Make films shorter if you want them shown in cinemas, says Picturehouse director

"Directors need to ensure a comfortable viewing experience for audiences if they want to people to return to the big screen, Binns says. I talk to producers about this and say: Tell the director you're making the film for an audience, not the directors,' she said. There's always exceptions, but I look at a lot of films and think: You could take 20 minutes out of that.' There's no need for films to be that long."

"There's no need for films to be that long. Picturehouse programmes intervals when they are built into a film as with The Brutalist but extended runtimes limit how cinemas can operate. It means you only get one evening show, Binns said. I think it's a wake-up call to directors. If they want their films in cinemas, people have to feel comfortable about what they're committing to."

Clare Binns is creative director of Picturehouse Cinemas and recipient of this year's Bafta award for outstanding British contribution to cinema. Steadily lengthening film runtimes are creating substantial scheduling problems for cinemas, with recent blockbusters such as Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon (206 minutes) and Brady Corbet's The Brutalist (215 minutes) exceeding three hours. Extended runtimes limit cinema operations by reducing the number of evening shows and complicating interval programming. Shorter films improve audience comfort and enable more screenings, helping cinemas attract repeat visitors. Binns has championed diverse independent filmmaking and led community-embedding initiatives during a career spanning four decades, including navigating Covid-related turbulence.

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