Towner Cinema - A great month of movies, including Widows and James and the Giant Peach

New releases include Turner Prize-winning artist turned filmmaker Steve McQueen’s Widows (Jan 5), starring Viola Davis; From director Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave) and co-writer and bestselling author Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl) comes a modern-day thriller set against the backdrop of crime, passion and corruption

RBG (Jan 12), is a new documentary focusing on Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader-Ginsberg; At the age of 84, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has developed a breathtaking legal legacy while becoming an unexpected pop culture icon.

Sebastián Lelio’s Disobedience (Jan 13), with Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams; is an engrossing drama about a woman (Rachel Weisz) returning home to the Orthodox Jewish community of North London that previously shunned her

Screen legend Robert Redford causes trouble in The Old Man and the Gun (Jan 19), is based on the true story of Forrest Tucker, from his audacious escape from San Quentin at the age of 70 to an unprecedented string of heists .

And Kore-eda’s critically-acclaimed Shoplifters (Jan 26). The winner of this year’s top prize at Cannes, Shoplifters follows a small band of marginalized misfits struggling to make ends meet on the outskirts of Tokyo

There will also round-up of four of the finest films of Mabel Normand, the irrepressible spirit of early Hollywood. Mabel directed many of her own films, working with the best. Catch The Marvellous Mabel Normand on the 26 and 31 January.

The Island of the Hungry Ghosts (January 27) , is a documentary hybrid which focuses on the Australian territory of Christmas Island which is famous for the millions of red crabs who travel from the jungle but also a high-security detention facility, in which those seeking asylum in Australia are detained indefinitely. The movie follows detainees from the detention centre, who recount their stories to their trauma therapist.

And for families; James and the Giant Peach (Jan 12) is based on the book by children’s favourite Roald Dahl, beautifully blending live action and stop motion animation, James discovers a giant peach inhabited by insects in his back garden. Rolling into the sea they set sail for New York

To celebrate the release of Sebastián Lelio’s new film, Disobedience, the cinema is revisiting Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman (Jan 27), winner of the Best Foreign Language Film at last year’s Oscar’s,

And In readiness for next month’s new documentary, Bergman: A Year in a Life, his 1957 film, Wild Strawberries (Jan 19) will be screened.

A father and daughter travel from Stockholm to Lund, Sweden, encountering a series of hitchhikers along the way.