We love Leiston Film Theatre!

Suffolk Shorts has had a lot of support and encouragement from Jayne Knight, Arts Development Manager at Suffolk County Council and trust her implicitly, so when she suggested Leiston Film Theatre would be a good fit for Suffolk Short we got in touch straight away.

The Film Theatre, or Leiston Picture House as it was originally named, has traded continuously for 104 years, it’s loved by the town and has a strong following locally. It fell into decline in the 70’s and was saved from closure in 1976 by Leiston Town Council, who have since invested time and money in carefully updating the building and technical spec with Dolby Digital 7.1 Surround EX sound and Dolby 3D as well as a solid digital projection set up.

Co-founder Claire and Tech Manager Jim met with Theatre Manager and all round star Wayne Burns, who welcomed them with open arms and let them loose in the projection room.

The theatre itself is an amazing space, (which some of us are already familiar with, living just down the road). Unpretentious, comfortable, with attention to detail, it’s a real gem with 252 seats including a special Premiere seating section at the back.

They ran some tests, had a cuppa and left with very few questions unanswered.

It looks like we’ve found our venue for The Best of the Fest.