Film buffs rejoice - Ōamaru has its own film society.

Bigger Picture Ōamaru Film Society held its first screening last Thursday (March 30), with more than 40 people gathering for an hour of socialising at the Ōamaru Cinema, before a screening of Polish film Never Gonna Snow Again, film society president Jacob Evington said.

Jacob, who moved to Ōamaru from Australia three days before the country went into its first level 4 lockdown in March 2020, joined forces with Ōamaru woman Dagmar Rohrbach. 

The two of them had wanted to do something like this for some time, he said.

“We’ve also been working on other projects in the community, so screenings and workshops, and things like that, but we kind of really wanted to have an ongoing project that brought the community together socially, but also just to see really interesting films that normally you might not get to see.”

Jacob came from a background of working with film festivals in Australia, and on coming to Ōamaru was looking to get involved with something along those lines again.

“Basically, it’s just myself and Dagmar organising it. So, hopefully this is just the beginning, like, we’re going to look at doing not just the screening of the society films, but other screenings, you know expanding it, hopefully, getting involved with other travelling film festivals that are coming in,” he said.

People can sign up either for a full membership or for a three-film sampler.

“The whole season, even if you sign up later than the start of it, is still really great value. It’s basically super-cheap to see some really great films.”

The films have been selected from the New Zealand Film Society archive, and includes well-known titles such as Taxi Driver and Smash Palace, as well as more recent releases.

“We just selected what we wanted to see, and what we thought would work,” Jacob said. 

“There’s variety there. There’s some classics there, as well as some recent international films that have done really well, but generally you won’t see them on Netflix or at the main cinema.”

Screenings are generally once a month, although there will be two films in July and September.

Jacob said it was awesome the movies could be screened at the Ōamaru Cinema.

“It’s a really good facility. Super comfortable, and the [picture] and the sound is great. It’s a really nice space.” 

People don’t need to pre-book, and could also, people can come along to a film, and sign up on the night.

“I mean it’s based on a membership, but we’re not going to turn someone away if they want to come just for one film.”

More information about the films screening can be found on the Bigger Picture Oamaru Facebook page or by emailing [email protected]