Empire of Light

Empire of Light is set in an English coastal town in the early 1980s, where Hilary runs a seaside cinema. She faces her own mental health difficulties while forming a connection with Stephen, a new employee at the cinema. He is a young Black man with ambitions beyond the town, and the two develop a bond that neither expected. The film centres on their relationship and on the cinema as a place of community and shared experience.

Sam Mendes directed the film and wrote the screenplay, with Mendes and Pippa Harris producing. It was released in December 2022 and runs 115 minutes. It is the tenth film Mendes directed, following 1917, and his next credit was National Theatre Live: The Motive and the Cue. Olivia Colman plays Hilary and Micheal Ward plays Stephen, with Toby Jones, Colin Firth, Tom Brooke and Tanya Moodie also appearing. The production had a budget of 14 million US dollars and grossed 11 million worldwide.

Audience response has been mild. On IMDb it holds 6.7 out of 10 from roughly 27,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 6.6 out of 10 from a much smaller number of votes. A film critics' rating of 5.9 out of 10, based on 263 reviews, sits below both audience scores.