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).

Director Sofia Alaoui will join us for a Q&A following this preview of Animalia, hosted by Imane Lamime from Fhamtini.

Itto, a young woman from a modest rural background, is slowly adapting to the privileged codes of her husband’s Moroccan family. When supernatural events plunge the country into a state of emergency, Itto is separated from her husband and new in-laws. Alone, pregnant, and searching for a way back, she discovers her own emancipation.

Franco-Moroccan filmmaker Sofia Alaoui's last film So What If the Goats Die, shot in the Atlas Mountains, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2020, and the César for best short fiction film in 2021.

Animalia is her first feature film. It was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and won the World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award.

 It also won the International Narrative Feature Award at Calgary and received a Special Mention at Palm Springs International Film Festival.

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

Palestine short films - Echoes of Tomorrow

This programme is presented by the Bethlehem Culture Festival in partnership with Dar Al-Kalima.

Restricted, Tamer Shawamrih - a young runner aspirations to travel and enter competitions (7:41)

Born a Celebrity, Luay Awwad - Feeling confined in his small Palestinian town and close-knit community, Kamel, a young man, embarks on a journey to discover his personal freedom and privacy, 13 mins)

10 Minutes Younger, Nisreen Yaseen - two teenagers escape and go on an adventure in nature (15 mins)

15 minute comfort break

Halebiya, Rana Abushkaidem - memories of a grandmother in Hebron (19:55)

Shattered Memory, Haya Labban - memories of the photographer Abu Turk (14:49)

Cinema Al-Amal - Rana Abushkaidem - memories of cinemas in Bethlehem. (11:21)

Total 47 minutes

Bethlehem Cultural Festival (BCF) is an independent, annual festival providing a platform for artists & cultural practitioners from Palestine and its diaspora to interact globally through music, theatre, film, dance, visual arts & discussion. The festival was established in 2020 and provides collaborative and partnership opportunities between the UK and Palestine.

Founded in 2006, Dar Al-Kalima University (DAK) in Bethlehem is an accredited institution dedicated to the arts and cultural heritage, offering diplomas and degrees to foster youth engagement in Palestinian society. DAK students have gained international recognition, with their films featured at festivals such as Cannes, Locarno, and Busan, underscoring the university's role in fostering a vibrant cultural landscape.

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.

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.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director Frederique Cifuentes.

Cinema in Sudan: Conversations with Gadalla Gubarra 

The film builds up a portrait of a great Sudanese filmmaker, Gadalla Gubara. At eighty-seven, he is one of the pioneers of cinema in Africa. He has recently lost his sight but continues to film life in Sudan as no one before him.Through his oeuvre, Gadalla reveals to us a Sudan both mysterious and misunderstood. Despite censorship and lack of financial support over sixty years, he has produced cinema that is independent and unique in a country where freedom of expression is a rare luxury. The film Conversations with Gadalla Gubara retraces the struggle of a man who received the 2006 Award for Excellence for his career at the Africa Academy Awards, Nigeria.

Voices and Visions of Sudan – A Cinematic Reflection

This autumn, audiences across the UK will have the rare opportunity to experience a landmark season of Sudanese cinema. Voices and Visions of Sudan – A Cinematic Reflection, curated by Sudanese film curator Talal Afifi and presented by the Almas Art Foundation, Aya Films, and Maona Art. The programme brings together films that span generations, genres and geographies to illuminate the cultural life of Sudan at a moment of historic transformation.

The programme traces the legacies of pioneering figures such as Gadalla Gubara, often described as the father of Sudanese cinema, through to urgent new works by contemporary filmmakers confronting the realities of revolution, displacement, and social upheaval. Together, these films present Sudanese cinema as a living archive: one that resists erasure, foregrounds oral memory and visual poetry, and offers alternative visions of community, identity, and futurity.

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:

Seymour Hersh's relentless investigation serves as both a political thriller and a biopic in this electrifying documentary.

Going through Hersh’s meticulously preserved archive, we gain profound insight into his obsessive reporting process that helped expose some of America’s most controversial 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 that inflicts paranoia and division, Hersh’s story is crucial and inspiring. And although the film begins with Hersh stating that 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.

Dear Diary was proposed by our member Graham Hood, who writes: 'One of Nanni Moretti’s finest films, in three parts, follows our protagonist through Rome, the Aeolian Islands and a medical diagnosis through one summer. Beautifully observed comedy (as per usual) with many observations on life and loss. And a surprising cameo from Jennifer Beals to boot..'

In the semi-autobiographical Dear Diary, filmmaker Nanni Moretti goes on three disparate journeys. First, he rides through Rome on a scooter, musing on cinema, and has a chance encounter with actress Jennifer Beals (played by the actress herself). Next, he and his friend, Gerardo (Renato Carpentieri), tour a number of islands searching for a peaceful place to write a screenplay. And finally, Moretti, hampered by a nagging skin rash, goes from doctor to doctor looking for the right diagnosis, which may or may not turn out to be severe.

Please note, the screening on Wednesday 3 December is our free members' screening, while the one on Wednesday 10 December is a regular screening, which is open to the general public.

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.

Select Japan is delighted to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Shinji Aoyama's classic of modern Japanese cinema with the UK premiere of a new digital restoration.

In Kyushu, southwest Japan, one hot summer morning, a municipal bus is hijacked. In the carnage only three people survive: the driver, Makoto (Koji Yakusho), a school girl, Kozue, and her older brother, Naoki.

Suffering from trauma, Makoto disappears. The children withdraw in silence. Two years later, their mother has divorced and their father dies at the wheel of his car. They now live alone in the family house. Makoto returns to town and takes up household with the children, who are soon joined by their cousin, Akihiko, a student on vacation from college.

Set in contemporary Iran, Facing Mirrors is a story of an unlikely and daring friendship that develops despite social norms and religious beliefs. Although Rana is a traditional wife and mother, she is forced to drive a cab to pay off the debt that keeps her husband in prison. By chance she picks up the wealthy and rebellious Edi, who is desperately awaiting a passport to leave the country. At first Rana attempts to help, but when she realizes that Edi is transgender, a dangerous series of conflicts arises.

Directed by Negar Azarbayjani, Facing Mirrors is the first narrative film from Iran to feature a transgender main character.

The screening will be introduced by the Iranian Film Club's Zhaleh Bahraini.

The Iranian Film Club was created with the purpose of increasing exposure to cinema from Iran, by Iranians and ethnic identities that makeup Iran such as, to name a few, Afghan, Arab, Armenian, Azari, Baluch, Kurd, Lur, Turk, in a safe anti-colonial space. The club’s aim is to foster joy & fun in a politically safe space. 50% of Iranian Film Club’s earnings from this screening will be donated to Mermaids UK.

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.

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

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’. 

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.

Screening in tribute to the late Dame Jane Goodall, the world-renowned ethologist, conservationist, and humanitarian, who sadly passed away in October.

Drawing from over 100 hours of never-before-seen footage that has been tucked away in the National Geographic archives for over 50 years, award-winning director Brett Morgen tells the story of JANE, a woman whose chimpanzee research challenged the male-dominated scientific consensus of her time and revolutionized our understanding of the natural world. Set to a rich orchestral score from legendary composer Philip Glass, the film offers an unprecedented, intimate portrait of Jane Goodall — a trailblazer who defied the odds to become one of the world’s most admired conservationists.

In July 1960, at the age of 26, Jane Goodall traveled from England to what is now Tanzania and ventured into the little-known world of wild chimpanzees. Equipped with little more than a notebook, binoculars, and her fascination with wildlife, Jane braved a realm of unknowns to give the world a remarkable window into humankind’s closest living relatives. Key to her groundbreaking discoveries were her curiosity and ability to observe. Through 65 years of groundbreaking work, Dr. Jane Goodall has not only shown us the urgent need to protect chimpanzees from extinction; she has also redefined species conservation to include the needs of local people and the environment.

At a political rally, bricklayer Oreste (Marcello Mastroianni) sees flower girl Adelaide (Monica Vitti) and is so thoroughly smitten that he decides he must leave his wife for her. The pair's happiness doesn't last, however, as a young pizza chef named Nello (Giancarlo Giannini) also has eyes for Adelaide. He sends her a heart-shaped pizza pie and in no time has broken up their relationship. Adelaide leaves Oreste, who becomes passionately grief-stricken and considers suicide.

The third part of an informal trilogy of Rossellini's Italian movies starring his wife Ingrid Bergman – the others are Stromboli (1950) and Europa 51 (1952).

Although Roberto Rossellini’s Journey to Italy (1953) is now established as one of world cinema’s supreme achievements, it still has a surprising number of detractors. I usually advise cinephiles who have trouble ‘getting’ the films Rossellini made with Ingrid Bergman to list all the things they perceive as flaws, then try to see them as misunderstood virtues. Take Bergman’s performances, which seem so much clumsier than her Hollywood roles. By stripping away the actress’s standard repertoire of gestures and line-readings, Rossellini revealed the genuine person usually concealed beneath the mask of technique. It says a great deal about our relationship to cinematic codes that many viewers consider Bergman’s acting in these masterpieces to be ‘unrealistic’. - Sight and Sound

Synopsis:

Sharing a passionless existence together, Alexander (George Sanders) and Katherine Joyce (Ingrid Bergman), a married English couple, travel to Naples after inheriting a villa. On the verge of divorce, with neither one's disposition warming to the other, they decide to spend the rest of the trip separately. Katherine visits museums and historical sites, whereas Alexander goes to Capri to unwind with drinks. However, during the course of their vacation, the Joyces both undergo changes.

The screening will open with a short introduction by Effie Veremi, founder of Kinoema and will be followed by a Q&A with Andrew Kötting, director.

Programme:

Diseased and Disorderly (short), director Andrew Kötting in collaboration with Eden Kötting, 2021

Gallivant (feature experimental documentary), director Andrew Kötting ,1996.

Where it all started from and starts again. Andrew Kötting’s filmography is characterised by its psychogeographic view: filmmaking becomes a continuous exploration of the interaction between location and the subjects’ emotions and behaviour.

Gallivant, the director’s first feature work, is an archive of livelihood; he brings together his grandmother and his daughter who has Joubert syndrome and had been told she would not live long to get to know each other whilst they interview locals during their journey.

Combining archive footage, highly creative editing techniques and sound processing, this is a true gem depicting  Britain in highly idiosyncratic but also overly relatable ways.

The continuous artistic involvement of the director's daughter Eden in his work as well as her independent work as an artist are fascinating takes on the experience of difference, artistic connection and collaborative authenticity. 

Ian Sinclair: “Kötting has created a glorious apotheosis for the home movie, making great play with seaside traditions: funfair surrealism, brightly coloured monsters on piers, rude postcards.” Whilst Kötting himself describing the film adds the jaunts to British “folklore, festivals, customs, traditions and mysteries, as well as places of outstanding natural beauty and sites of historical interest.”

The programme will open with the short Diseased and Disorderly. Using Eden's paintings, drawings and collages as a starting point an immersive world is created through 3D models and animation. Worry, humour and imagination blends with original audio to illustrate a unique perspectives.  

This is a relaxed screening. The films will be shown with descriptive subtitles. The sound levels will be slightly lower than usual and some lighting will be on to allow for people to move around safely during the event. A quiet space will be available during the event.

The screening is supported by CinemaForAll and the BFI Lottery Fund

Kinoema Accessible Screenings curates inclusive, accessible film experiences with creative formats, community discussions, and a commitment to representation.

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.

Please note, the screenings on 5 and 12 December will have a short introduction instead of trailers.

Michelangelo Antonioni invented a new film grammar with this masterwork. An iconic piece of challenging 1960s cinema and a gripping narrative on its own terms, L’avventura concerns the enigmatic disappearance of a young woman during a yachting trip off the coast of Sicily, and the search taken up by her disaffected lover (Gabriele Ferzetti) and best friend (Monica Vitti, in her breakout role). Antonioni’s controversial international sensation is a gorgeously shot tale of modern ennui and spiritual isolation.

Friday 5 December, 17:45 - Intro by film critic Maria Carla Zizolfi

Friday 12 December, 20:00 - Intro by film critic Lorenzo Tamburini

LRB Screen continues its exploration of visions of London created by non-British filmmakers: films in which a fresh encounter makes the city unfamiliar and mysterious again.

For the last screening of this year – though London Reviewed will continue at the Garden Cinema in 2026 – we turn to the most recent film of the series so far: Here for Life, the Artangel-commissioned and produced feature from artist-filmmaker Andrea Luka Zimmerman and Adrian Jackson, founder of Cardboard Citizens theatre company. In a world and a city defined by finance and loss, ten Londoners make their wild and wayward way, arguing for their own terms of definition as they go. On reclaimed land between two train tracks, they find themselves on the right side of history, making their own wagers with the present tense and future hopes: with who has stolen what from whom, and how things might be fixed.

Following its world premiere and special mention at Locarno Film Festival, Kieron Corless, writing in Sight and Sound, declared it ‘a film of great compassion and political and aesthetic ambition, in which the idea of a collective is prioritised for a change, but without sacrificing or downplaying the individual voices and idiosyncrasies that it comprises.’

Introducing the film, and discussing it afterwards with regular host Gareth Evans, will be the film’s co-director Andrea Luka Zimmerman.

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.

In Jean Vigo’s hands, an unassuming tale of conjugal love becomes an achingly romantic reverie of desire and hope. Jean (Jean Dasté), a barge captain, marries Juliette (Dita Parlo), an innocent country girl, and the two climb aboard Jean’s boat, the L’Atalante—otherwise populated by an earthy first mate (Michel Simon) and a multitude of mangy cats—and embark on their new life together. Both a surprisingly erotic idyll and a clear-eyed meditation on love, L’Atalante, Vigo’s only feature-length work, is a film like no other.

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

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.

Are you the person in your friend group who everyone asks for festive film recommendations? Do you know your Gremlins from your Grinch, and your Prancer from your Dancer? These skills you've been honing might just keep you off of Santa’s naughty list, because on Tuesday 16 December we're hosting our extremely jolly Members' Christmas Film Quiz! Join us for an evening of wintery and festive themed trivia questions, as well as a review of 2025 in cinema.

There will be presents up for grabs for the top 3 teams, donated by our generous friends at the North Pole:

• A selection of wintery reads to get cozy in front of the fire, from the London Review Bookshop 
• 5x Hotel Chocolat's Christmas Pocket Selection; eight delicious recipes, all ready for the Christmas season. One of each gives you the chance to try an array of festive flavours and textures.
• Free cinema tickets to get you through that dreary period between Christmas & New Year's Eve

There will also be a mulled bonus for the best team name.

We have space for 10 teams of max. 5 contestants each. Tickets are £5, and are restricted to 1 per member, so please make sure to be logged in and book quickly once ticket sales open on Thursday 27 November at 13:00.

Important info before booking:

• If you would like to be placed on a team with friends (who must also be members of the cinema), you can either:
  -  Purchase your tickets individually, and leave their names during the checkout process, so we can place you on the same team
  or
  -  Purchase tickets for the entire team, and assign each ticket to the individual team members (you will need to know their surname as well as the email address their membership is registered under, to do this)
• If you're joining by yourself, you will be placed on a Garden Cinema All Stars team - a great opportunity to meet fellow members!

Please note that any teams of 3 contestants or less may be merged together to allow as many members as possible to join.

About London Review of Books:

The London Review of Books is Europe’s leading magazine of culture and ideas. Published twice a month, it provides a space for some of the world’s best writers to explore a wide variety of subjects in exhilarating detail – from art and politics to science and technology via history and philosophy, not to mention fiction and poetry. The LRB’s bookshop opened in 2003 in the heart of Bloomsbury, just a Rosetta Stone’s throw from the British Museum, and has since established itself as an essential part of the capital’s cultural life, a place for people who love books to meet, talk, browse and listen to authors speak about their work. The London Review Bookshop’s selection of around 20,000 titles ranges from the classics of world literature to the cutting edge of contemporary fiction and poetry, not forgetting a copious display of history, politics, philosophy, cookery, essays, children’s books, science and natural history.

Website | Instagram

About Hotel Chocolat:

When the very first Hotel Chocolat store opened its doors in North London in 2004, it was the start of a revolution in British chocolate. Two entrepreneurs, Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris, were on a mission to make chocolate exciting again. As their retail estate continues to expand so does their ambition by adding new and more immersive ways to explore their brand through cafés, outlets, and factory stores. They also offer a luxury eco-hotel on their working cacao farm in the Caribbean and have set out to bring chocolate happiness to the American market. They are on a continual journey of development and growth, yet everything they do is still guided by the three unwavering values that they started with – and it always will be…

Website | Instagram

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.

Remade numerous times but never bettered, this perennial Christmas classic won three Oscars and was nominated for Best Picture a year after its release in 1948.

Starring an eight-year-old Natalie Wood, the film takes place between Thanksgiving and Christmas in New York City, and centres around a department store Santa Claus - Kris Kringle - who claims to be the genuine article. When his sanity is questioned, a lawyer defends him in court by arguing that he's not mistaken.

Featuring a wonderful cast of actors and a storyline sweet-natured enough to melt the hardest heart, the film's conclusion represents a triumph of the magical over the humdrum.

Is your child starting to ask questions about whether Father Christmas is real? This film is sure to convince them he is!

Miracle on 34th Street was suggested by our member Hayley Whitehorn

Into Film recommends this film for ages 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.

14-year-old Zeina and her family are the last to have stayed in their besieged hometown of Damascus in Syria. A missile rips a giant hole in their home, exposing them to the outside world. When a rope is mysteriously lowered into the hole, Zeina gets her first taste of freedom, and an unimaginable world of possibility opens up for her. As the violence outside escalates, the family is pressured to evacuate, but Mutaz, her father is adamant that they stay, refusing to flee to the uncertain life of a refugee. Faced with a life or death dilemma, Zeina and Hala, her mother, must make the choice whether to stay or leave.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with dir. Soudade Kaadan.

This screening is presented by the Arab Film Club.

Director Alfred Hitchcock, who worked with Bergman on Spellbound (1945) and Notorious (1946), praised her unique qualities. “Ingrid is a woman who makes you believe in her. She never has to act; she simply is.” - Acting Magazine

Synopsis:

With this twisted love story, Alfred Hitchcock summoned darker shades of suspense and passion by casting two of Hollywood’s most beloved stars starkly against type. Ingrid Bergman plays Alicia, an alluring woman with a checkered past recruited by Devlin (Cary Grant), a suave, mysterious intelligence agent, to spy for the U.S. Only after she has fallen for Devlin does she learn that her mission is to seduce a Nazi industrialist (Claude Rains) hiding out in South America. Coupling inventive cinematography with brilliantly subtle turns from his mesmerizing leads, Hitchcock orchestrates an anguished romance shot through with deception and moral ambiguity. A thriller of rare perfection, Notorious represents a pinnacle of both its director’s legendary career and classic Hollywood cinema.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.