In association with Hexham Town Twinning Association there were two showings of 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire' (French: 'Portrait de la jeune fille en feu'), a 2019 historical drama film written and directed by Céline Sciamma. It was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival. The showings were on 22nd and 23rd September 2020.

In the 1770s Marianne, a young painter, is teaching painting lessons. One of her students asks her about a painting of hers, which Marianne calls 'Portrait of a Lady on Fire'. Years prior, Marianne arrives on an isolated island in Brittany. She had been commissioned to paint a portrait of a young woman named Héloïse before Héloïse is married off to her dead sister's ex-fiancé. Her sister threw herself off of a cliffside before Marianne's arrival. Marianne is informed that Héloïse has previously refused to sit for portraits as she does not want to be married. Marianne acts as Héloïse's hired companion to be able to paint her in secret, and accompanies her on daily walks to memorise Héloïse's features. Completing the portrait in secret, observing the resistant Héloïse by day and painting her by night, the two women grow closer. Their intimacy and attraction begins to blossom into a profoundly charged romance.