THERE’S a rare chance to watch Dunkirk, Lawrence of Arabia and My Fair Lady in widescreen format at this autumn’s Widescreen Weekend in Bradford.

The National Science and Media Museum world-renowned celebration of cinema technology, past, present and future, features classics, blockbusters, restorations, never-seen-before shorts and anniversary screenings, all in widescreen format.

Running over four days (October 12-15) the event features special guests giving an insight into varied aspects of film production. Gregory Orr, grandson of Hollywood studio magnate Jack L Warner, discovered his passion for motion pictures while visiting the sets of classics such as My Fair Lady and Camelot in the golden age of widescreen. He went on to become an award-winning film-maker. “It’s a very different business today than the one created by my family, but the goal is the same: to inspire, delight, inform, and thrill an audience as the movies have done for generations,” said Gregory.

He joins the festival from New York taking part in an onstage interview, followed by a screening of 1964 film My Fair Lady starring Rex Harrison and Audrey Hepburn.

As part of BAFTA’s 70th anniversary celebrations, award-winning costume designer Jane Petrie will talk about working on titles such as Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror. This is followed by a screening of acclaimed sci-fi thriller Moon directed by Duncan Jones, son of David Bowie.

The festival also welcomes film historian, documentary maker, film-maker, and author Kevin Brownlow, talking about his 50-year quest to restore Abel Gance’s five-and-a-half-hour silent masterpiece Napoléon (1927), featuring one of the earliest uses of widescreen.

Smash hit Dunkirk, written and directed by Christopher Nolan and starring Tom Hardy, Kenneth Branagh and Mark Rylance, kicks off proceedings on Friday, October 12 with a 70mm widescreen presentation, highlighting its incredible cinematography. Film historian, author and Widescreen Weekend guest curator Sir Christopher Frayling, will introduce the opening night film.The closing night screening is David Lean’s epic Lawrence of Arabia (1962) from a new 70mm restoration print, shown in the centenary year of the Battle of Aqaba which is famously depicted in the film.

Festival director Kathryn Penny, said: “The Widescreen Weekend is just that - big, grand and spectacular. Widescreen films immerse you in visuals, story and sound unlike any other medium, and these four days offer an experience you will be hard pushed to find anywhere else in the world.”

This year the festival introduces Celluloid Saturday, celebrating movies from many genres, all shown from film reels, giving audiences an insight into the heart and soul of widescreen films. Titles include The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm, Jailhouse Rock, Brian DePalma’s gangster classic The Untouchables and Walt Disney’s Sleeping Beauty (1959).

The IMIS Student Widescreen Film of the Year Competition celebrates new talent in widescreen filmmaking. Anushka Kishani Naanayakkara’s moving short film A Love Story, shortlisted last year, won this year’s BAFTA for Best Short Animation. Anushka returns to Widescreen Weekend to discuss her journey from the National Film and Television school to BAFTA.

* Visit scienceandmediamuseum.org.uk/widescreen-weekend