Who needs Leicester Square when there’s Fellowship Square? ‘Grey Matter’ will receive its UK premiere at Waltham Forest Town Hall on Friday

From left: Kierston Wareing, director Arabella Burfitt-Dons, Elizabeth Berrington, Stephanie Beacham, Eloise Smyth and Harry Kirton at the London Film Festival, Credit: Stacey Osborne

A film with a stellar cast that has picked up international accolades is set to have its UK premiere in Walthamstow on Friday.

Grey Matter sees Golden Globe nominated actress Stephanie Beacham play Peg, an eccentric grandmother who gets diagnosed with an aggressive case of Alzheimer’s, forcing her to move in with her family and granddaughter Chloe (Eloise Smyth).

Together, the pair create a bucket list of things to do before Peg forgets everything as Chloe tries to make her summer unforgettable.

The film’s Walthamstow premiere kicks off its two-month showing at UK cinemas.

Grey Matter has a cast including Elizabeth Berrington as seen recently in Spencer and Last Night in Soho. Completing the cross-generational line-up in the film, she portrays a mother dealing with her teenager Chloe’s struggles and her own battle with clinical depression. Other notable stars in the film include Harry Kirton of Peaky Blinders fame, BAFTA nominated Kierston Wareing, and Sunetra Sarker (Casualty).

The screening is being hosted by Stow Film Lounge, an organisation set up by locals Nick Bertram and Marcus Shepherd twelve years ago to bring films to the Walthamstow community.

Following their recent sold out run of five films at Fellowship Square in November, they extended their residency into 2024.

Founded in 2011 by former Museum of The Moving Image (MOMI) actors Nick Bertram and Marcus Shepherd, now respectively a film journalist and filmmaker, Stow Film Lounge was as a way to bring regular commercial screenings back to the borough as then, like today, Waltham Forest had no operating cinema.

The film premiere will be followed by a special Q+A with Grey Matter director Arabella Burfitt-Dons. The film has already picked up international recognition, winning the Best Foreign Debut award at the Female Eye Film Festival in Toronto.

Speaking on why she chose to screen the film for the first time in the UK at Fellowship Square, Arabella said: “I’m a local filmmaker myself so I really value what Stow Film Lounge does for the film fans and the local cinema industry. With the recent success of Oppenheimer versus Barbie, the box office industry has had a reboot but it’s still so important to drive people to the big screens. I couldn’t be happier to see the film’s journey start at the beautiful Fellowship Square, it’s very special.”

Stow Film Lounge co-founder Nick said: “Our fellowship square screenings give audiences a shared cinematic experience in a fine setting with fabulous films – this is no exception, a heartfelt, entertaining story, from a new independent young British director Arabella Burfitt-Dons, featuring the exciting screen talent of Eloise Smyth and the much loved legend that is Stephanie Beacham.”

Get tickets for the film here

For further information on the film go here

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