Save the cinema: The true story of a woman who saved Carmarthen theatre by reaching out to Hollywood

A film depicting the true story of a woman from Carmarthen who saved her local theatre by reaching out to Hollywood will be screened this weekend, in the very place it was filmed.

Golden Globe-winning actress Samantha Morton plays Liz Evans, a hairdresser and youth theatre leader, who began a campaign in the 1990s to save the town's Lyric Theatre from closure.

That campaign included an appeal to Hollywood Director Steven Spielberg, to convince him to stage a premier of the then new blockbuster Jurassic Park at the Lyric.

Liz Evans began a campaign in the 1990s to save the town's Lyric Theatre from closure. Credit: Sky Cinema

The town's mayor wrote directly to the movie maker when a mix-up threatened to leave the theatre without a copy of the film.

48 hours later the theatre was told they could show the box office hit, the same night as the Royal premiere in London.

Director Sara Sugarman told ITV News that the film was about "everything that I care about".

She said: "I absolutely loved it from day one, but it was nothing compared to the tsunami of excitement that followed because of Mark Evans, Liz's son, giving me all of the back story and the photographs of Liz and discovering who she was.

"The journey has been absolutely beyond my expectations."

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'Save the Cinema' was filmed in 2021 across several sites in Carmarthenshire including Ammanford, Laugharne and Llandeilo.

Carmarthenshire County Council said the movie had boosted the local economy by around £750,000.

Welsh Government Covid-19 restrictions meant that plans to premiere the film at Carmarthen had to be called off, but the council has since brought specialist equipment in to allow people to see the film being screened in the very place it was filmed during 2021.