Venue moved to AMC due to phenomenal demand

The Manchester Film Festival 2016’s opening night Red Carpet gala on Thursday 3 March has had to move venues from HOME to the AMC due to pre-sale ticket demand.

Programming director Al Bailey said “The response to pre ticket sales for Dennis Viollet- A United Man and also the presentation of the all-star shorts programme featuring Sir John Hurt and Maxine Peake have completely exceeded our expectations. Requests for tickets have been astounding so we have had to make the difficult decision to facilitate the demand. We are building a festival that is diverse and inclusive to everyone and in order to fulfil the demand for tickets we have had to make the switch and honour the duty we have to our selected filmmakers by giving their films a platform to the widest possible audience. We are also grateful to the people of Manchester for how they have taken this festival to their hearts. It’s unfortunate that we have had to move the film from HOME as it’s a great venue and they will still play a major role in helping the Manchester Film Festival grow into an international film festival leader. HOME will now screen the UK premiere of Swedish coming of age tale There should be Rules on the opening night, Thursday 3 March, as well as documentary Paul Sharits on Saturday the 5th.  With the large theatre at the AMC we have the capacity to offer the eager audience a greater chance to see Dennis Violet – A United Man, with the tickets being the standard festival price and not an inflated premium price just because the Gala will be attended by stars and collaborators of the selected films. By taking this candid stance, we hope it becomes transparent that the festival is aimed at giving ‘everyone’ in Manchester the best possible chance of enjoying unseen films from around the world”.

Tickets for the opening night gala at the AMC Manchester are on sale now via www.maniff.com