00:00In a cinema where the lights go down and eventually you share the pulse with some other people,
00:10that's magic. Cinema should be seen in cinemas. With the Oscars coming up on Sunday the 15th of
00:16March, will you be tuning into the prestigious awards ceremony which annually recognizes excellence
00:21within the film industry? On a more local level however, did you know that Kent is home to a
00:26handful of cinemas right on your doorstep? I'm Simon Ward and I'm the co-owner with my wife of
00:31the Palace Cinema and Broadstairs. I'm obsessed by the films. For 30 years I've gone to every film
00:37festival, travel the world looking at stuff and I'm obsessively hoovering them up. I have a really
00:41bad habit. I cannot not watch films. The most important thing is choosing the right films
00:46because if you choose the wrong films you're dead. When you go to see a film you've got people who've
00:52seen it. Either you're mates or you've got proper formal reviews or stuff on the internet. When
00:57we're choosing a film, we're choosing before any of that exists. Oscar or BAFTA, noms or wins are
01:03massive. You know, it's the biggest time of year for an independent cinema. The cash cow is the awards
01:08corridor. Independent cinemas often offer a more bespoke experience compared to what you find in
01:13the multiplex. You don't program for yourself. You're not choosing the films that I like. Fortunately,
01:17I get to watch them anyway. What you're trying to do is you're trying to separate out all the different
01:21kinds of audiences you have, whether that's by age, by interest, whatever it is. And you're trying
01:26in one screen across, I usually show two different films to three different films a week, and you're
01:32trying to hit as many of those groups as you can so that cinema is welcoming for a wide group
01:37of people.
01:38But what about the bigger picture of the pictures? I'm here at the University of Kent to speak to James
01:44Newton, a film lecturer, about the importance of cinema in the digital age. Well, I think historically
01:49cinema has always been seen as a collective experience. When cinema first started in the
01:54early 20th century, it was very much a communal experience for, in particular, working class
01:59audiences. So I think historically, cinema has always been seen as a collective experience that
02:06people can enjoy together. One thing that the awards season does is that it brings media focus back
02:11onto cinema as a cultural artifact or a cultural thing that people can do. It reminds audiences that
02:18the cinema is there, reminds them that they can still have that kind of collective experience,
02:22maybe reminds them that cinema might be the best or most impactful way and place to watch a film.
02:29It basically makes cinema culturally important again. Lottie Mason for KMTV.
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