Observations and reflections from the Cannes Film Festival 2016 by Watershed Cinema Curator Mark Cosgrove. Mark comments that 2016 was a vintage year for Cannes and discusses how melodrama is back, films exploring the moral maze, the cinema of dissent; and poetic visions of the world through new, surprising, urgent and moving cinema.

This month Watershed screens a season of films exploring the work of influential composer and director John Carpenter. Cinema Curator Mark Cosgrove discusses the historic links between music and film from the early days of cinema, via Psycho and Jaws to the era defining and groundbreaking scores of John Carpenter.

Screening at Watershed this month is unforgettable Holocaust drama Son of Saul. Watershed's Cinema Curator Mark Cosgrove discusses the film and the morality of the creative choices inherent in making films that portray human atrocities.

2016's Berlinale Film Festival opened with a focus on the humanitarian crisis that is currently unfolding around us. Watershed's Cinema Curator Mark Cosgrove was at the festival and reports back on the winning film Fire at Sea – a powerful study of migrant crisis. He also shares his pick of the crop with new films from Isabelle Huppert, Gerard Depardieu, Terence Davies and a shocking documentary on the state of internet security today.

Through the late 40's and 50's America's House Committee on Un-American Activities waged a war against communists and communist sympathisers, with special attention paid to the film industry. Through this period a significant number of screenwriters, directors and actors were called to account for their alleged beliefs, ruining lives and careers along the way. In this month's podcast Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Cinema Curator, discusses this dark time in Hollywood and the release this month of the entertaining and illuminating Trumbo – about the Hollywood screenwriter who was blacklisted after refusing to testify to the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947.

After a visit to what will be probably the highest grossing film of all time – Star Wars: The Force Awakens – Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Cinema Curator reflects on the fact that on average the UK population goes to the cinema only twice per year. What does this mean for a diverse film culture? However all is not lost as Mark looks forward to some of the varied, high quality and, yes, entertaining films coming to Watershed in early 2016.

Reflections on the Watershed year in cinema for 2015, with a list of the top 25 films screened at Watershed. Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Cinema Curator discusses why the hugely diverse 25 films selected stand out for him, highlights a few that slipped through the critical net and reveals his favourite film of 2015.

This month Mark Cosgrove, Cinema Curator at Watershed, wonders why is it that African films continue to excite audiences and garner international attention, yet are woefully under-represented in British cinemas. With a particular focus on Senegalese cinema Mark introduces some of the key directors and films in African filmmaking from the last 50 years, and looks forward to the 10th Afrika Eye Film Festival which takes place at Watershed and across Bristol this November.

In this month's podcast Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Cinema Curator, asks what is curation in the film exhibition world? And how is it different from programming, scheduling or booking? And indeed do audiences care how a film comes to be on at a cinema as long as it is something they like and it is showing? He asks these questions having recently worked with a group of Watershed's Future Producers who have created a season of late night sensory cinema that asks what LOVE is Like.

In this month's podcast Mark Cosgrove, Watershed Cinema Curator, talks about why the Watershed hosted Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival holds a vital and unique place in the annual film calendar. Mark selects some of his highlights from the upcoming festival and tells us it's the perfect opportunity to see the talent of tomorrow, hear from the filmmakers themselves and to share the all too rare pleasure of seeing short film on the big screen.