Picturehouse chief Clare Binns urges directors to make shorter films for cinemas

Clare Binns, the creative director of Picturehouse Cinemas, said directors should make shorter films if they want their work screened in cinemas. She made the comments after being named the recipient of this year’s Bafta award for outstanding British contribution to cinema. Binns raised the issue amid concern over steadily lengthening runtimes, pointing to recent blockbusters such as Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon (206 minutes) and Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist (215 minutes).

Festival chiefs have warned the trend is creating substantial scheduling problems. "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." Picturehouse programmes intervals when they are built into a film, as with The Brutalist, but Binns said 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.

Key Topics

Culture, Clare Binns, Picturehouse Cinemas, Bafta Award, The Brutalist, Martin Scorsese