Marking a decade of FAFF, this special Best Of programme revisits some of the most powerful, influential and audience-loved films from the festival's history. This screening will be followed by and in-person Q&A.

Factual Animation Film Festival (FAFF) is the world’s longest running film festival dedicated to championing short animated documentaries and factual animation. FAFF’s goal is to draw attention to the best short non-fiction animations created around the globe each year, to bring filmmakers and audience members together, and build a community around the niche practice of non-fiction animation.

Films in the Programme:

Sent Away directed by Rosa Fisher

I Want To Be Bored directed by Magda Kreps

Teacups directed by Alec Green and Finbar Watson

Embraces & The Touch Of Skin directed by Sara Koppel

Carlotta's Face directed by Valentin Riedl and Frederic Schuld

Timeline directed by Osbert Parker

Redness or Red directed by Emily Downe

HOLE directed by Gil Goletski

O Hunter Heart directed by Carla MacKinnon

Maelbeek directed by Ismael Joffroy Chandoutis

Uncle Thomas Accounting For The Days directed by Regina Pessoa

No body directed by Haemin Ko

Everything Must Go by Alisha Liu

Do I See What You See? directed by Simon Ball

Anastasia won Ingrid Bergman her second Oscar in 1956. 

These days, the film is probably best-remembered for Ingrid Bergman’s Oscar win, an anointment which marked a poignant moment of reputational rehabilitation. The Swedish superstar had been ostracized by both industry and the public following her affair and extramarital pregnancy with Roberto Rossellini. Her last American production had been Under Capricorn (1949) for Alfred Hitchcock, seven years prior. In all its gestural thrashing and declamatory emoting, her performance as Anna - a former psychiatric patient in 1920s Paris who may or may not be the missing heir to the Romanov fortune - is a far cry from the tortile intensity she brought to Rossellini’s psychodramas during her European exile. - Matthew Thrift, MUBI Notebook

Synopsis:

Could an amnesiac refugee named Anna Anderson (Ingrid Bergman) truly be the Grand Duchess Anastasia, purported sole survivor of the execution of Czar Nicholas II and his family during the Bolshevik Revolution of 1918, and therefore the rightful heir to the Czar's fortune? Backed by a group of White Russian exiles led by General Bounine (Yul Brynner), she faces her possible grandmother, the imperious Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (Helen Hayes), and the fortune-hunting Prince Paul (Ivan Desny).

As Charlotte, Bergman arguably gives the best performance of her career. Autumn Sonata marked the actor’s final on-screen appearance before she lost her battle with cancer just a few years later. In fact, she received her diagnosis at the beginning of filming, which undoubtedly influenced her portrayal of a woman reckoning with her past. Of course, Bergman didn’t need real-life experiences to evoke these emotions successfully – her acting prowess speaks for itself. Yet, when you consider the parallels between the movie’s themes and Bergman’s own life, you can’t help but find yourself flawed by the vulnerability of her performance.  - Far Out Magazine

Synopsis:

After a seven-year absence, Charlotte Andergast (Ingrid Bergman) travels to Sweden to reunite with her daughter Eva (Liv Ullmann). The pair have a troubled relationship: Charlotte sacrificed the responsibilities of motherhood for a career as a classical pianist. Over an emotional night, the pair reopen the wounds of the past. Charlotte gets another shock when she finds out that her mentally impaired daughter, Helena (Lena Nyman), is out of the asylum and living with Eva.

The forest comes alive with Bambi, the critically acclaimed coming-of-age story that has thrilled and entertained generations of fans.

This grand adventure is full of humour, heart, and some of the most beloved characters of all time: Bambi, the wide-eyed fawn, his playful pal Thumper, the lovable skunk Flower, and wise Friend Owl. Featuring breathtakingly beautiful artwork and Academy Award nominated music, Bambi's story unfolds from season to season as the young prince of the forest learns valuable lessons about friendship, love, and the miracle of life.

Into Film age recommendation: 5+

On Sunday mornings our Family Screenings are followed by a free activity for Children.

The screening is Pay What You Can, which means you’re free to pay as much or as little as you can afford. By paying for a ticket, you will enable us to keep offering Pay What You Can screenings to families struggling with the cost of living. Thank you

On the evening of 31 March, 1943, legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart confronts his shattered self-confidence in Sardi’s bar as his former collaborator Richard Rodgers celebrates the opening night of his ground-breaking hit musical Oklahoma!

The Garden Cinema View:

This tremendously witty and wordy chamber piece from Richard Linklater feels like a play. It isn’t, but is surely inspired by the stage worlds inhabited by Lorenz Hart, Richard Rodgers, and Oscar Hammerstein. Effectively a one-location, bar film, Blue Moon follows the cigar-smoked, whisky-drenched afterparty of the Broadway premiere Oklahoma!. Ethan Hawke is a ferocious ball of energy as the Capote-esque Hart. Bitter, quick, cutting, open, rude, and always the most talented person in the room, Hart is spiralling and close to crashing out, but is fascinating to listen to and watch. The film feels stagey, but Linklater imbues the action with a seamless flow, and ultimately Blue Moon is a pleasurable and very funny character study.

Coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the tragic passing of David Bowie (January 2026), this film will reveal how Bowie’s last chapter became a resurrection, culminating in the haunting and transformative Blackstar, an album that redefined his legacy and offered a profound metaphor for his life, death, and the mysterious power of creativity. The film traces his journey from the professional challenges of the 1990s, to delivering Glastonbury’s most legendary headline set at the turn of the millennium, to crafting Blackstar - the final breath of one of the world’s greatest artists, released just two days before his passing. With it, Bowie cemented his place in history, both as Lazarus rising from the dead and a star blazing with mystery - both an ending and a beginning.

The Garden Cinema View:

Any documentary about David Bowie tends to be compelling due to the inexhaustible creativity, intelligence, and bold risk taking of its subject. What makes Bowie: The Final Act particularly distinctive is its willingness to present him as human - defined by both genius and vulnerability, rather than the typically hagiographic approach of such profiles.

Watching Bowie navigate his post Berlin years, consumed by self-doubt, while searching for purpose and artistic redefinition, reveals a deeply human dimension that enriches our understanding of his work. Even more thrilling (and moving) is his final decade: an artist ‘resurrecting’ himself to create his best music in years while privately battling terminal cancer.

Through rare interviews with long term friends and musicians, we witness Bowie's artistic experiments not as myth but as lived experience. The Final Act allows us not just to admire Bowie, but to understand him.

Brazil is screening as part of our Christmas programme and also in memory of the late playwright and screenwriter Tom Stoppard.

Low-level bureaucrat Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) escapes the monotony of his day-to-day life through a recurring daydream of himself as a virtuous hero saving a beautiful damsel. Investigating a case that led to the wrongful arrest and eventual death of an innocent man instead of wanted terrorist Harry Tuttle (Robert De Niro), he meets the woman from his daydream (Kim Greist), and in trying to help her gets caught in a web of mistaken identities, mindless bureaucracy and lies.

Brazil was proposed by our member Noah Genockey.

Two conspiracy obsessed young men kidnap the high-powered CEO of a major company, convinced that she is an alien intent on destroying planet Earth.

The Garden Cinema View:

Jang Joon-hwan’s Save the Green Planet! was a strikingly unique film. With disregard for genre, Jang lurched from torture-horror, to social satire, sci-fi action spectacle, and slapstick comedy. Despite such frequent tonal shifts, this chaotic vehicle was ultimately rooted in a powerful ecological and political message. That this still feels so appropriate for 2025 and Bugonia is a testament to Jang’s foresight, the subtle ways in which Yorgos Lanthimos and writer Will Tracy have adjusted the source material, and a bleak indictment of humanity’s inability to solve our existential crises.

Of course, bleakness is oxygen for Lanthimos, and rarely has our own doom been projected for us in such blackly humorous fashion. It might be a remake, but Bugonia is far more contained and controlled than Jang’s film. Lanthimos allows the dark energy to erupt in short bursts, harnessed by a pair of fully committed performances from Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. It’s an oddly beautiful film to look at, shot on 35mm by Robbie Ryan and some frames are reminiscent of another great modern sci-fi, Under the Skin.  

Bergman’s rise to fame was meteoric, and her stunning performance in Casablanca opposite Humphrey Bogart became one of the most iconic duos in cinematic history. Her portrayal of Ilsa Lund, a woman torn between love and duty, resonated with audiences worldwide.

“I’m not a great actress, but I am a great ‘mistress of moods,’” Bergman once said. This modesty belied the immense skill she brought to every role. Her ability to switch between joy, sadness, vulnerability, and strength with ease allowed her to shine in a variety of genres, from romance to drama to thriller.
- Acting Magazine

Synopsis:

Set in Vichy-controlled Morocco during WWII, Casablanca revolves around a nightclub run by cynical American expat Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), where resistance fighters, immigrants and Nazis converge to police or partake in an illicit economy. In this colourfully exotic setting, created entirely on the Warner Bros studio lot, an affair is rekindled between Rick and Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman), the latter now the wife of a resistance leader.

Cover-Up is a political thriller that traces the explosive career of Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Seymour Hersh. Urgent and deeply reported, the film is both a portrait of a relentless journalist and an indictment of institutional violence - revealing a cycle of impunity in the U.S. military and intelligence agencies. Drawing on exclusive access to Hersh’s notes, and interweaving primary documents and archival footage, Cover-Up captures the power and process of investigative journalism.

The Garden Cinema View:

An electrifying documentary on the relentless investigative work of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh that serves both as a political thriller and a biopic.

Going through Hersh’s meticulous archive, we gain profound insight into his obsessive reporting process that helped expose some of America’s most hidden secrets: the My Lai massacre, Abu Ghraib torture, CIA interventions in Chile and Cuba, and beyond.
Hersh's unabated search for truth - often in defiance of his mental and physical wellbeing - makes him a forefather to today’s investigative journalists and whistleblowers such as Assange, Manning, and Snowden.

In a post-fact-checking era of information, Hersh’s story is crucial and inspiring. And although he clarifies he doesn't want to be psychoanalysed, by the end we have a substantial portrait of a highly wired and focused man who operated out of principle.

From renowned filmmaker Lynne Ramsay, Die My Love is a visceral and uncompromising portrait of a woman engulfed by love and madness. Anchored by a ferocious, tour de force performance from Jennifer Lawrence, and co-starring Robert Pattinson.

The film follows Grace (Lawrence) and her partner Jackson (Pattinson), who have recently moved into an old house deep in the country. With ambitions to write The Great American Novel, Grace settles into her new environment, and the couple welcome a baby soon after. However, with Jackson frequently - and suspiciously - absent, and the pressures of domestic life starting to weigh on her, Grace begins to unravel, leaving a path of destruction in her wake.

The Garden Cinema View:

Lynne Ramsay’s first film in 8 years is a blistering and fractiously impressionist examination of post-partum depression. Jennifer Lawrence takes on her most challenging role since mother! (which shares some sensibilities with Die My Love). She’s better here. Her uninhibited performance is incredibly physical, containing surprising levels of sensuality and violence. This boxed in (literally, by the 4:3 aspect ratio) chamber piece is chaotic and intense. It’s also frequently hilarious, and has one of the year’s best soundtracks.

The 2025 FAFF programme celebrates bold, boundary-pushing animated documentaries. These 2025 films are thoughtful, provocative and often playful, inviting audiences to enjoy and engage with the best of the past years released anidocs. This screening will be followed by an in-person Q&A

Factual Animation Film Festival (FAFF) is the world’s longest running film festival dedicated to championing short animated documentaries and factual animation. FAFF’s goal is to draw attention to the best short non-fiction animations created around the globe each year, to bring filmmakers and audience members together, and build a community around the niche practice of non-fiction animation.

Films in the programme:

Inside, The Valley Sings directed by Nathan Fagan

Romina directed by Paola Mendoza

Desi Oon directed by Suresh Eriyat

Voicemail directed by Holly Rivers Aguirre

Speeding, Of Course directed by Anni Sairio and joonatan Turkki

GIGI directed by Cynthia Calvi

Percebes directed by Alexandra Ramires Laura Goncalves

D4 or E4? directed by Umang(mango) Mankodiya

Us Four directed by Alex Peake

The C Word directed by Serafima Serafimova

Jet Lag directed by Kacey Morrow and Dustin Morrow

Warp and Weft directed by Isolda Milenkovic

The Sacred Society directed by Benny Zelkowicz

Ingmar Bergman’s dreamlike chronicle of an extended family in early 20th-century Sweden.

One tumultuous year in the life of the Ekdahl family is viewed through the eyes of ten-year-old Alexander, whose imagination fuels the magical goings-on leading up to and following the death of his father. When his mother remarries a stern bishop, Alexander and his sister Fanny are banished to a gothic world.

Drawing heavily on Bergman’s own memories, it highlights the young protagonist’s fascination with storytelling, while also serving as a kind of confessional critique of his films and reworked themes, with trademark scenes of marital infighting, desperate grief, and searching existential enquiry.

Although Bergman is as attuned as ever to the anguish of life, there is also much that is fondly recalled, from toy theatres and magic lantern shows to family Christmases and favoured relatives.

The screening on 14 February will be followed by an online Q&A with the director Lu Qingyi.

Four Springs is a documentary film that presents a family’s daily life in the remote town in southern Guizhou. From a subjective angle, the camera introduces the flow of life out of the screen: the quotidian toils, singing, excursions in nature, visits among friends and extended families, funerals, reunions, and separation. It presents the state of being of the two main characters, the director’s own parents, and their attitude when facing irretrievable loss in life.

This special screening celebrates Chinese New Year 2026 (Year of Horse). It is the fourth successive Garden Cinema CNY special event, following the UK Premiere of Kong Dashan’s Journey to the West in 2023, and an immersive screening of Wong Kar Wai’s In the Mood for Love in 2024 and screening of Bi Gan’s Kaili Blues in 2025.

In India Donaldson’s insightful, piercing debut, 17-year-old Sam (Collias) embarks on a three-day backpacking trip in the Catskills with her dad, Chris (Le Gros) and his oldest friend, Matt (McCarthy). As the two men quickly settle into a gently quarrelsome brotherly dynamic, airing long-held grievances, Sam, wise beyond her years, attempts to mediate. But when lines are crossed and Sam’s trust is betrayed, tensions reach a fever pitch, as Sam struggles with her dad’s emotional limitations and experiences the universal moment when the parental bond is tested.

The Garden Cinema View:

A powerful debut from India Donaldson, Good One serves as a disturbingly accurate and surgical depiction of toxic family dynamics. Not the trivialised type encountered on social media, but toxicity camouflaged as playful banter and intertwined with genuine - if misguided - love. The film masterfully articulates the often vague and complex process of trauma formation within family histories through subtext, rather than explicit dialogue.

The cast give powerful performances, the script is superbly constructed, and the sound design is exceptional. All of which contribute to Donaldson’s delicate psychological excavation of her central trio. Thanks to the sharp characterisations and writing, the film also serves as a genuinely funny comedy, despite exploring difficult themes. At times, the spirit of Kelly Reichardt guides this trek through the forest, evoking the hiking mysteries of Old Joy, as well as a Reichardtian camera which is always drawn to insects, foliage, and other quiet scenes of nature.

This small triumph stands as one of our programming team's favourite films of 2025 thus far.

Meeting your girlfriend's family for the first time can be tough, especially at Christmas. When Abby (Kristen Stewart) learns that Harper (Mackenzie Davis) has kept their relationship a secret from her family, she begins to question the girlfriend she thought she knew.

Happiest Season was suggested by our members Kierran Horner and Aimee Gasston.

Into the world of the Emperor Penguins, who find their soul mates through song. A young penguin called Mumble is unable to sing but instead has a gift for tap dancing. His mother thinks his ability is cute, but his father is not so impressed. Noah, who is the stern leader of their land, thinks Mumble’s quirk is just too different and casts him out of the community. Away from home for the first time, Mumble meets a whole range of characters – including penguins very different from those he knows – as he seeks to understand his place in the world.

On Sunday mornings our Family Screenings are followed by a free activity for Children.

The screening is Pay What You Can, which means you’re free to pay as much or as little as you can afford. By paying for a ticket, you will enable us to keep offering Pay What You Can screenings to families struggling with the cost of living. Thank you

Set in a dystopian near-future Tokyo, Neo Sora’s striking debut fiction feature explores a group of teenagers rebelling against societal expectations. The film offers a vivid coming-of-age portrait, following best friends Yuta and Kou as they confront a world where AI surveillance is tightening under the yoke of oppressive authoritarianism.

Infused with the raw energy and pulsing with a techno soundtrack, Happyend is a hopeful, youthful vision of resistance and joy in the face of control.

The Garden Cinema View:

Happyend opens with portentous text, a blast of synth music, and glowing red orbs that all feel very Akira. Neo Sora’s follow up to his wonderfully touching portrait of his late father, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus, is ultimately a much less bombastic vision of the future than Otomo’s anime classic, but is highly plausible nonetheless. Amongst the right wing, surveillance state gloom, is a tender and optimistic portrayal of late adolescence, and a call for us to try and change the world in small ways, and to fight for the rights of those who come after us.

These likeable and empowering themes are supported by an impressive level of craft. Each shot is delicately composed, and backed up by the Sakamoto-adjacent score. The wonderfully styled final scene suggests that we might be seeing the emergence of a significant new voice in Japanese cinema.  

Our screening on Thursday 19 February will be introduced by season curator George Crosthwait, and will be followed by a post film discussion group in the Atrium Bar.

Nobuhiko Obayashi (Hausu) takes on the Bōsōzoku (youth bike gang) genre with a poetic and bittersweet look at rebellious youth and young love.

After being threatened by his girlfriend’s brother, Ko (Riki Takeuchi) goes on a trip on his Kawasaki to contemplate his options. He meets Miiyo (Kiwako Harada) by chance, and the two stay in touch. He later receives an invitation to her island, where he begins to teach her how to ride, and quickly falls for her. Miiyo is an extremely quick study, and the two are a well-matched pair. However, her obsession with motorbikes seems to be leading her down a dangerous path.

The evening screening on Thursday 23 October will be introduced by Professor Lucy Bolton who will share her insights on Bergman's extraordinary career and the films featured throughout the season.

Ingrid Bergman was wooed to Hollywood by David Selznick after he witnessed her stunning presence in the 1936 Swedish romance Intermezzo. In 1939 she starred in the Hollywood version of Intermezzo by Gregory Ratoff, which was remade in English nearly scene-for-scene and was a big box-office hit.
We are showing the 1939 version as part of our season.

Synopsis:

Concert violinist Holger Brandt (Leslie Howard) becomes disenchanted with his home life and gravitates toward his daughter’s piano tutor, Anita (Ingrid Bergman). An affair starts, but when they go to break it off the pair instead run away to concerts on the continent and a villa in Italy before their conscience returns.

Lucy Bolton is Professor of Film Philosophy at Queen Mary University of London where she specialises in feminist film philosophy and film stardom. Her most recent book is The Feminist Film Philosophy Reader - out in March 2026 - and she is currently writing a book on ‘Philosophies of Film Stardom’. 

The provocative Italian filmmaker Elio Petri’s most internationally acclaimed work is this remarkable, visceral, Oscar-winning thriller. Petri maintains a tricky balance between absurdity and realism in telling the Kafkaesque tale of a Roman police inspector (a commanding Gian Maria Volontè) investigating a heinous crime - which he himself committed. Both a compelling character study and a disturbing commentary on the draconian government crackdowns in Italy in the late 1960s and early 70s, Petri’s kinetic portrait of surreal bureaucracy is a perversely pleasurable rendering of controlled chaos.

Winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, It Was Just an Accident is a fearless tour-de-force from cinematic luminary Jafar Panahi. Both urgently political and deeply humane, this new moral classic confronts truth and uncertainty, revenge and mercy, head-on.

When auto mechanic Vahid unexpectedly encounters the man who may have been his torturer in prison, he kidnaps him with the intention to exact vengeance. But since the sole clue to Eghbal’s identity is the distinct squeak of his prosthetic leg, Vahid turns to a loose circle of other now-freed victims for confirmation. And the danger only escalates. As they deal with their past and diverging worldviews, the group struggles to decide: Is this him, without a doubt? What would retribution mean, in actuality?

The Garden Cinema View:

Often classified by the media as a thriller or action film, the Palme d'Or 2025 winner It Was Just an Accident is closer to absurdist comedy - an intriguing fusion of Samuel Beckett and slapstick.

Through characters debating opposing viewpoints, Panahi offers a Socratic dialectical debate unfolding in real time: when we seek revenge, do we become like our predators? Should we interrupt the chain of violence by abstaining from it, or strike back, given that bad people will remain unchanged? If we show empathy, will it be reciprocated? Is forgiveness the right path, or does it enable further harm? Is our malice shaped by systemic dysfunction, or do we bear individual responsibility?

A deeply philosophical piece that also deftly functions as a comedy, It Was Just an Accident is filmmaking of the highest order.

When a warlord dies, a peasant thief is called upon to impersonate him, and then finds himself haunted by the warlord’s spirit as well as his own ambitions. In his late colour masterpiece Kagemusha, Akira Kurosawa returns to the samurai film and to a primary theme of his career - the play between illusion and reality. Sumptuously reconstructing the splendour of feudal Japan and the pageantry of war, Kurosawa creates a historical epic that is also a meditation on the nature of power.

To end the year in festive spirit, we're excited to welcome you back for one final Members' Mingle - but make it Kris Kringle!

On Sunday 21 December, join us in the Atrium Bar from 14:00 onwards to meet fellow members. Think film chat with cinema enthusiasts, cosy drinks, and a playlist of iconic (Christmas?) songs from favourite features, curated by you! You can add your song suggestions for the afternoon's soundtrack here.

To add to the festivities, your ticket will include a complimentary mug of mulled wine, or a warming cup of our new Christmas blend tea by The Teamakers of London. Your drink will also come with a film-based prompt to serve as an icebreaker to introduce yourself to fellow members. Who knows, you might meet a like-minded cinephile to attend future screenings with!

Tickets for the event are just £5, restricted to 1 per member, and include a complimentary hot drink (mulled wine, tea, or coffee).

Optional - but recommended - is combining the mingle with the 16:30 screening of The Holdovers: a new festive classic in the making! There are still a handful of tickets left for this screening, so we recommend booking yours now, here.

A timeless masterpiece of love and yearning, L’Atalante was the only full-length film made by Jean Vigo before his tragic early death. The film is now considered to be one of cinema’s very greatest works.

Dita Parlo stars as a young bride who begins married life aboard her husband’s barge on the Seine. But within its cramped confines, shared with a small crew (including the eccentric Père Jules, memorably played by Michel Simon) and an abundance of cats, the relationship begins to flounder. Vigo imbues this simple tale, beautifully shot by Boris Kaufman, with social realism, lyrical romance and sensual eroticism to create a unique and enduring classic.

A curated selection of artists films that explore how language, communication and meaning circulates around disability, deafness, and chronic illness.

Shifting between experimentation and mistranslation, transparency and legibility, these films interrogate modes of speaking and listening. Here, access is a practice: negotiated in dialogue, shaped by communications technology and examined intimately. Crossed wires, soap-opera fragments, military exercises, and captioning labour collide, as lip-reading becomes a mode of resistance and play.

Mascara Film Club will be joined by artists for a post-screening discussion.

This programme is curated by Mascara Film Club.

Receiver, dir. Jenny Brady, Ireland 2022, 14 mins

All-around Feel Good, dir. Jordan Lord, USA 2024, 25 mins

The Extra’s Ever Moving Lips, dir. Lucy Clout, UK 2019, 8 mins

I Can Hear My Mother’s Voice, dir. Jordan Lord, USA 2021, 5 mins

Nurses II, dir. Lucy Clout, UK 2019, 5 mins

Protection, dir. Leah Clements, UK 2018, 7 mins

All films in this programme include descriptive subtitles. BSL interpretation will be provided for the introduction and post-screening discussion.

A programme inviting young audiences to imagine worlds both vast and small, where empathy and curiosity shape what comes next.

Suitable for children aged 7+ and their parents/guardians.

Across claymation forests, floating whale islands, and moonlit skies, these films explore how imagination helps us make sense of change, from the everyday to the extraordinary. A boy learns to let go of his whale companion; a squirrel turns from hoarding to helping and a woman crosses the globe to save a sprout.

Each story begins in wonder but expands into care - for friends, for the planet, for the connections that hold our worlds together - reminding us that imagination is not just play, but a practice of hope.

Loading Nouns Gets Down, dir. Chris Ullens, UK 2024, 4mins

A Clayful Adventure, dir. Florrie Macleod, UK 2025, 4mins

Lena's Farm: Full Nest, dir. Elena Walf, Germany 2025, 6mins

I Have Not Considered the Lilies, dir. Blake Hunter and Mia Saines, US 2025, 4mins

Leave The Island, dir. Chen Wu, Taiwan 2025, 11mins

Tuu Tuu Til, dir. Veronica Solomon, Germany 2024, 5mins

Gravity Bound, dir. Frankie Lasley, US 2025, 3mins

The Mystery of the Missing Sock, dir. Anouk Witkowska Hiffler and Tomás Felício Oliveira, UK 2025, 3mins

Film Film, dir. Artūrs Vobļikovs, UK 2025, 12mins

Please note: The film “Film Film” includes a brief scene depicting tobacco use. The film is subtitled and contains moments that may be unsettling for very young viewers.

A single mother and her two daughters return to Taipei after several years of living in the countryside to open a stand at a buzzing night market. Each in their way will have to adapt to this new environment to make ends meet and maintain the family unity. But when their traditional grandfather forbids his youngest left-handed granddaughter from using her 'devil hand', generations of family secrets begin to unravel.

The Garden Cinema View:

Tsou Shih-Ching’s solo directorial debut, Left-Handed Girl, is co-written, produced and edited by her long-time collaborator Sean Baker. The film idea was formed even before the duo’s first project, co-directing Take Out in 2004, and has finally blossomed after two decades in the making.

Told through the innocent eyes of a young girl, it is a deeply personal story which is inspired by Tsou’s own childhood. Stylistically, it is a continuation of the social realism of Take Out, and films she has produced for Baker, such as Tangerine and The Florida Project. As with those films, Left-Handed Girl bears the influence of Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, and the Dogme 95 movement. Shot on an iPhone with a small crew, it vividly captures the naturally cinematic night market scenes and the authenticity of daily lives in Taipei City.

While touching on relatively heavy themes, the film maintains a light-hearted tone, generating laughter throughout. Its celebration of female resilience and individuality, combined with reflections on patriarchy, imbues it with universal appeal that travels far beyond its Taiwanese origin.

Our Screening on Saturday 15 November was followed by a Q&A with director Shih-Ching Tsou, and co-writer and editor Sean Baker, moderated by Millie Zhou.

The screening will be introduced by film critic Laura Venning, who will also be selling copies of her book 'Icons of Cinema: Greta Gerwig' before and after the screening.

A stunning ensemble cast brings to life this gorgeous sophomore directorial feature from Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird, Barbie). Drawing on both the classic novel and the writings of Louisa May Alcott, 2019's Little Women is a sweeping retelling of a timeless classic for a whole new generation to cherish.

Determined writer Jo (Saoirse Ronan) spends her formative years in the cosy surroundings of Concord, Massachusetts with her sisters Meg (Emma Watson), Amy (Florence Pugh) and Beth (Eliza Scanlen). Growing up in the warm embrace of their kindly mother Marmie (Laura Dern, Marriage Story), the sisters help feed the less fortunate and enjoy putting on homemade theatre productions with their wealthy young neighbour Laurie (Timothée). But the road to literary success is fraught for Jo, as she faces transformative heartbreak in life and love.

Laura Venning is a film critic from London specialising in feminist and queer cinema. She has written for BBC Culture, Empire magazine, Little White Lies magazine and the Curzon Journal. She has contributed to critics' surveys such as Sight and Sound's historic Greatest Films of All Time poll in 2022 and has introduced films at the BFI Southbank. In her first book, Icons of Cinema: Greta Gerwig, discover how Gerwig embraced her interest in theatre before turning her attention to Hollywood, explore her mumblecore films, understand why she focuses on key themes such as coming of age and female relationships, and take an in-depth look at her creative process for each major film.

A stunning ensemble cast brings to life this gorgeous sophomore directorial feature from Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird, Barbie). Drawing on both the classic novel and the writings of Louisa May Alcott, 2019's Little Women is a sweeping retelling of a timeless classic for a whole new generation to cherish.

In 19th century Massachusetts, the March sisters- Meg (Emma Watson), Jo (Saoirse Ronan), Beth (Eliza Scanlen), and Amy (Florence Pugh) - on the threshold of womanhood, go through many ups and downs in life and endeavor to make important decisions about their futures.

On Sunday mornings our Family Screenings are followed by a free activity for Children.

The screening is Pay What You Can, which means you’re free to pay as much or as little as you can afford. By paying for a ticket, you will enable us to keep offering Pay What You Can screenings to families struggling with the cost of living. Thank you.

Winner of many awards, including at Annecy Film Festival, the largest animation film festival in the world, Living Large is an honest exploration of puberty, first love and the difficult relationship with our bodies.The film’s gorgeous visual world is created using stop-motion puppet animation combined with 2D animation.

12-year-old Ben has just hit puberty and suddenly his weight's a problem - for him  and for everyone else. The other kids bully him, his divorced parents don't know

what to do... Even the school nurse is worried about him. So, despite his love of food and his emerging talent as a chef, Ben decides to take drastic action. He starts to diet.

Maybe that can turn things round. And even win the heart of Klara, the girl of his dreams... Finally, Ben will learn that what truly matters isn't how you look - it's how you feel.

Living Large is an adaptation of a short novel by French author Mikaël Ollivier. It is one of Ollivier’s most signifcant works, having won numerous literary prizes, including the Prix des Incorruptibles, awarded annually by French children.

The film is dubbed in english & recommended for ages 10+

On Sunday mornings our Family Screenings are followed by a free activity for Children.

The screening is Pay What You Can, which means you’re free to pay as much or as little as you can afford. By paying for a ticket, you will enable us to keep offering Pay What You Can screenings to families struggling with the cost of living. Thank you.

Marty Mauser, a young man with a dream no one respects, goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness.

The Garden Cinema View:

There's no time to rest in this angsty 2.5 hour saga made with exceptional filmmaking craft by Josh Safdie. The obsessive pursuit of a ping-pong career becomes launchpad to explore a charismatic yet grating character, and to immerse us in the atmosphere of a long-lost era.

Similarly to Uncut Gems, there is towering suspense amongst the organised chaos, and the plot pushes aggressively forward, demanding full attention for the hefty runtime. But Marty Supreme also revels in its sense of place - a vivid depiction of 1950s New York Jewish community is captured in exquisite detail, and is populated with big, idiosyncratic characters, all of whom feel lived in. The anachronistic use of 80s music blends in seamlessly, never feeling pretentious or like a stylistic gimmick.

Marty Supreme is noisy and, although very engaging, it sometimes makes you wonder to what end - much like its protagonist, moving forward without clear direction. Yet therein lies its charm: in the journey itself rather than any revelatory outcome.

The well-off Smith family leads a comfortable, happy existence in St. Louis, a city set to welcome the 1904 World’s Fair. Seventeen-year-old Esther Smith has fallen in love with the boy who has just moved next door, though he hardly notices her at first. When Mr. Alonzo Smith announces that he has been transferred to New York for business and that his family must follow him, Esther and her siblings are distraught at the thought of leaving St. Louis, their lives and the World’s Fair behind.

Meet Me in St. Louis was suggested by our member Christopher Voisey.

Founded in 1930 in central France, the Troisgros family restaurant has been holding 3 Michelin stars for 57 years over four generations. Michel Troisgros, the third generation to head the restaurant, has turned over the responsibility for the cuisine to his son César, the fourth generation of Troisgros chefs. From the market to pick fresh vegetables, to a cheese processing plant, a vineyard, an organic cattle ranch to the backyard garden supplying the restaurant, Frederick Wiseman takes us on a mouthwatering and sense-pleasing journey into the family’s three restaurant kitchens.

An immersive experience, four hours long, without interviews, narration or music, Menus-Plaisirs – Les Troisgros shows the great artistry, ingenuity, imagination, and hard work of the restaurant staff in creating, preparing, and presenting meals of the highest quality.

The Garden Cinema View:

Aged 93 at the time of filming (95 at the time of writing), each new film from Frederick Wiseman feels like a gift. Intersecting his ongoing depictions of both French artistry (La Danse, Crazy Horse) and historic institutions (Ex Libris, National Gallery), this ‘day-in-the-life’ of Le Bois sans feuilles showcases both extraordinary creativity alongside detailed operational planning.

As ever with Wiseman, he draws out fascinating aspects of the everyday, and shows the level of detail and hard work which go into finished products (food in this case). And as is usually the case with his late films, the daunting running time turns out to be an immensely pleasurable immersion into something that feels like pure cinema.

Our screening on Wednesday 21 January will be introduced by film journalist James Balmont.

David Bowie stars in Nagisa Oshima's 1983 Palme d'Or-nominated portrait of resilience, pride, friendship and obsession among four very different men confined in the stifling jungle heat of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java during World War II.

In 1942, British officer Major Jack Celliers (Bowie) is captured by Japanese soldiers, and after a brutal trial sent, physically debilitated but indomitable in mind, to a POW camp overseen by the zealous Captain Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto). Celliers' stubbornness sees him locked in a battle of wills with the camp's new commandant, a man obsessed with discipline and the glory of Imperial Japan who becomes unnaturally preoccupied with the young Major, while Lieutenant Colonel Lawrence (Tom Conti), the only inmate with a degree of sympathy for Japanese culture and an understanding of the language, attempts to bridge the divide through his friendship with Yonoi's second-in-command, Sergeant Hara (Takeshi Kitano), a man possessing a surprising degree of compassion beneath his cruel façade.

Produced by Jeremy Thomas (The Last Emperor, The Sheltering Sky), it was the first English-language film by Oshima (Death by Hanging, In the Realm of the Senses, Gohatto), a leading light of Japanese New Wave cinema, and provided breakthrough big-screen roles for comedian Takeshi Kitano and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also composed the film's hauntingly memorable BAFTA-winning score.

This gem of a musical was nominated for eleven Oscars - winning five and its popularity is undimmed nearly 50 years after its stage premiere. Based on Charles Dickens' famous novel about the adventures of a Victorian orphan who falls in with a London street gang, the thrilling story is matched by the unforgettable songs, such as "Food, Glorious Food", "Got to Pick a Pocket or Two" and "I'd Do Anything".

On Sunday mornings our Family Screenings are followed by a free activity for Children.

The screening is Pay What You Can, which means you’re free to pay as much or as little as you can afford. By paying for a ticket, you will enable us to keep offering Pay What You Can screenings to families struggling with the cost of living. Thank you.

When their evil enemy resurfaces after 16 years, a group of ex-revolutionaries reunites to rescue one of their own's daughter.

The Garden Cinema View:

Paul Thomas Anderson seizes his moment. With a reported budget around £100 million, he has made an epic and absurd sprawling action comedy which retains his idiosyncratic style, and contains themes and political gestures which feel personal to him.

Loosely working from Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland, One Battle After Another is (thankfully) less inscrutable than its source, but faithfully evokes the novel’s bizarre vision of a USA contorted with conspiracy, failed revolution, and a burnt out counterculture. Pynchon allows Anderson to work in broad stereotypes and cartoonish cameos, while still honing a political edge – neo-fascism being the butt of the jokes here. It’s a thrilling, bewildering, often very funny, and occasionally quite sweet, viewing experience.

Very few ‘auteur’ filmmakers are able to operate in this budget/major studio space (possibly only Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan) successfully. To shoot your shot with an adaptation of such an inscrutable piece of American postmodernism is truly bold, and looks like it will pay off for PTA.  

Adapted from Ken Kesey’s novel, and now digitally restored for its 50th anniversary, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest centres on Randle McMurphy (Nicholson), a convict who simulates mental illness in the hope that a transfer to psychiatric hospital might ensure his early release. But he hasn’t bargained for the rigid regimen of Nurse Ratched (Louise Fletcher, also superb), who dislikes his disruptive - though he’d say liberating - effect on the ward.

After leaving her pop idol group and starting a new life as an actress, Mima soon finds herself overwhelmed by a wave of provocative offers - including photo shoots and roles in a TV drama - that go against her wishes. But before long, a string of murders begins to unfold, targeting those around her...

This film marks the directorial debut of Satoshi Kon, who fascinated audiences around the world with Paprika, Millennium Actress, and Tokyo Godfathers. Blending a play within a play, the story unfolds as fiction and reality, dreams and delusions, and cyberspace intertwine.

In 1974, famed photographer Peter Hujar describes the routines and rituals that define an artist's life, capturing a single day's activities from interactions with cultural icons of the day, including Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Susan Sontag, and the texture and energy of downtown New York in its heyday.

Elegant and intimate - and a dazzling showcase for the two performers at its center - Peter Hujar's Day is both a masterful portrait of a time and place, and a captivating film about the way art emerges from the intimate details of everyday life.

The Garden Cinema View:

This touching, free-flowing, chamber piece is a tight actor’s showcase for Ben Wishaw and Rebecca Hall, and is moreover an uncanny reconstruction of a particular time and artistic scene (think Patti Smith’s Stray Kids). Ira Sachs, to a degree, encapsulates the experimental drive of ‘70s NYC, with an exploration of mundanity that might be profound, or pretentious, depending on your mood. While a single New York apartment might conjure the spectre of structuralist film, Sachs does aim for something more humane, especially with the hindsight of Hujar’s tragic AIDS related death. Wishaw hints at sadness and suffering in subtle intonations and glances. This may just be one day, but it encapsulates a career, a life, and a city.  

Colin (Harry Melling) leads a humdrum existence until he meets the impossibly handsome Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), a mysterious biker he is soon desperately devoted to. As Colin submits to Ray and enters an exciting new world of desire, he must decide the limits of his devotion.

Hilarious, subversive and sexy, Pillion is the acclaimed and surprisingly tender love story from writer-director Harry Lighton, starring Melling and Skarsgård in fearless performances as a mild young man and his leather-clad lover.

The Garden Cinema View:

On paper, Pillion looks like a story about a sadomasochistic relationship within a fringe queer subculture. But, much like The Duke of Burgundy, its transgressive surface gives way to a moving study of connection and - of course - an ode to queer desire.

The film is playful and dryly funny, especially in the contrast between the assured dom and the inexperienced sub - an impossibly handsome Alexander Skarsgård paired with an ever-blushing Harry Melling. It’s easy to imagine its lines or moments turning into viral memes, much like the buzz around Babygirl.

Although there's building suspense about how this relationship will develop and what Skarsgård's character is really like underneath, in a last-minute U-turn, Pillion proves most interested in the main protagonist's empowering sexual self-actualization rather than delving further into psychology. 

Pillion premiered at Cannes to strong critical acclaim.

The film will be followed by a Q&A with director Den Edelstyn.

Two artists in Walthamstow set out to take their street off the grid, kickstarting a solar-powered energy revolution.

Inspired by lockdown mutual aid initiatives, artist-activists Hilary Powell and Dan Edelstyn decided to turn their street into an energy-generating powerhouse – a prototype for a new way of living, with the hope of galvanising a wider push towards sustainable alternatives.

Directed by the duo, POWER STATION charts their turbulent journey, from pitching the idea to their neighbours and sleeping on the roof of their home, to raising finance and launching a bid for a Christmas number one single.

By turns funny and heartwarming, Powell and Edelstyn’s film is a vibrant portrait of their local neighbourhood, and a charming testament to the power of art in changing minds about what could be possible.

You can follow the film's journey on the official website.

In August 2017, in the lead-up to national elections, Jacinda Ardern unexpectedly became New Zealand’s opposition party leader. She had just turned 37. Two frenetic months later, she was Prime Minister. Just before the final vote was in, she discovered she was pregnant. She would become only the second head of state in history to give birth while in office. Going behind the scenes of her administration and her private life, Prime Minister follows Jacinda for seven years as she is catapulted to the top of New Zealand politics, becomes a feminist political icon, resigns suddenly from office and continues to champion the fight against isolationism, fear, and the distortion of truth.

The Garden Cinema View:

An uncommonly intimate portrait of New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern during her five years in office, as she navigated COVID-19, a mass shooting, and relentless attacks from right wing critics - all while pregnant and then breastfeeding as a new mother.

Despite the incredible difficulties and complexities of her situation, she decisively implemented gun ban policies and early border closures during the pandemic - almost the upside down of contemporary decision-making in the USA and UK.

As the footage is taken by her partner, it includes raw moments of self-doubt and exhaustion alongside unbending determination. This stands in stark contrast to political hagiographies or the overconfident attitudes of contemporary politicians like Trump and Johnson.

Prime Minister is, in fact, a feminist film - not only presenting a new type of leadership where motherhood is included, doubt is permitted (and might even serve as a moral compass), and healthy partnerships enrich and strengthen resolve, but is also a showcase of the willingness of Ardern's husband to support her ambition without egotistical attitudes. It's an inspiration to watch.

One of the most important and influential film makers in cinematic history, Akira Kurosawa directed 30 films in a career spanning 57 years. His final masterpiece, Ran, is a reimagining of Shakespeare’s King Lear set in feudal Japan. Ran tells the story of Lord Hidetora Ichimonji (Tatsuya Nakadai) an aging warlord who, after spending his life consolidating his empire, decides to abdicate and divide his Kingdom amongst his three sons Taro, Jiro, and Saburo. This leads to a brutal and bloody war between the brothers for absolute power of the kingdom.

A young warrior princess named Raya (voiced by Kelly Marie Tran) tries to reunite her kingdom by finding the last survivor of the race of dragons that used to protect her people. This computer-animated fantasy adventure is a visual feast inspired by Southeast Asian cultures and legends, whilst telling an engaging, accessible story of teamwork and overcoming our prejudices in order to succeed. Nominated for the 2021 Animated Feature Film Oscar, Raya and the Last Dragon was created largely by filmmakers working remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Sunday mornings our Family Screenings are followed by a free activity for Children.

The screening is Pay What You Can, which means you’re free to pay as much or as little as you can afford. By paying for a ticket, you will enable us to keep offering Pay What You Can screenings to families struggling with the cost of living. Thank you

Following the success of global phenomenon The Worst Person in the World, Academy Award-nominee Joachim Trier reunites with BAFTA nominee Renate Reinsve for their universally acclaimed follow-up, Sentimental Value. Winner of the prestigious Cannes Grand Prix award, and featuring career-best performances from Golden Globe winner Stellan Skarsgård and Elle Fanning.

Reinsve plays Nora, a successful stage actress who, along with her sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas), reunites with their estranged father Gustav Borg (Skarsgård) – a once-renowned film director planning a major comeback with a script based on his family. When Gustav offers Nora the lead role, which she

promptly declines, he turns his attention to Rachel Kemp (Fanning), an eager young Hollywood starlet primed for her big breakthrough. With their fraught dynamics made even more complex, Nora, Agnes and Gustav are each forced to confront their difficult pasts.

The Garden View:

Joachim Trier cements has status as the most successful Norwegian filmmaker of all time with an ambitious and self-reflexive family portrait. As any self-respecting auteur will do at some point, Trier has made a film about filmmaking. This is a subject that, although quite indulgent, opens up Sentimental Value for poignant reflections on creativity, performance, and the meaning of (a broken) home.

Although Trier is a very different filmmaker, there is something faintly Bergman-esque in Sentimental Value. The excavation of family history, the merging of identity, a problematic father, and simply the presence of actors (performing Ibsen no less), all evoke the ghost of the Swedish master. Actually the film that Sentimental Value evokes most strongly is Mia Hansen-Løve’s Bergman Island, although with less metatextual contortions.  

This is confident and powerful filmmaking, carried off by a superb cast, and the best film about a film director since Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory.

Now beautifully restored for its 75th anniversary, Billy Wilder's classic tinseltown satire returns to cinemas.

Narrated in flashback by the corpse of luckless screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) floating facedown in a Los Angeles swimming pool, Wilder’s audaciously dark examination of the Hollywood dream factory cruelly casts faded silent-movie star Gloria Swanson as has-been silent star Norma Desmond. Festering in the grandeur of her old dark mansion and daydreaming of comeback, the character is a brutal warning about the unchecked egotism of superstardom.

The tale of an eccentric band of culinary ronin who guide the widow of a noodle-shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe, this rapturous 'ramen western' by Japanese director Juzo Itami is an entertaining, genre-bending adventure underpinned by a deft satire of the way social conventions distort the most natural of human urges-our appetites. Interspersing the efforts of Tampopo (Nobuko Miyamoto) and friends to make her café a success with the erotic exploits of a gastronome gangster and glimpses of food culture both high and low, the sweet, sexy, and surreal Tampopo is a lavishly inclusive paean to the sensual joys of nourishment, and one of the most mouthwatering examples of food on film ever made.

London Breeze Film Festival is delighted to present the winner of its Best Feature Documentary award for 2025 at The Garden Cinema.

Here's what our jury member, Curtis Gallant of The Whickers awards, had to say about the film:

“The winning documentary highlights how the past can echo across generations. This highly personal story confronts concealed history on both sides of the Atlantic. It poignantly captures the power of both hate and love, and its title character fills the screen with his big-hearted personality.”

Terry Harrison MBE is on an emotional quest to trace his GI dad, whom he never knew, and learn about the lives of African American soldiers based in Britain during WW2. This epic journey takes him to South Carolina, Washington DC and the Northern Beaches of France. Former Royal Marines Commando, a keen gardener and proud Leicester City fan, Terry has been on a lifelong quest to find out more about his dad until his journey takes a very unexpected new turn.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director, Jonathan Beamish, Terry Harrison and other guests to be confirmed.

Our screening on Thursday 26 February will be introduced by Mark Player, author of Japanese Cinema and Punk, and will be followed by a post film discussion group in the Atrium Bar.   

A strange man known only as the 'metal fetishist', who seems to have an insane compulsion to stick scrap metal into his body, is hit and possibly killed by a Japanese salaryman, out for a drive with his girlfriend. The salaryman then notices that he is being slowly overtaken by some kind of disease that is turning his body into scrap metal, and that his nemesis is not in fact dead but is somehow masterminding and guiding his rage and frustration-fueled transformation.

Wim Wenders pays loving homage to rough-and-tumble Hollywood film noir with The American Friend, a loose adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel Ripley’s Game. Dennis Hopper oozes quirky menace as an amoral American art dealer who entangles a terminally ill German everyman, played by Bruno Ganz, in a seedy criminal underworld as revenge for a personal slight - but when the two become embroiled in an ever-deepening murder plot, they form an unlikely bond. Filmed on location in Hamburg and Paris, with some scenes shot in grimy, late-seventies New York City, Wenders’s international breakout is a stripped-down crime story that mixes West German and American film flavors, and it features cameos by filmmakers Jean Eustache, Samuel Fuller, and Nicholas Ray.

Our screening on Thursday 22 January will be introduced by Alastair Phillips (University of Warwick), and followed by a post film discussion group in the Atrium Bar.  

Cinematic anthropologist extraordinaire Shohei Imamura won his first Palme d'Or at the 1983 Cannes Film Festival for The Ballad of Narayama, his transcendent adaptation of two classic stories by Shichiro  Fukazawa.

In a small village in a remote valley where the harshness of life dictates that survival overrules compassion, elderly widow Orin is approaching her 70th birthday - the age when village law says she must go up to the mythic Mount Narayama to die. But there are several loose ends within her own family to tie up first.

Creating a vividly realised inverse image of 'civilised' society with typical directness and black humour, Imamura presents a bracingly unsentimental rumination on mortality and an engrossing study of a community's struggles against the natural elements. Handled with a masterful control and simplicity, moving effortlessly between the comic and the horrific, The Ballad of Narayama is one of the legendary director's deepest, richest works, and ranks among the finest films of its decade.

Based on the first of the classic series of novels by CS Lewis, this fantasy adventure film follows four siblings: Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy. Evacuated to the countryside during World War II, the children find a way into another world - through the back of an old wardrobe. Entering the strange world of Narnia, the children discover a land in thrall to the White Witch (Tilda Swinton), where it's winter all year round, but never Christmas, and where magical creatures live in fear of her cruelty. In order to break her wintry spell, the brothers and sisters must join forces with Aslan the Lion, and fulfil their destinies. This wonderful film brings the magic, myths and sheer excitement of CS Lewis' story to life.

On Sunday mornings our Family Screenings are followed by a free activity for Children.

The screening is Pay What You Can, which means you’re free to pay as much or as little as you can afford. By paying for a ticket, you will enable us to keep offering Pay What You Can screenings to families struggling with the cost of living. Thank you

Our screening on Saturday 31 January will be introduced by Tom Cunliffe (UCL), and will be followed by a post film discussion group in the Atrium Bar.

The Kobayashi family finally are able to move out of their tiny, cramped Tokyo apartment to the suburban house of their dreams. But things are not as perfect as they seem: the house is infested by termites and the family starts going crazy. Son Masaki is studying so obsessively for his exams that he’s losing his mind; daughter Erika is oblivious of all but her forthcoming record company audition, grandfather Yasukuni starts getting World War II flashbacks and father Katsuhiko is so worried about his family’s 'sickness' that he thinks can only be cured by group suicide. As the Kobayashis’ house begins to crumble, so does the sanity of its inhabitants. Katsuhiko takes it upon himself to keep them from the asylum… at any cost.

After losing his father, 10-year-old Carlos (Fernando Tielve) arrives at the Santa Lucia School, which shelters orphans of the Republican militia and politicians, and is taken in by the steely headmistress, Carmen (Marisa Paredes), and the kindly professor, Casares (Federico Luppi). Soon after his arrival, Carlos has a run-in with the violent caretaker, Jacinto (Eduardo Noriega). Gradually, Carlos uncovers the secrets of the school, including the youthful ghost that wanders the grounds.

Our screening on Thursday 5 February will be introduced by Irene González-López (Birkbeck), and will be followed by a post film discussion group in the Atrium Bar.

Conceived by Shohei Imamura, Kazuo Hara’s infamous and audacious documentary follows Kenzo Okuzaki, an ageing Japanese WW2 veteran, on a mission to uncover the truth about atrocities committed as the war in the Pacific reached its bloody end. Ultimately, Okuzaki blames Japan's Emperor Hirohito himself for these barbarities, and his obsessive pursuit of those he deems responsible soon escalates. Willing to confront the taboos of Japanese society in his fanatical quest for justice, Okuzaki is driven to unsettling acts of violence.

Harrowing and extraordinarily powerful, Hara’s film forces us to face the disturbing realities of war and, crucially, to question the complicity between filmmaker, subject and audience.

Beautifully crafted and acted, Frank Capra's festive favourite is considered one of the most charming Christmas films of all time. George Bailey (James Stewart) has spent his life supporting the community of Bedford Falls. Overwhelmed with professional and personal problems, he finds his previously happy life falling apart on Christmas Eve. Struggling to see a way out, George is visited by his guardian angel and shown what life would be like if he'd never been born.

All proceeds from this screening will be donated to The Food Chain

The Food Chain exists to ensure people living with HIV in London can access the nutrition they need to get well, stay well and lead healthy, independent lives. People living with HIV often struggle to access the food they need to stay well because of ill health, poverty, isolation and a lack of motivation to eat well, or limited skills or knowledge. We deliver meals and groceries, offer cookery and nutrition classes and communal eating opportunities to people living with HIV in London and their dependents.

Every Christmas Day we run a group lunch for around 60 of our most isolated Service Users, folk who would otherwise be spending the day alone. It's a very joyful day full of food and games and merriment, and after the festivities are done we send everyone home with a card, present and some bags of groceries.

With no public funding for our services, we rely on trust and grant-giving foundations, community fundraising events and the generosity of individual donors. Your support will make our Christmas possible! Thank you.

'Thank you from the bottom of my heart for the Excellent Special Christmas - from the fantastic environment as usual, the support, the xmas quiz, the exceptionally special food and drinks, the happiness, laughter and fun, you name it, all were fabulous & brilliant. Indeed whenever I attend Food Chain, l always feel so well connected to my peers too and also receive well tailored help and support which continues to give me HOPE for the future.' - Food Chain Christmas guest, 2022.

Tickets for our regular screening of It's a Wonderful Life on 23 December are available here.

This screening will be introduced by Victor Fan (KCL), and will be followed by a post film discussion group in the Atrium Bar.

It’s death, Japanese style, in the rollicking and wistful first feature from maverick writer-director Juzo Itami. In the wake of her lascivious father’s sudden passing, a successful actor (Itami’s wife and frequent collaborator, Nobuko Miyamoto) and her husband (Tsutomu Yamazaki) leave Tokyo and return to their family house to oversee a traditional funeral. Over the course of three days of mourning that bring illicit escapades in the woods, a surprisingly materialistic priest (Yasujiro Ozu regular Chishu Ryu), and cinema’s most epic sandwich handoff, the tensions between public propriety and private hypocrisy are laid bare. Deftly weaving dark comedy with poignant family drama, The Funeral is a fearless satire of the clash between old and new in Japanese society in which nothing, not even the finality of death, is off-limits.

An epic fantasy adventure based on the timeless Arthurian legend, The Green Knight tells the story of Sir Gawain (Dev Patel), King Arthur's reckless and headstrong nephew, who embarks on a daring quest to confront the eponymous Green Knight, a gigantic emerald-skinned stranger and tester of men. Gawain contends with ghosts, giants, thieves, and schemers in what becomes a deeper journey to define his character and prove his worth in the eyes of his family and kingdom by facing the ultimate challenger. From visionary filmmaker David Lowery comes a fresh and bold spin on a classic tale from the knights of the round table.

The Green Knight was proposed by our member Nancy Netherwood.

When the winter break arrives in December 1970, Paul Hunham, a teacher at a prestigious New England boarding school, is forced to remain on campus to babysit a ragtag group of students who have nowhere else to go. Twenty years after Sideways, Alexander Payne reunites with Paul Giamatti for this perfect, bittersweet coming of age comedy-drama. Giamatti is delightful as the curmudgeonly Professor Hunham, while Da’Vine Joy Randolph steals scenes and hearts as the school’s stoic Head Cook, Mary. Brilliantly written and beautifully shot, Payne delivers a magnificently rich 1970s time capsule, a nostalgic, warm embrace of a film, and undoubtedly a new festive classic.

The Holdovers was suggested by our member Emily Campbell.

Colder than ice, her kiss pierces the heart… In the 1970s, tunaway Jeanne (Clara Pacini) falls under the spell of Cristina (Marion Cotillard), enigmatic star of The Snow Queen, a film of the Hans Christian Andersen story being shot in the studio where Jeanne has taken refuge. A mutual but potentially dangerous fascination begins to grow between the actress and the girl.

The Garden Cinema View:

Lucile Hadžihalilović’s uncompromising cinematic visions are surreal, unsettling, and chilly. Literally her coldest work yet, The Ice Tower nevertheless basks in the half-light of a quasi-fairytale narrative, and the cosy trappings of a South Tyrolian town at Christmas, set against the dark, looming alps. A film-within-a-film plotline sends a faint echo of David Lynch’s Inland Empire through The Ice Tower. Not that Hadžihalilović’s film is nearly as abrasive and disorientating, but rather the film studio itself contains gaps and rabbit holes where reality slips away.

In The Ice Tower’s most mesmerising moments, it resembles an homage to the fairytale melodramas of Powell and Pressburger. The snowfall from The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, the mountains of Black Narcissus, and, of course, The Red Shoes. This is filtered through a Jean Cocteau-esque oneiric logic, and the end credits of The Ice Tower do feel a bit like awaking from some vivid dream.  

Bringing to life the much-loved story by British poet Ted Hughes, The Iron Giant takes place in a quiet American town in the 1960s. The tale begins when a young boy named Hogarth follows a trail of huge footprints leading from his house into the woods - and finds an iron giant from space! Instantly the two form a firm friendship, and when the army try and destroy this enormous visitor, Hogarth does everything he can to protect his giant pal. Beautifully animated, this is a film with lots of wit and a huge amount of heart.

On Sunday mornings our Family Screenings are followed by a free activity for Children.

The screening is Pay What You Can, which means you’re free to pay as much or as little as you can afford. By paying for a ticket, you will enable us to keep offering Pay What You Can screenings to families struggling with the cost of living. Thank you

In the 12th Century the obsession of Henry II of England to find a successor, following the the death of the heir to the throne, causes him, one Christmas, to summon his three remaining sons. Also summoned is his wife, the formidable Eleonor of Aquitaine, who he has kept imprisoned for the last 10 years. The fiery relationship between Henry II and Queen Eleonor is powerfully portrayed; their passions turn from tenderness to hurry as they scheme and cajole, with their sons, to determine who will be the future King of England.

The Lion in Winter was suggested by our member Thomas Price.

Our screening on Tuesday 13 January will be introduced by independent curator Yuriko Hamaguchi.

This lyrical adaptation of the beloved novel by Junichiro Tanizaki was a late-career triumph for director Kon Ichikawa. Structured around the changing of the seasons, The Makioka Sisters follows the lives of four siblings who have taken on their family’s kimono manufacturing business, in the years leading up to the Pacific War. The two oldest have been married for some time, but according to tradition, the rebellious youngest sister cannot wed until the third, conservative and terribly shy, finds a husband. This graceful study of a family at a turning point in history is a poignant evocation of changing times and fading customs, shot in rich, vivid colors.

Michael Caine joins Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, and all the hilarious Muppets in this merry, musical version of the Charles Dickens’ classic tale.

All your favourite characters are here – Kermit as Bob Cratchit, Gonzo as Dickens, Miss Piggy as Emily Cratchit, and more. Of course, the inimitable Michael Caine stars as the grouchy, mean-spirited Ebenezer Scrooge. A holiday classic since its original publication in 1843, that Dickens’ story is repeated on an annual basis is a testament to the joy an audience finds in witnessing someone discover the joy in giving, sharing, and spending time with those you love.

The Muppet Christmas Carol was suggested by our members Mark Brisenden, Beth O'Rafferty, and Naomi Kilby.

On Sunday mornings our Family Screenings are followed by a free activity for Children.

The screening is Pay What You Can, which means you’re free to pay as much or as little as you can afford. By paying for a ticket, you will enable us to keep offering Pay What You Can screenings to families struggling with the cost of living. Thank you

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) becomes winter caretaker at the isolated Overlook Hotel in Colorado, hoping to cure his writer's block. He settles in along with his wife, Wendy (Shelley Duvall), and his son, Danny, who is plagued by psychic premonitions. As Jack's writing goes nowhere and Danny's visions become more disturbing, Jack discovers the hotel's dark secrets and begins to unravel into a homicidal maniac hell-bent on terrorizing his family.

'When the material is as unusual as The Shining, dealing with ghosts and spirits, the acting has to be larger than life,” he said in an interview shortly after the film’s release, and whether the scene called for him to swing an axe or chat up a spectral bartender, it’s a notion he took to heart. But it’s less of a 0-to-160-mph ramp-up than you might think, and there are a lot more subtle shadings leading up to that manic last half hour. On repeat viewings, you can appreciate how the actor plants seeds in earlier sequences that will slowly bloom into insanity. Indeed, some of the most chilling moments in this haunted-hotel nightmare literally involve little more than Nicholson staring silently ahead, his head tilted down in signature Kubrick-protagonist fashion'. - David Fear, Rolling Stone

The Shop Around the Corner was suggested by our member Camille Bakirel because it is 'perfect for Xmas and one of my favourite Ernst Lubitsch films too.'

By night Alfred and Klara are pen pals who have never met but who are deeply devoted to each other. By day, Alfred and Klara are co-workers who, just as deeply, dislike each other. Their day/night hate/love relationship cannot continue, but will it be loving or loathing when Alfred and Klara discover the identity of their cherished confidant?

Not only one of Ernst Lubitsch's most enduringly charming films, but arguably the greatest Christmas romantic comedy ever to come out of Hollywood.

Please note, the screening on Wednesday 17 December is our free members' screening, while the one on Monday 22 December is a regular screening, which is open to the general public. Booking for the free screening will open on Thursday 11 December at 18:00.

Winner of the 10th Anniversary L’Oeil d’or prize, Cannes Film Festival 2025 and winner of the first-ever Golden Globe Award for Documentary, The Six Billion Dollar Man reveals the real story behind WikiLeaks - a tense, high-stakes investigation into truth, power, and the global fight for press freedom. Featuring never-before-seen footage and unprecedented access, the film unfolds like a real-life spy thriller, reminding us what is truly at stake when journalism becomes a crime.

The Garden Cinema View:

In the spirit of Laura Poitras’ recent Cover-Up, which traced Seymour Hersh’s pioneering investigative work, The Six Billion Dollar Man turns to his digital age successor.

The case of Julian Assange has inspired numerous documentaries, yet – due to the apocalyptic nature of his work, his bravery, and the decade long legal saga filled with unexpected twists – it’s a story that keeps giving. This latest instalment benefits from the distance and resolution of Assange's case, offering a deeper focus on WikiLeaks as an organization. From its inception to the Chelsea Manning leak and allegations of Russian interference in the USA elections, the film reminds us of WikiLeaks’ crucial role in exposing government crimes – work so disruptive to the status quo, it helps explains Assange’s subsequent ill-treatment. Nearly every facet of Assange's case is revisited with fresh detail: the rape allegations, the chess moves of his legal team, and new revelations about the illicit 24-hour surveillance inside the embassy. The film also explores the fallout from The Guardian’s publication of unredacted cables, while acknowledging Assange’s own arrogance and autocratic streak.

An enthralling story of power struggles and twists, and an examination of one of the great political controversies of our time.

An angelically beautiful Catherine Deneuve was launched to stardom by this dazzling musical heart-tugger from Jacques Demy. She plays an umbrella-shop owner’s delicate daughter, glowing with first love for a handsome garage mechanic, played by Nino Castelnuovo. When the boy is shipped off to fight in Algeria, the two lovers must grow up quickly. Exquisitely designed in a kaleidoscope of colors, and told entirely through the lilting songs of the great composer Michel Legrand, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg is one of the most revered and unorthodox screen musicals of all time.

Our screening on 12 February will be introduced by Alexander Jacoby (Oxford Brookes), and will be followed by a film discussion group in the Atrium Bar.

Newly restored, Shinji Somai’s beloved cult film Typhoon Club is widely heralded as the director’s seminal feature and considered to be one of the greatest Japanese films ever made.

Offering a caustic immersion into the lives of disaffected junior high students on the cusp of adulthood, Typhoon Club features a lively cast of young talent including idol Youki Kudoh (The Crazy Family, Mystery Train) facing existential intrigues, budding sexuality, and rising social tensions in the days leading up to a typhoon’s arrival. Stranded in their schoolhouse as the storm settles in, the group undergoes an awakening as they dispel all insecurities, fear and desire under the swell of the tempest.

Urchin follows Mike, a rough sleeper in East London, who is trapped in a cycle of self-destruction as he attempts to turn his life around. Premiering at Cannes to rave reviews and a Best Actor award for Frank Dillane, Urchin is an outstanding directorial debut from Harris Dickinson that marks him as an exciting new talent in British filmmaking.

The Garden Cinema View:

Harris Dickenson’s directorial debut plunges us into what looks, at first, like a classic piece of British Social Realism, albeit one set on very vibrant East London streets, akin to the New York of Safdie Brothers or early Sean Baker films. Then something happens, the film’s score kicks in for the first time, and we realise that Urchin is operating on an elevated level of expressionism; a bold, and broadly successful, effort to find poetry on the margins of London.

That this all holds together is due, in no small part, to Frank Dillane’s mesmerising, tender, and brittle central performance as Mike. This, combined with propulsive music and cinematography, results in arguably the finest London street life film since Mike Leigh’s Naked.  

Burst City is an explosive Molotov cocktail of dystopian sci-fi, Mad Max-style biker wars against yakuza gangsters and the police, and riotous performances from members of the real-life Japanese punk bands The Stalin, The Roosters, The Rockers and INU.

In a derelict industrial wasteland somewhere on the outskirts of Tokyo, two rival punk bands and their unruly mobs of fans gather for a Battle of the Bands-style protest against the construction of a nuclear powerplant, bringing them head to head with the yakuza industrialists behind the development of their turf.

This extraordinary celebration of Japan's punk music scene of the early 1980s thrust Sōgo Ishii (now known by the name of Gakuryū Ishii), to the next level and is regularly cited as an early landmark in Japanese cyberpunk cinema.