Festivals, Cultural and City Events

Film in the Old College Quad

The University of Edinburgh's Old College quadrangle once again transformed into an open air cinema during the Fringe for a series of film screenings.

Film screening in Old College Quad

As well as enjoying the atmospheric surrounding of the Old College, festival-goers had the opportunity to bring a picnic and watch classic films under the stars on the quad lawn.

The screenings took place Wednesday 12 August - Sunday 16 August.

Ticket Giveaways

Facebook competitions to win a pair of tickets to one of our films:

Film in the Old College Quad facebook event

Golden Ticket Giveaway to win a pair of tickets to all 16 of our films by subscribing to our mailing list:

Subscribe to our mailing list

Film in the Old College Quad was presented by the University, in association with the Edinburgh International Film Festival, and was produced by Unique Events.

Wednesday 12 August

Starship Troopers (Cert 18, 129mins, 1998)

Wednesday 12 August 2015, 7.00pm

University of Edinburgh Quadrangle

Doors open 6:30pm. In the distant future, the Earth is at war with a race of giant alien insects. Little is known about the Bugs except that they are intent on the eradication of all human life. A Mobile Infantry travels to distant alien planets to take the war to the Bugs. They are a ruthless enemy with only one mission: Survival of their species no matter what the cost.

Information on Eventbrite

Blade Runner (Cert 15, 117mins, 1982)

Wednesday 12 August 2015, 9.30pm

University of Edinburgh Quadrangle

Doors open 9:15pm. Rick Deckard (Harrison Ford) is a former Blade Runner called out of retirement to hunt and kill four Replicants led by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer). These genetically altered humans with superior strength and intellects have returned to earth on a killing spree, determined to meet their maker, Dr Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel). Deckard’s investigation leads across the glittering heights and disintegrating depths of Ridley Scott’s fantastically imagined metropolis - one filled with pyramids, enormous neon billboards and spinner cars amid unimaginable overcrowding and a constant deluge of acid rain.

Information on Eventbrite

Thursday 13 August

This is Spinal Tap (Cert 15, 79mins, 1984)

Thursday 13 August 2015, 7.00pm

University of Edinburgh Quadrangle

Doors open 6:30pm. You're about to get personal with one of music history's greatest and loudest heavy metal bands, Spinal Tap! Acclaimed commercial director Marty DiBergi takes you behind the scenes in this detailed 'rockumentary' for an intimate look at a band whose time has come and gone. Through interviews, rare footage and lots of music, you'll get acquainted with David St. Hubbins (lead guitar), Nigel Tufnel (lead guitar), Derek Smalls (lead bass) and every drummer who ever lived and died for this renowned rock band. Be a part of the sights, sounds and smells of this celebrated heavy metal phenomenon. It's an experience you'll never forget.

Information on Eventbrite

Withnail & I (Cert 15, 107mins, 1987)

Thursday 13 August 2015, 9.30pm

University of Edinburgh Quadrangle

Doors open 9:00pm. Two out-of-work actors - the anxious, luckless Marwood (Paul McGann) and his acerbic, alcoholic friend Withnail (Richard E. Grant) - spend their days drifting between their squalid flat, the unemployment office and the pub. When they take a holiday by mistake at the country house of Withnail's flamboyant uncle Monty (Richard Griffiths), they encounter the unpleasant side of the English countryside: tedium, terrifying locals and torrential rain.

Information on Eventbrite

Friday 14 August

Thelma & Louise (Cert 15, 130mins, 1991)

Friday 14 August 2015, 7.00pm

University of Edinburgh Quadrangle

Doors open 6:30pm. Two friends, Thelma Dickinson (Geena Davis) and Louise Sawyer (Susan Sarandon), set out for a two-day vacation to take a break from their dreary lives. They head out in Louise's 1966 Ford Thunderbird convertible, but their vacation in the mountains quickly turns into a nightmare before they reach their destination.

Information on Eventbrite

Fight Club (Cert 18, 139mins, 1999)

Friday 14 August 2015, 9.30pm

University of Edinburgh Quadrangle

Doors open 9:15pm. A depressed man (Edward Norton) suffering from insomnia meets a strange soap salesman named Tyler Durden (Brad Pitt) and soon finds himself living in his squalid house after his perfect apartment is destroyed. The two bored men form an underground club with strict rules and fight other men who are fed up with their mundane lives. Their perfect partnership frays when Marla (Helena Bonham Carter), a fellow support group crasher, attracts Tyler's attention.

Information on Eventbrite

Saturday 15 August

The Lego Movie (Cert U, 100mins, 2014)

Saturday 15 August 2015, 10.30am

University of Edinburgh Quadrangle

Doors open 10:00am. Emmet (Chris Pratt), an ordinary LEGO figurine who always follows the rules, is mistakenly identified as the Special - an extraordinary being and the key to saving the world. He finds himself drafted into a fellowship of strangers who are on a mission to stop an evil tyrant's (Will Ferrell) plans to conquer the world. Unfortunately for Emmet, he is hopelessly - and hilariously - unprepared for such a task, but he'll give it his all nonetheless.

Information on Eventbrite- SOLD OUT

Bugsy Malone (Cert U, 89mins, 1976)

Saturday 15 August 2015, 1.00pm

University of Edinburgh Quadrangle

Doors open 12:30pm. Writer-director Alan Parker's feature debut Bugsy Malone is a pastiche of American movies, a musical gangster comedy set in 1929, featuring prohibition, showgirls and gang warfare, with references to everything from Some Like It Hot to The Godfather. Uniquely, all the parts are played by children, including an excellent Jodie Foster as platinum-blonde singer Tallulah, Scott Baio in the title role and a nine-year-old Dexter Fletcher wielding a baseball bat. Cream-firing 'spluge guns' side-step any real violence and the movie climaxes cheerfully with the biggest custard pie fight this side of Casino Royale.

Information on Eventbrite

The Goonies (Cert PG, 114mins, 1985)

Saturday 15 August 2015, 3.30pm

University of Edinburgh Quadrangle

Doors open 3:15pm. A group of friends living in the 'Goon Docks' neighborhood of Astoria, Oregon face foreclosure on their families' homes from the expanding local country club. Desperate to find a way to keep their homes, they set out on an adventure in search of pirate treasure.

Information on Eventbrite

The Lost Boys (Cert 15, 97mins, 1987)

Saturday 15 August 2015, 7.00pm

University of Edinburgh Quadrangle

Doors open 6:30pm. Teenage brothers Michael (Jason Patric) and Sam (Corey Haim) move with their mother (Dianne Wiest) to a small town in northern California. When the younger Sam meets a pair of kindred spirits in geeky comic-book nerds Edward (Corey Feldman) and Alan (Jamison Newlander), the angst-ridden Michael soon falls for Star (Jami Gertz) - who turns out to be in thrall to David (Kiefer Sutherland), leader of a local gang of vampires. Sam and his new friends must save Michael and Star from the undead.

Information on Eventbrite

An American Werewolf in London (Cert 18, 97mins, 1981)

Saturday 15 August 2015, 9.30pm

University of Edinburgh Quadrangle

Doors open 9:00pm. With an ingenious script, engaging characters, nerve-shredding suspense, genuinely frightening set-pieces and laugh-out-loud funny bits, An American Werewolf in London is a prime candidate for the finest horror-comedy ever made. Americans David and Jack are backpacking in northern England when Jack is killed by a wild beast and David is bitten. Back in London David finds himself falling in love with a nurse, Alex, and turning into a werewolf. Adding to his problems, an increasingly decomposed Jack keeps coming back from the dead, and he is not a happy corpse. Gory, erotic, shocking and romantic, this unforgettable horror classic has it all.

Information on Eventbrite

Sunday 16 August

Paddington (Cert PG, 95mins, 2014)

Sunday 16 August 2015, 10.30am

University of Edinburgh Quadrangle

Doors open 10:00am. After an earthquake destroys his home in the Peruvian rainforest, a young bear makes his way to England in search of a new home. Dubbed 'Paddington' after the London train station, the bear finds shelter with the family of Henry (Hugh Bonneville) and Mary Brown (Sally Hawkins). Although Paddington's amazement at urban living soon endears him to the Browns, someone else has her eye on him - Taxidermist Millicent Clyde (Nicole Kidman) who has designs on the rare bear and his hide.

Information on Eventbrite - SOLD OUT

Singin' in the Rain (Cert U, 103mins, 1952)

Sunday 16 August 2015, 1.00pm

University of Edinburgh Quadrangle

Doors open 12:30pm. Classic musical comedy starring Gene Kelly, Donald O'Connor and Debbie Reynolds. In 1927, Don Lockwood (Kelly, who co-directs) has worked his way up from being a song-and-dance man with partner Cosmo Brown (O'Connor) to becoming a top movie star. His on-screen partner, Lina Lamont (Jean Hagen), who believes that Don loves her for real, needs to have her awful voice dubbed with the arrival of talkies. The girl selected is 'serious' actress Kathy Selden (Reynolds), for whom Don soon falls.

Information on Eventbrite

Cinema Paradiso (Cert PG, 123mins, 1988)

Sunday 16 August 2015, 3.30pm

University of Edinburgh Quadrangle

Doors open 3:00pm. Young Salvatore Di Vita (Salvatore Cascio) discovers the perfect escape from life in his war-torn Sicilian village: the Cinema Paradiso movie house, where projectionist Alfredo (Philippe Noiret) instills in him a deep love of films. When Salvatore grows up and takes over as the Paradiso's projectionist, Alfredo must convince Salvatore to leave his small town and pursue his passion for filmmaking.

Information on Eventbrite

Heathers (Cert 15, 103mins, 1988)

Sunday 16 August 2015, 7.00pm

University of Edinburgh Quadrangle

Doors open 6:30pm. A dark parody of the popular 1980s teen movies. The Heathers are the prettiest, snottiest, cliquiest girls at school, always poking fun at social inadequates. New member Veronica (Winona Ryder) gets sick of doing the Heathers' bidding and plots a drastic revenge on the elitist gang, with the help of an anarchic town newcomer (Christian Slater). Soon Veronica's teen angst has resulted in a huge body-count.

Information on Eventbrite

The Theory of Everything (Cert 12A, 123mins, 2014)

Sunday 16 August 2015, 9.30pm

University of Edinburgh Quadrangle

Doors open 9:00pm. The extraordinary and uplifting story of one of the world's greatest living minds, the renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, and of two people defying the steepest of odds through love.

Information on Eventbrite

All screenings subject to license, terms and conditions apply.