Q&A
Eleanor Mortimer’s visually striking documentary follows scientists racing to document deep-sea life before mining destroys it.
The screening is followed by a Q&A with scientist Bethany Fleming who took part in the film's expedition, chaired by Dr Craig Robertson of Bangor University.
🌀 Friday 20 March, 7.15pm: A Useful Ghost (18)
Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s wildly original Thai feature begins with an unforgettable premise: a woman who dies from dust pollution returns as a vacuum cleaner. Strange, funny and politically sharp, it’s one of the most distinctive films in this year’s programme.

✨ Saturday 21 March, 10.30am: Little Amélie (PG)
A beautifully animated and emotionally rich story of childhood, adapted from Amélie Nothomb’s autobiographical novel The Character of Rain. Tender, imaginative and full of wonder, it’s a magical big-screen experience for audiences of all ages. A second screening takes place on Sunday at 12pm.
🇵🇸 Saturday 21 March, 1pm: All That’s Left of You (12A)
Directed by Cherien Dabis, this sweeping Palestinian family saga spans decades, tracing lives shaped by displacement, occupation and inherited memory. The film was selected as Jordan’s official submission for the 98th Academy Awards in the Best International Feature category.
🐻 Saturday 21 March, 4pm: The Shepherd and the Bear (15)
Set in the French Pyrenees, this thoughtful and visually powerful documentary explores the tensions sparked by the reintroduction of brown bears into a traditional shepherding community. The screening includes an introduction by Dr Armelle Blin-Rolland of Bangor University.
🔥 Saturday 21 March, 7.15pm: Her Will Be Done (18)
Presented in partnership with Abertoir, Julia Kowalski’s contemporary folk-horror tale follows a young woman slowly reclaiming power within a world shaped by patriarchy, repression and fear.
🌿 Sunday 22 March, 2.30pm: Super Nature (PG)
Ed Sayers’ handmade, globally collaborative film asks how cinema can honour the natural world without leaving a heavy footprint. Crafted from Super 8 footage from around the world, it offers a lyrical and intimate reflection on landscape, life and ecological attention.
⛰️ Sunday 22 March, 5pm: Pyre (PG)
Set high in the Himalayas, Pyre is a moving and quietly devastating story of an elderly couple holding onto love, hope and place as their village empties around them. A beautiful closing note for WOW’s Bangor weekend.
We’re delighted to once again bring WOW to Pontio for the festival’s opening weekend, in one of North Wales’ most important cultural venues. Tickets for WOW screenings at Pontio are listed at £6 on the venue page.
🎟 Tickets & full programme:
wowfilmfestival.com or at pontio.co.uk/en/events/wow