An exclusive preview screening of new movie The Favourite will be shown at the Welwyn Garden City Cinema.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYb-wkehT1g

The Favourite has its UK premiere today at the BFI London Film Festival.

Winner of the Grand Special Jury Prize at the 2018 Venice Film Festival, the movie goes on general release in the UK on January 1, 2019.

But movie fans in WGC will get the chance to see the film next month.

In a real coup for the cinema at Campus West, it will be presenting an exclusive preview screening of the period drama on Saturday, November 24, in association with 20th Century Fox and Hertfordshire Archives and Local Studies.

Welwyn Hatfield Times: Oscar winner Emma Stone stars in The Favourite, which was filmed at Hatfield House. Picture: Fox Searchlight Pictures.Oscar winner Emma Stone stars in The Favourite, which was filmed at Hatfield House. Picture: Fox Searchlight Pictures. (Image: Supplied by BFI London Film Festival / Element Pictures / Scarlet Films / Fox Searchlight Pictures)

From director Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite stars BAFTA and Golden Globe winner Olivia Colman and Oscar winners Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone in a riotous movie of one-upmanship in 18th century England.

Broadchurch star Olivia Colman plays Queen Anne in the film and is hotly tipped for an Oscar nomination.

Rachel Weizs plays Lady Sarah Churchill, the Duchess of Marlborough, and La La Land’s Emma Stone is Abigail, an ambitious new servant that Queen Anne takes a shine to.

Much of the filming of The Favourite took place at Hatfield House in Hertfordshire last year.

At the WGC Cinema screening, historian Dr Ruth Herman will set the scene with a short talk on Queen Anne’s favourite, the Duchess of Marlborough.

The Duchess was born in St Albans and her letters – housed in the Herts Archives – were researched and transcribed by Ruth.

Her correspondence also connects her with the great Hertfordshire family, the Cowpers of Panshanger, whose estate papers are held at HALS.

This will be the first in a series of talks from Herts Archives and Local Studies entitled Fearless Women, revealing the lives and passions of three of Hertfordshire’s finest women.

There will be an informal audience Q&A with Ruth after the film.

Tickets for the Campus West screening of The Favourite cost £15. They are on sale now.

To book, visit www.cwentertainment.co.uk or call the box office 0300 3039 620.

• For more information visit, www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/hals and search for Fearless Women.