Man Baby screens 18 September, Misper 27 September and Passenger 29 October at Folkestone's Silver Screen, each with the filmmakers there for a Q&A.

Two of the three films in the Folkestone Film Festival’s new autumn showcase have an Ashford person behind them, and both are playing on a Folkestone screen this month and next.

The season puts three feature films on at the Silver Screen cinema in Folkestone, starting with Man Baby on Friday 18 September at 7.30pm, followed by Misper on Sunday 27 September at 6.30pm and Passenger on Thursday 29 October at 7.30pm. Every screening is being run as an event rather than an ordinary showing, with the people who made the film in the room for a live Q&A afterwards.

Man Baby is produced by the Ashford filmmaker Syd Heather. Passenger, the Paramount Pictures horror released earlier this year, was co-written by T.W. Burgess, a horror writer also based in Ashford. The third film, Misper, was shot entirely in Folkestone.

Tickets for all three are on sale through the cinema: Man Baby, Misper and Passenger.

Man Baby, Friday 18 September

A surreal horror-comedy produced by Heather, written and directed by Philip Hardy and starring Divian Ladwa, described in the festival’s notes as the star of the Oscar-nominated Lion, the BAFTA-winning comedy series Detectorists and the Marvel Studios film Ant-Man and the Wasp. Hardy, Heather and Ladwa are all due to take part in the Q&A afterwards, hosted by festival director Ben Barton. The film is certificate 18 and the festival says the event is strictly over 18s only, with some of the film’s props on show.

Barton, who curated the season and is himself from Ashford, put the Ashford connection at the centre of why he programmed it:

“Syd is exactly the kind of filmmaker I mean when I talk about what’s happening in Kent. He’s producing MAN BABY, and doing lots of other exciting work here. Join the dots and there’s a proper filmmaking community growing, and that’s what I want this festival to celebrate.

“And MAN BABY is just great fun! Bold, strange, funny, completely its own thing. I can’t wait to sit in our Folkestone cinema and watch as an audience discovers it.”

Barton told us Heather has also been part of the Screen Ashford scene recently, which he sees as part of a wider local film story.

Misper, Sunday 27 September

A darkly comic missing-person mystery, certificate 12A, shot entirely in Folkestone and starring Samuel Blenkin and Emily Carey. The festival says local landmarks including The Grand appear as filming locations. Director Harry Sherriff and writer Laurence Tratalos are down for the Q&A.

Like Man Baby, Misper has so far only screened on the festival circuit, so this is its first showing in the town where it was made.

“People are going to sit in the cinema and see Folkestone on screen, The Grand, places they walk past every day, and then meet the people who turned those streets into a feature film,” Barton said.

Passenger, Thursday 29 October

The season closes with a Halloween screening of Passenger, certificate 15, the 2026 Paramount Pictures horror co-written by Burgess. He is due to give a short talk before the film on the road ghosts and local folklore that fed into it, then return for a Q&A afterwards hosted by Barton.

“T.W. Burgess gives us a completely different Kent connection,” Barton said. “The film grew partly out of his fascination with road ghosts and folklore, so for Halloween this year we can really make an event of it. He’ll set the scene beforehand, then afterwards we get into how those stories became a Paramount horror film.”

What it means for you

If you want to go: book through the cinema’s own pages, linked above. Man Baby is over 18s only, so it is not one to take a teenager to; Misper at 12A is the one of the three a family could do. All three are at the Silver Screen in Folkestone, not in Ashford.

If you follow the local film scene: the festival describes itself as independent and non-profit, run by the Folkestone filmmakers Ben Barton and Colin O’Reilly with other volunteers. Its sixth main season runs from 6 to 8 November 2026 with short films, pop-up cinema, networking and a gala at the Silver Screen. That programme has not been published yet (folkestonefilmfest.co.uk).

If you are waiting for something closer to home: Ashford’s own screen venue is still some way off. The former Odeon is being converted into a cultural and community venue, and the council does not expect to name an operator until early 2027, as we reported in our Ashford Odeon operator search story. For what is on in the borough in the meantime, see our guide to things to do in Ashford.