The screening on 16 November will be followed by an online Q&A with the director Tenzin Sedon, moderated by Chris Berry (KCL).

Screening in partnership with King's College London, this is a rare chance to see this accomplished full-length documentary about daily life in Lhasa by Tibetan director Tenzin Sedon. She explains that 'in the film, three narratives are joined by place, time, and urban change, by filming ordinary people on the prayer road (Kora), I embarked on a journey to reconnect with my hometown.' 

Over the last two decades, a Tibetan New Wave has burst onto the filmmaking scene in China. Although male-dominated, there are more women filmmakers now. Tenzin Sedon’s other films include A Taste of Life (2014) and Takui Alley (2017-2019). A Road of Prayer was nominated for the Hot Docs Crosscurrents Doc Fund, the CCDF, and Docs Port Incheon. She is currently studying for her MFA at New York University’s famous Tisch School of the Arts.

This screening is in memory of Heather Yijiao Dong. Special thanks to Gu Wen for introducing us to Tenzin Sedon.

From visionary filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, After the Hunt is a gripping psychological drama about a college professor (Julia Roberts) who finds herself at a personal and professional crossroads when a star student (Ayo Edebiri) levels an accusation against one of her colleagues (Andrew Garfield), and a dark secret from her own past threatens to come into the light.

The Garden Cinema View:

Luca Guadagnino continues his prolific run with this campus-set ethical dilemma. Ever gripping, After the Hunt is powered by a tremendous central performance from Julia Roberts (occasionally slipping into Cate Blanchett/Tar mode). It’s slick filmmaking, but perhaps lacks that magic spark of the director’s best work.

It slots into this current Hollywood zeitgeist, with surprising echoes of Eddington’s critique of performative protests, and stands as a rather misanthropic counterpoint to Eva Victor’s wonderful Sorry, Baby. But ultimately, you get the impression that Guadagnino is less interested in the moral thicket of higher education safeguarding and public shaming than he is with the melodramatic swerves of the narrative. The result is both more entertaining and a little more superficial than you might expect.    

Independent Candidate is an observational documentary following Fiona Lali’s and her Revolutionary Communist Party’s (RCP) 2024 parliamentary campaign in Stratford & Bow, East London. The film sets out to capture the everyday reality of grassroots politics and the determined energy of RCP’s activists. They are running to win, but the film’s focus is the campaign more than the result, as Fiona and her comrades organise to bring their vision of radical change directly to the people.

Event supported by Santiago Alvarez In Memoriam International Documentary Film Festival (FIDSA)

Before Independent Candidate, we will screen FIDSA Newsreel Nr. 2 (10 mins), which will be introduced by its director Rodrigo Vázquez Salessi.

FIDSA Newsreel Nr. 2 (19/03/2025) documents a discussion on the state of documentary film production and distribution, held during the 2025 edition of the FIDSA Film Festival in Santiago, Cuba. Prominent internationalist filmmakers including Gordon Main, Lázara Herrera, Alejandra Guzzo, and others, share insights into the challenges of sustaining independent documentary cinema amid global market pressures and digital platform monopolies.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Fiona Lali and director Teilo Vellacott.

Fidel Up Close is already being lauded as “the definitive documentary on Fidel Castro”.

Fidel Up Close: An intimate portrait of Fidel Castro delves into the lesser known facets of Fidel Castro’s personal and intimate life from the perspective of those closest to him, including his children, close family members, collaborators, delegates, employees and some detractors. The documentary spans Fidel’s early years that led to the insurgency against dictator Fulgencio Batista and features never before publicly released footage.

The film will be followed by a live Q&A with Eduardo Flores, the film's co-director. The film is presented by Alborada Films.

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).

Annie Hall is screening in tribute to the iconic Diane Keaton.

Winner of four Oscars – including best picture, and best actor for Diane Keaton – and universally reckoned to be one of the funniest films ever made, Annie Hall is one of New Hollywood's great films, detailing the on-off love affair between nebbish New Yorker Alvy Singer (Woody Allen) and Keaton as the free-spirited Annie.

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.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of David Shrigley and Chris Shepherd’s Who I Am and What I Want's first release Bar Shorts have invited David along to select some of his films. After which he will be in conversation with the film’s co-director Chris Shepherd. Who I Am and What I Want was the winner of lots of awards including a Tiger at Rotterdam and the public choice award at the British Animation Awards.

David Shrigley was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2013 and has exhibited internationally, from the Hayward Gallery in London to the Power Station of Art in Shanghai. He also created the giant thumbs-up sculpture Really Good for Trafalgar Square’s Fourth Plinth in 2016—a satirical take on optimism in troubled times. He has published many publications of drawings, writings and even collaborated with music projects like Blur’s Good Song and the album Worried Noodles featuring artist such as David Byrne and Hot Chip. In 2020 he was awarded an OBE for services to visual arts.

Belén is based on the true story that sparked an international movement, chronicling the harrowing case of Julieta, a young woman falsely accused of infanticide, and Soledad Deza (Dolores Fonzi), the fearless lawyer who takes on the highly controversial, explosive case. 

Belén takes us to Tucumán, a conservative region of Argentina, where Julieta's trial becomes a flashpoint for the ongoing fight for women's reproductive rights. As Soledad faces off against a corrupt, classist, and patriarchal legal system, Julieta's story ignites a groundswell of outrage and solidarity, galvanizing an unstoppable movement for justice and bodily autonomy.

For this edition of Composing Cinema, Oscar nominated composer Gary Yershon will be joined in discussion by Stephan Eicke, author of a new book, A Dream Come True, which explores the collaborations between David Lynch and the composer Angelo Badalamenti.

There's something going on behind the white picket fences of Lumberton, North Carolina. And after stumbling upon a severed human ear in a field, mystery-loving college student Jeffrey Beaumont is determined to find out what. Teaming up with the daughter of a local police detective, Jeffrey's investigation leads him into a strange world of sensuality and violence, with the intrigue of the missing ear seemingly stemming from the relationship between a troubled nightclub singer and a sociopathic sadomasochist.

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 blacky 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 Plemmons. 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 film will be introduced by Senior Architect Jemma Miller.

Jeremy Sandford's drama about a young family's slide into homelessness and poverty was a defining moment in 1960s television, demonstrating how far drama could influence the political agenda. The controversy generated by Cathy Come Home led to public outrage at the state of housing in Britain, and gave a welcome boost to the (coincidental) launch of the homelessness charity Shelter a few days after the play was first broadcast, as part of the BBC's The Wednesday Play strand.

The play follows young lovers Cathy and Reg from the optimism of their early married days through a spiral of misfortune that follows Reg's work accident, leading to eviction and separation, and culminating, in what remains one of TV's most memorable scenes, in a hysterical Cathy having her children forcibly taken away by Social Services. - BFI, screenonline

Jemma Miller is a Senior Architect at Hawkins\Brown. Having been inspired by Ken Loach’s film Cathy Come Home at university, Jemma embarked upon a career in architecture and has spent the last decade working as an Architect specialising in housing in London and the Southeast. With a passion for people centric place-making and a keen advocate for community engagement on projects, she has a range of experience in community consultation, working with local schools and community groups. Her work at university is focused on equitable environments and the harsh social disparities within our city, bolstered by the built environment.

Originally released in 1987, and now digitally restored, City on Fire is a gripping Hong Kong New Wave crime thriller which influenced filmmakers worldwide, most notably inspiring Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs.

After the success of John Woo’s A Better Tomorrow, lead actor Chow Yun Fat cemented his reputation as Hong Kong’s hottest new action film megastar with his electrifying performance in City on Fire. The film marks the first iconic pairing of Chow Yun Fat and Danny Lee as cop and criminal, roles they would later reverse in John Woo’s The Killer. Set against the neon-soaked jewellery stores and gritty backstreets of Hong Kong, City on Fire delivers high-octane action, frantic heists and gun standoffs.

Expect the unexpected in this riotous, food-filled family comedy. Frustrated inventor Flint Lockwood believes he is a genius, but none of his inventions turn out well. In an effort to solve world hunger, Flint creates a machine which can turn water into different foodstuffs. But before he can test it properly the contraption launches into the atmosphere, and giant pancakes, pasta, steaks and meatballs rain down on the tiny fishing port, Chewandswallow, which Flint calls home.

Into Film recommends this film for 5-12 year olds

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.

COEXISTENCE, MY ASS! follows Israeli activist-comedian Noam Shuster Eliassi as she creates a comedy show by the same name. Shot over five tumultuous years, the film traces Noam’s personal, professional, and political journey in tandem with the region’s steady deterioration.

Raised in a bilingual Israeli-Palestinian village — the only intentionally integrated community in the country — Noam grows disillusioned with traditional peace activism. She pivots to stand-up and quickly attracts attention across the Middle East. But as her star rises, everything around her falls apart. With biting satire, Noam pushes her audiences to face difficult truths that aren't always funny but do remind us that another reality is possible.

The film won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Freedom of Expression at Sundance 2025, as well as the Golden Alexander Award for Best Documentary at the Thessaloniki International Film Festival amongst others.

Lebanese-Canadian director Amber Fares, best known for her film Speed Sisters, will join us for a Q&A after the film.

UK PREMIERE. This screening will be followed by an in person Q&A with director, Storm Di Scozia.                                                                         

A beautiful cinematic document of a one-of-a-kind, 30-years-in-the-making 2014 duet between a legendary American jazz vocalist and a Scottish rock singer. The collaboration set in motion an incredible adventure for Cleveland's most beloved singer, Jimmy Scott, and his biggest fan, Storm Di Scozia. Introduced by Annie Lennox, and featuring never-before-seen footage spotlighting Jimmy’s life and career and including interviews with Quincy Jones, Jools Holland, Sam Moore, Florence Joelle, Bill Bentley, Jeanie Scott, Dawn Scott, Armen Ra and Michael Musto, Chasing Rainbows is a love letter to jazz. Storm funded the project via his work as a professional singer on Glee.

Doc’n Roll Film Festival returns to London for it’s 12th edition from 23 Oct to 9 November.

World Premiere. Both screenings will be followed by in person Q&A with the director David C. Schendel, and Tony Foster.       

Award-winning visual artist Tony Foster has spent nine of the past thirty-five years living in a tadpole tent, using his art as a platform to advocate for the conservation of wild land and raise awareness of climate change. Part explorer, part artist, he routinely risks his life to find the perfect undiscovered landscape. He does not use photography or sketches but paints on site, often in the most difficult weather and uncomfortable circumstances. On one occasion, Foster spent twenty-three days in the Grand Canyon at a single location. His paintings are not simply landscapes: by their inclusion of written notes and symbolic objects, they record his observations and experiences creating a visual diary of his experiences. In 2001, the Royal Geographical Society awarded Foster the Cherry Kearton Medal for artistic portrayal of the world’s wilderness areas.

From 2019 to 2023, David Schendel and his film crew shadowed him, culminating in an eight-day, 100-mile canoe exploration of the Green River Wilderness to its confluence with the Colorado River in Utah. Responding to the necessities of shooting far from electrical outlets, Painting at the Edge is one of the only fully solar powered documentary productions ever completed. Together, Foster and Schendel have created an impressively adventurous and intimate filmic portrait.

Doc’n Roll Film Festival returns to London for it’s 12th edition from 23 Oct to 9 November.

The screening on Saturday 8 November will be followed by a Q&A with director Paul Andrew Williams and actor Brenda Blethyn.

Have we become a nation of strangers? In Dragonfly, neglected pensioner Elsie (Brenda Blethyn) finds an unexpected ally in her younger neighbour Colleen (Andrea Riseborough). Over time, Elsie gains a friend and the troubled Colleen finds a fresh purpose in life as she shops, cleans and cares for her. It brings brighter days for both of them. Elsie’s son John (Jason Watkins) resents the way that Colleen has selflessly fulfilled the responsibilities that he has shirked. Simmering tensions bring shocking consequences in a gripping human story straight from the heart of broken Britain. A powerful return to the cinema from London to Brighton director Paul Andrew Williams that showcases heartrending, award-winning performances from Brenda Blethyn and Andrea Riseborough.

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, 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.

On Tuesday 21 October, Mary Wild, Freudian cinephile and creator of the Projections lecture series at the Freud Museum, will join us for a post screening Q&A.

Family Life is a remake of David Mercer’s TV play In Two Minds, which had been filmed by Ken Loach four years previously. The broadcast of the latter provoked controversy, owing to its negative portrayal of the received treatment for schizophrenia. Family Life, like In Two Minds, promotes the theories of psychiatrist R. D. Laing, who did not believe that schizophrenia was a brain disease but a psychological syndrome that 'cannot be understood without understanding despair'. In Family Life, a troubled nineteen-year-old’s mental condition is exacerbated by her unfeeling relatives, and the cold and ineffective solutions of medical practitioners, who prescribe drug and electro-convulsive therapy.

- BFI article

Family Life will be screened with English subtitles.

We are thrilled to welcome back the team from Modus Arts for another session of Foley Nights - although this time, things will be slightly spookier! For this members' event on Halloween weekend, you will get a chance to discover the world of cinematic sound effects - from creaky doors to breaking your enemy's bones...

Rather than a traditional workshop, Foley Nights invites you to experiment directly with objects and their unexpected sonic potential. You’ll respond to short but scary film clips by creating your own live sound effects, using a table full of carefully chosen materials – from pebbles and plastic sheeting to sticks, hot-water bottles, and celery – all amplified through specialist microphones, including contact mics and hydrophones. No prior experience is needed. You’ll improvise, test, and play in an informal, collaborative setting that flips the typical relationship between what you see and what you hear on screen.

The event will take place on the morning of Saturday 1 November from 11:00 until 13:00, and tickets are £16.50 each, which includes unlimited complimentary tea and coffee for the duration of the event. Tickets are restricted to 1 per member, and due to the still to be determined selection of video clips from a range of horror films, this event is 18+.

Please note that due to the space required for foley equipment at the front of the screening room, we're unfortunately unable to offer step-free access or space for a wheelchair for this particular event.

About Modus Arts:

Modus Arts is a National Portfolio Organisation with Arts Council England, delivering sound arts projects across the UK. Modus draw on interdisciplinary and collaborative approaches to developing public-facing sound-based artworks and events.

Website | Instagram

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.

Sick of pumpkin spice lattes and boring costume parties? Wish your spooky season came with a little more boo and a lot more bing-ghosts?

On Halloween this year the Garden Cinema is turning up the jump scares with a night of Franken-BINGO, carefully created by the little devils behind our previous event, the John Waters themed Pink Fla-BINGO-s. Expect eerie movie clips, ghoulishly good cocktails, and plenty of tricks, treats, and prizes lurking in the shadows. Dressing up is also highly encouraged, and there will be a prize for the best costume of the night!

So grab your broomsticks, dust off your masks, and get ready for a frightfully fun night you won’t forget…

The prizes up for grabs have been generously donated by local businesses, and will include:

• Deliciously sweet & salty (trick or) treats by Lakrids by Bülow, who are on a mission to make the whole world fall in love with liquorice
• Vouchers for experimental liquid nitrogen ice cream from our new neighbours at Chin Chin Labs, who have recently opened their location in Seven Dials Market
• A £45 voucher for a tarot reading at one of the world’s oldest and leading independent bookshops specialising in Esoterica, Watkins Books
• Quad posters of two iconic Park Circus features which are both being re-released this year; Tim Burton & Mike Johnson's gorgeous stop-motion-animated Corpse Bride (10 October), and utterly terrifying British horror film The Descent (24 October)
• Scrumptious handmade & Halloween-themed baked goods by the always tempting Konditor
• A fabulous autumnal bouquet by our florist friends at Bloomsbury Flowers, one street over from the cinema
• A £50 voucher for a tarot reading, a £40 workshop voucher, and a phenomenal tote bag filled with their Book of Plant Magic and a scented candle, all very generously donated by the wonderful Treadwell's Bookshop on Store Street - perfect for students of the occult, magic and mysticism!
• A Blu-ray of 70s classic Malpertuis, donated by the arthouse icons of Radiance Films 
• The board game Mysterium, courtesy of the wonderful team at Orcs Nest, Central London's oldest specialist board game shop
• A copy of Weird Walk: Wanderings and Wonderings Through the British Ritual Year, the first book by iconic zine creators and cultural phenomenon Weird Walk
• A range of sage-scented goodies by Earl of East, featuring incense, a candle, and a dried sage bundle. Known for its cleansing and protective qualities, it's the perfect way to keep spooky energy at bay!
• 2x £25 vouchers to spend with Mad About Horror, the biggest Horror and Halloween shop in the UK! A haven for Horror fans across the UK and Europe, and the place to be for top-quality horror movie merchandise – be it the popular, the niche, or ultra creepy

Tickets for the event are £10 each, and members can book up to 2 tickets, which means you're welcome to bring a friend or foe. Due to the nature of the selected video clips from a range of frightening films, the event will be 18+.

Doors will open from 20:00 to enjoy a terrifying tipple or two, with the bingo starting at 20:30. We expect to finish around 22:30, after which there will be a bit more time to stick around for drinks.

The screening on 1 November will be introduced by Professor Victor Fan (KCL).

Three women from Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China forge unexpected bonds after immigrating to New York City. Wang Hsiung-ping (from Taiwan) is an aspiring actress struggling for recognition; Lee Fung-jiau (from Hong Kong) runs a restaurant and property business while concealing her sexuality; Zhao Hong (from the mainland) enters an arranged marriage and yearns to bring her mother over, facing cultural and emotional divides. As they navigate isolation, cultural prejudice, and personal disappointments, the three meet over meals, late-night confidences, and shared longing for connection. Amid the vastness of the city, their friendship becomes a quiet refuge, sustaining hope in the face of displacement.

An award-winning work by Hong Kong New Wave auteur Stanley Kwan, Full Moon in New York extends his abiding interest in portraying women and their interior lives to the wintry streets of New York. Interwoven with Cantonese, Mandarin, and English, the film captures the fractured, hybrid language of diasporic existence. It resonates both as a snapshot of Chinese migration in the late twentieth century and as a universal story of longing for connection across borders. The film earned eight Golden Horse Awards in 1989, including Best Feature Film, Best Leading Actress (Maggie Cheung), and Best Original Screenplay.

Presented as part of Sine Screen’s Whose Homeland 25-26 film season, with the support of the BFI, awarding National Lottery funding.

Sine Screen is a London-based screening collective dedicated to showcasing independent cinema and moving-image works from across East and Southeast Asia. It aims to create space for critical dialogue around dominant representations of ESEA cultures and histories through diverse programming, and has received support from the British Film Institute and Arts Council England.

Join GP Surgery in The Atrium Bar for a special experimental short film showcase on 16mm film titled “Biophilia: Healing Through Nature", a night of exploring the wonderful and healing effects of nature on the human mind and spirit. 

For the first time in Garden Cinema history, GP Surgery will be projecting 16mm film! Found in the LUX Moving Image archive, curators Jaison Washington (he/they) and Nicole Atkinson (she/her) selected a body of works that use structural and conceptual experimental filmmaking techniques to highlight aspects of the natural world, humanity, and the beauty of coexistence with nature. We will be showing works on 16mm film prints by Ben Rivers, Stan Brakhage, Emily Richardson, and William Raban. We will be joined by Film Projectionist John Wilders. The list of film prints we will be showing is:

Breath (1974) Directed by William Raban

The Garden of Earthly Delights (1981) Dir. Stan Brakhage

Aspect (2004) Dir. Emily Richardson

Sørdal (2008) Dir. Ben Rivers

This is My Land (2006) Dir. Ben Rivers

This screening will be accompanied by a digital film titled Get Some Sunshine (2022) by Ellie Kyungran Heo. Exploring the filmmaker's mother and her companionship she found with plants during COVID-19 Isolation.

GP Surgery is a new kind of film collective specialising in Experimental Film and Artist Moving Image as a means of catharsis, healing, and challenging our audience. We are creating a community where attendees feel comfortable sharing their personal experiences of viewing the films while meeting like-minded individuals. If you have an idea for a screening for GP surgery, or would like to know more about the collective, please find us on Instagram @gpsurgeryldn

Jaison Washington (he/they) is an independent film curator, researcher, and filmmaker based in London. Nicole Atkinson (she/her) is a  Final year PhD candidate on a CHASE funded Collaborative Doctoral Award at Birkbeck and LUX, researching artists’ moving image associated with channel 4 between 1982-1992”.

Note that The Garden Cinema is Fully Wheelchair Accessible. Some films contain strobing lights and flashing imagery for photosensitive and epileptic viewers.

Bergman won three acting Oscars during her long career (two for Best Actress, in Gaslight and Anastasia, and one for Best Supporting Actress for her role in 1974’s star-studded Murder on the Orient Express), and was nominated four more times. She also won Emmys, a Tony, Golden Globe and New York Film Critics Circle awards in other words, she proved again and again that she could act as well as star in almost any role, on film, stage and the small screen. - Life Online Magazine

Synopsis:

The word ‘Gaslighting’ – making someone doubt their sanity – comes from this popular 1944 film in which a thieving husband tries to make his wife go mad so that he can commit her to hospital.

Set in fog-bound London in 1888, this ‘noir’ thriller stars Ingrid Bergman as the wife tormented by her husband, played by Charles Boyer. Soon after their marriage, she begins to notice strange goings-on in their London house – missing pictures, strange footsteps in the night, and gaslights that dim without being touched.

The 29th Made in Prague Film Festival presents the UK premiere of Girl America, a visually striking and deeply moving portrait of a young girl’s fight for freedom and belonging.

Growing up in totalitarian Czechoslovakia, orphaned Emma endures foster care, juvenile detention, and the turmoil of the Velvet Revolution. To survive the fear, loneliness, and dislocation, she invents another self to talk to—and clings to a dream of America, where her father awaits her. Blending raw realism with surreal imagery, director Viktor Tauš crafts a poetic, emotionally charged journey of resilience and hope. Girl America is not just a story of survival, but a celebration of the unyielding spirit that refuses to be broken. An exceptional film from Czech auteur cinema. Winner of Best Film, Best Costume, and Best Set Design at the 2024 Czech Film Critics’ Awards.

'Vivid and magical and fuelled by urgent pain, Girl America is a mesmerising cinematic confection which dazzled audiences at Fantaspoa 2025 and deserves to be seen much more widely' - Eye for Film

I Swear follows the true story of Tourette Syndrome campaigner John Davidson's journey with Tourette's through his troubled teens and early adulthood, having been diagnosed at 15 years old in 1980s Britain - a time when the condition was little known and entirely misunderstood. Initially alienated from his peers and his family, Davidson perseveres in his attempt to live a 'normal' life against the odds, finding some unlikely champions along the way.

The Garden Cinema View:

I Swear is a deeply empathetic and humorous portrait of a Tourette's Syndrome awareness advocate (John Davidson) that offers a modern understanding of a complex condition - one that has traditionally been subject to ostracisation and abuse.

At the heart of the film is a stunning performance by Rings of Power star Robert Aramayo, who dives deep into the lonely isolation, utter grit, and humour of his character. Aramayo delivers a remarkable arc, transforming from a confident, athletically talented teenager to a broken and isolated young adult fighting against his own body - until he realises that what truly matters is society's education. Surrounding Aramayo is the heavy artillery of UK actors at their finest: Shirley Henderson as the reluctantly loving and bitter mother, Maxine Peake as  ‘good fairy’, and Peter Mullan as a deeply empathetic employer.

The film rides the line between humour and tragedy, addressing the urgent need for education and exposing what the lack of it has done to generations of disabled people - all while remaining a crowd-pleaser.

Join a mismatched trio on an icy, hilarious cross-continent journey— part buddy comedy, part survival quest, and wholly entertaining. These now iconic characters, Manny the mammoth, Sid the loquacious sloth, and Diego the sabre-toothed tiger, go on a comical quest to return a human baby back to his father, across a world on the brink of an ice age. Its blend of humour, heart, and snappy dialogue made it a surprise hit and a modern animated classic.

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.

Despite delighting audiences with her work in Oscar winning classics by big directors, Ingrid Bergman was banished from Hollywood when her extramarital affair with Italian director Roberto Rossellini became public. Bergman ran off to Italy and spent the next seven years making Italian films in between marrying and divorcing Rossellini.

Though Anastasia revived her career, it was her next film, Indiscreet, that endeared her once again to American audiences. Bergman paired up for the second and final time with her Notorious co-star and good friend, Cary Grant. Indiscreet, lives or dies solely on the chemistry of Bergman and Grant. Not their individual talents, which are unquestioned, but how much the audience believes they are besotted with one another. - Melanie Novak

Synopsis:

Famous theater actress Anna Kalman (Ingrid Bergman) has resigned herself to her single life, believing that she has missed her chance at meeting a husband. Weary of socializing in Europe, she returns to her London flat, where her sister Margaret (Phyllis Calvert) and diplomat brother-in-law Alfred (Cecil Parker) invite her to a banquet. She demurs until Alfred's banker friend, Philip Adams (Cary Grant), arrives and a flirtation begins. Their romance blossoms -- but he's already married.

As The Garden Cinema members community is not just made up of cinema enthusiasts, but also covers a large range of film creatives, we like to help connect our members working across all departments of the industry. For our regular industry panels, we invite knowledgeable speakers to discuss their specific branch of the industry, leaving plenty of time for asking questions. After the discussion, we all head into the bar to network with fellow members.

For our upcoming session on Thursday 6 November we are crosspollinating with our Planting Seeds strand, as we will be joined by Danusia Samal and Will Attenborough from Green Rider, a movement of artists and productions shifting the TV & film industry towards a fairer and healthier way of working, and by Josh Cockcroft from Climate Spring, a global organisation dedicated to shifting our cultural response to the climate crisis by championing storytelling that transforms how it is represented in film, TV, and popular culture. We will discuss how different key players from the film sector come together to create a greener, cleaner, and fairer film industry, and how scripted and unscripted projects which cover climate-related topics can find funding and support.

Tickets are £5, and include a token for a complimentary soft drink, house wine, or beer. They're restricted to 1 per member.

About the speakers:

Green Rider:

Danusia Samal is a co-founder of Green Rider. She's also an actor and writer, known for The Great, Gangs of London and Bodies. She won the Theatre503 International Playwriting Award for Out of Sorts in 2018. In 2020, she launched the Virtual Collaborators Network, supporting creatives to collaborate remotely in lockdown.

Will Attenborough is a co-founder of Green Rider. He is an actor and climate campaigner, known for Our Girl, The Output, and Dunkirk, as well as Another Country and Photograph 51 in the West End. He's an experienced climate finance strategist who's run successful campaigns with Equity and the Mayor of London, which led to billions of pounds being moved out of fossil fuel investments and into clean solutions.

Website | Instagram

Climate Spring:

Josh Cockcroft is a British-Zanzibari producer, changemaker, and Director of Research and Impact of Climate Spring, the global organisation funding and supporting storytelling that changes the way society sees the climate crisis. His work bridges culture, equity and systemic transformation, using strategies based on robust insights and data. His career has spanned the screen & culture sectors, philanthropy and tech start ups. Alongside his work at Climate Spring, he is a trustee of the Arvon Foundation and Cultural Philanthropy Foundation, as well as Chair of the DEI Data Standard.

Website | Instagram

Check out our Youtube channel for videos of our previous industry panels, which have included:

• Film music, with Jen Moss (I, Tonya), Gary Downing (MRKR), and Harry Escott (Shame)
• Art direction, with Lydia Fry (Blade Runner 2049) and Charlotte Dirickx (Saltburn)
• Trailer editing, with Dan Noall and Kate Miller
• Screenwriting, with Luna Carmoon (Hoard) and Daniel Kokotajlo (Starve Acre)
• Casting, with Rebecca Wright (Chuck Chuck Baby) and Lucy Jordan (Kinds of Kindness, Poor Things)
• Animation, with Michaël Dudok de Wit (The Red Turtle) and Alexandra Sasha Balan (The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse)
• Cinematography, with Evelin van Rei (Passenger), Bebe Dierken (Midas Man) and Nanu Segal (Hoard)
• Costume, with Joanna Johnston (Lincoln) and Charlotte Finlay (Barbie)
• Documentary, with Edward Lovelace (Name Me Lawand) and Tom Howson (Dogwoof)
• Film festivals, with Christina Papasotiriou (Raindance Film Festival) and Philip Ilson (London Short Film Festival)
• Film journalism, with Jacob Stolworthy (The Independent) and Jack Shepherd (Total Film)
• Production, with Georgia Goggin (Pretty Red Dress) and Susan Simnett (Fadia's Tree)

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’. 

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 evening screening on Thursday October 16 will be followed by a Q&A with David Bradley, Kes lead actor.

The matinee screening on Friday October 30 will be introduced by film academic and writer Rhys Handley.

Named one of the ten best British films of the century by the BFI, Ken Loach’s Kes, is cinema’s quintessential portrait of working-class Northern England. Billy (an astonishingly naturalistic David Bradley) is a fifteen-year-old miner’s son whose close bond with a wild kestrel provides him with a spiritual escape from his dead-end life.

Kes brought to the big screen the sociopolitical engagement Loach had established in his work for the BBC, and pushed the British “angry young man” film of the sixties into a new realm of authenticity, using real locations and nonprofessional actors. Loach’s poignant coming-of-age drama remains the now legendary director’s most beloved and influential film. 
- The Criterion Collection

Rhys Handley is a film academic and writer, born in Doncaster. He holds a Master’s in Film Studies from King’s College London. His ongoing work uses philosophy to look at the effects of the climate crisis on marginalised and working-class communities and individuals as depicted in British social realist cinema.

Orsolya is a bailiff in Cluj, the main city in Transylvania. One day she must evict a homeless man who lives in the basement of a building. An unexpected event creates a moral crisis she tries to solve as best she can.

The Garden Cinema View:

Radu Jude's latest offering is as riotous and acerbic as his previous work, and returns to his favourite subjects: unregulated capitalism, post-Soviet legacies in Romania, and hilarious character studies of people caught between the two systems.

What's new in Kontinental '25 is Jude's exploration of how we instinctively expel guilt rather than face the consequences. At the centre of the film is a bailiff haunted by a court order that led to tragedy, who turns to a friend, a priest, and her mother - all urging her to shed her guilt rather than question the system itself.

As in Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, nothing escapes Jude’s vitriolic satirical lens: the corrupt Orthodox Church, greedy estate agencies, Romanian nationalism, and corrupt police officers. Although firmly set in 2025 Romania, the film's dilemmas resonate far beyond its borders.

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.

The concluding chapter of Michelangelo Antonioni’s informal trilogy on contemporary malaise (following L’avventura and La notte), L’eclisse tells the story of a young woman (Monica Vitti) who leaves one lover (Francisco Rabal) and drifts into a relationship with another (Alain Delon). Using the architecture of Rome as a backdrop for the doomed affair, Antonioni achieves the apotheosis of his style in this return to the theme that preoccupied him the most: the difficulty of connection in an alienating modern world.

After sorting through a huge pile of 2,400 entries, we’ve curated a selection of 77 outstanding new films from 30 countries. These films range from humorous and dramatic to bizarre, subtle, frightening, and autobiographical. What they all share is our belief that they represent the best of the best. These 8 international competition programmes showcase a variety of techniques, genres, and styles. This is your annual glimpse into the vibrant world of international indie animation.

This programme, the Abstract Showcase, represents our yearly exploration of abstract and experimental animation. It features 12 short films where animators use a wide range of techniques, from hand-drawn 'musical scores' to high-definition computer-assisted imagery. Each film reflects a deep passion for animated movement and showcases the artist's skill in using colour and crafting non-narrative visuals to captivate the screen.

LIAF is one of the very few animation festivals in the world to devote an entire programme to abstract and experimental animation. We do this because we believe that the tenets that underpin great abstract animation go to the very heart of what it is to create beautiful, frame by frame animated imagery; a form of animated artmaking with a history that reaches back to the earliest days of the animation. Also — we do it because we love abstract animation!

Several filmmakers will be in attendance to introduce their films at the start of the screening.

Please visit https://liaf.org.uk/ for more details

The Self and the Other

An experimental film inspired by Jean-Paul Sartre's play "No Exit." a game of perception in which the power of interpretation lies with the viewer.

UK 2024 Dir: Chen Ma 6’00

Wanderers

Exploring concepts of fluidity and rigidity through monochromatic, crystalline visuals, delving into the emotional turmoil a wanderer has to engage with when grappling with the ideas of going against the flow.

Hong Kong 2025 Dir: Muhammad Mustefa Bukhari 3’45

Toil and Spin

The drifting sensations of sleep and the turbulence of sleeplessness. An oarless journey through memory, regret, and restless thought.

USA 2024  Dir: Maureen Zent 5’05

The Garden of Electric Delights

Tapping into our sensual pleasures with this experimental interpretation of Hieronymus Bosch’s iconic triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights.

Austria 2025 Dir: Billy Roisz 11’45

Where Blue Meets Red

Consisting of several dozen original risograph prints, this under-the-camera, straight-ahead animation is improvised to the rhythm of the scores by Hungarian jazz trumpeter and composer Barabás Lőrinc.

Hungary 2024  Dir: Tamás Patrovits 4’00

Kepler - 891c

Moving from planetary surfaces to deep space, mysterious shapes and spheres guide exploration and slowly return to the surface.

Hong Kong 2025 Dir: Kwan Yau Tse 3’15

States of Matter

An experimental strata-cut animation crafted entirely from wax and paper. It invites viewers on a meditative exploration of materiality, textures, and movements.

Netherlands 2024  Dir: Marvin Hauck 7’00

Deluge

An ever-evolving landscape where the present inevitably coexists with the past. The slow stampede of a vulnerable mind.

USA 2024 Dir: Meejin Hong 12’05

Play

Hand-painted film combined with digital animation explores abstraction and concepts of ‘play’ as intrinsic to creative practice.

Australia 2025  Dir: Sabrina Schmid 2’05

We The Water

The complex relationship between humans and water. Compelling contrasts between wetness and dryness, fluidity and rigidity, light and darkness.

Switzerland 2024 Dir: Noah Lüthi 3’55

Simple Random Walks

A simple random walk is a discrete-time stochastic process that describes a path generated by a sequence of random steps.

USA 2025 Dir: Larry Cuba 7’10

Steen

A scenic and visual experience of cells and the small organisms that we live amongst, exploring the unknown structure of nature.

Hong Kong 2025 Dir: Chin Yiu Mane Cheung, Pui Yu Sammi Tsui 3’55

This programme explores the full spectrum of human emotions through 8 captivating films that delve into themes of love, hate, jealousy, sensuality, melancholy, anxiety, confusion, fear, and doubt. Each film is powerful and moving, offering profound insights and striking visuals that resonate with contemporary issues.

Independent animation remains a dynamic and evolving art form, showcasing a stunning array of styles, materials, and techniques— from hand-drawn and paint-on-glass to collage, sculpture, cut-outs, puppetry, abstract forms, and innovative CGI. This year's LIAF highlights the most diverse and exciting developments within this vibrant medium.

After sorting through a huge pile of 2,400 entries, we’ve curated a selection of 77 outstanding new films from 30 countries. These films range from humorous and dramatic to bizarre, subtle, frightening, and autobiographical. What they all share is our belief that they represent the best of the best. These 8 international competition programmes showcase a variety of techniques, genres, and styles. This is your annual glimpse into the vibrant world of international indie animation.

Several filmmakers will be in attendance to introduce their films at the start of the screening.

Please visit https://liaf.org.uk/ for more details

I'm Not Sure

An insight into the filmmaker's stay in a hospital, where she repeatedly experiences absurd, funny moments between pain, homesickness, and disgust over her body.

Switzerland 2025  Dir: Luisa Zürcher 10’05

The Pool or Death of a Goldfish

A daughter, through unexpressed anger and rebellion against her mother, transforms into a goldfish. Her repressed childhood emotions are manifested in her harshness towards herself and others.

Poland 2025 Dir: Daria Kopiec 13’50

Hypersensitive

The turbulent, surrealistic journey of a young woman struggling to rebuild herself, in defiance of social norms that tell us to repress our emotions.

Canada 2025 Dir: Martine Frossard 6’40

Pear Garden

Six-year-old Lily visits her grandmother after she has a mastectomy. At night, Lily finds out that the shadow of grandma has breasts. Lily follows her and tries to get the breasts back for her grandma.

Germany, Iran 2024  Dir: Shadab Shayegan 7’00

Because Today is Saturday

It's Saturday, and a woman struggles with the difficulty of reconciling her home life and her need to escape to unleash her creative side.

Portugal, France, Spain 2025 Dir: Alice Eça Guimarães 12’25

Wish You Were Ear

After breakups, exes must exchange body parts. One person spots their old ear on another, sparking a quest for identity and acceptance in a bizarre society where physical pieces of ourselves live on in others.

Hungary 2025 Dir: Mirjana Balogh 10’15

Lost Touch

Amelia is the sole survivor on a damaged space ship. Trapped in the gravitational pull of a planet, she struggles with grief and isolation. When a mysterious presence appears, she is torn between the past and the future.

Switzerland 2025 Dir: Justine Klaiber 12’25

Stone of Destiny

The Stone of Destiny longs for freedom and wants to overcome its self-doubt. So it embarks on a journey and meets strange creatures in strange places.

Czech Republic 2025 Dir: Julie Cerna 10’20

This programme ‘From Absurd to Zany’ celebrates some of the funniest, weirdest and eye-poppingly nutty films that were entered this year.

Strange tales of a woman giving birth to her reproductive organs, a chatty hair living on the head of a balding man, disturbing bird people, singing aliens plus many more bonkers scenarios. Buckle up for a wild ride.

Independent animation remains a dynamic and evolving art form, showcasing a stunning array of styles, materials, and techniques—from hand-drawn and paint-on-glass to collage, sculpture, cut-outs, puppetry, abstract forms, and innovative CGI. This year's LIAF highlights the most diverse and exciting developments within this vibrant medium.

After sorting through a huge pile of 2,400 entries, we’ve curated a selection of 77 outstanding new films from 30 countries. These films range from humorous and dramatic to bizarre, subtle, frightening, and autobiographical. What they all share is our belief that they represent the best of the best. These 8 international competition programmes showcase a variety of techniques, genres, and styles. This is your annual glimpse into the vibrant world of international indie animation.

Several filmmakers will be in attendance to introduce their films at the start of the screening.

Please visit https://liaf.org.uk/ for more details

Jazz Emu: Fun Kitai Furai Dei

A singing alien from the planet 0E0E0 comes to earth, seeking happiness after his home was destroyed in a brutal intergalactic war.

UK  2025 Dir: Hunter Allen 3’30

Um

The bird people have fallen into violent chaos, prey to a disturbing phenomenon: their eggs seem to be haunted by demonic faces. Their hatching seems to herald an imminent catastrophe...

France 2025 Dir: Nieto 8’30

Ovary-Acting

A harried thirty-something woman is forced to decide whether she wants to be a mother after unexpectedly giving birth to her reproductive organs at her sister’s baby shower.

Norway, Sweden, UK  2025 Dir: Ida Melum 12’25

Ostrich

A little sparrow is in awe of the ostriches with their long necks, dazzling eyes and muscular legs and wants to be just like them.

Switzerland 2025 Dir: Marie Kenov  8’30

The 12 inch Pianist

A bar joke goes awry, unravelling into a surreal tale that explores the acceptance of self, others, and queer identity.

USA 2024 Dir: Lucas Ansel 7’25

No Vacancy

The unraveling mind of Jack, depicted through a dilapidated motel. He navigates chaotic nights filled with mysterious phone calls, disruptive guests, childhood humiliation and battles with addiction.

Colombia 2024 Dir: Miguel Rodrick  7’15

Peter Hair

Peter, a hair living on the head of a balding man named Tim, has decided to hand in his notice.

UK 2025 Dir: Arthur Studholme, Cosmo Wellings 8’05

Dollhouse Elephant

In a communal environment the private habits of a group of neighbours creates public mayhem.

Finland 2025 Dir: Jenny Jokela 11’15

Turbulence

First flight. No parents. Total panic. A terrified boy just wants to survive takeoff, but the plane—and its deranged passengers—have other plans.

Denmark, USA 2025  Dir: Christopher Rutledge, Magnus Igland Møller 3’30

The Right to be Forgotten

Deep underground, embedded in old muddy rock, the oracle is waiting.

Denmark 2025 Dir: Tue Sanggaard 10’55

Despite societal pressures, humans still create art, jokes, rituals, experiments….and animated films. Play and imagination are core human capacities that drive innovation and meaning. This programme examines some big life moments and asks some pointed questions. The 11 powerful films include a man revisiting his teenage years through the prism of his changing hairstyles, a touching mother-daughter relationship, a bittersweet and hopeful depiction of how society views growing old, a mesmerising, minimalist meditation patiently picking away at the little details often left unconsidered and several other tales  about love, death, and purpose.

Independent animation remains a dynamic and evolving art form, showcasing a stunning array of styles, materials, and techniques— from hand-drawn and paint-on-glass to collage, sculpture, cut-outs, puppetry, abstract forms, and innovative CGI. This year's LIAF highlights the most diverse and exciting developments within this vibrant medium.

After sorting through a huge pile of 2,400 entries, we’ve curated a selection of 77 outstanding new films from 30 countries. These films range from humorous and dramatic to bizarre, subtle, frightening, and autobiographical. What they all share is our belief that they represent the best of the best. These 8 international competition programmes showcase a variety of techniques, genres, and styles. This is your annual glimpse into the vibrant world of international indie animation.

Several filmmakers will be in attendance to introduce their films at the start of the screening.

Please visit https://liaf.org.uk/ for more details.

Retirement Plan

Dissatisfied with his life, Ray dreams of the beauty and joy he will find in retirement.

Ireland 2025 Dir: John Kelly 7’00

Dog Alone

After the death of its owner and companions, a dog is left alone in its house, howling day and night and disturbing the neighbourhood.

Portugal, France 2024 Dir: Marta Reis Andrade 13’10

Imprint

Chance encounters can leave a lasting effect, like ink on paper. Imprint is a heartfelt animated short about the lasting creative bond between two kindred spirits.

Canada 2025 Dir: Duncan Major 5’00

How

Through the opening between reality and subtle poetic forms, surreal scenes and thrilling paradoxes reveal endless loops of existence.

Croatia 2025 Dir: Marko Mestrovic 8’45

Balconada

A hot summer day brings several neighbours out on their balconies. During a sudden rainstorm one of them gets a burst of inspiration which encourages the rest to live in the moment.

France, Bulgaria 2025 Dir: Iva Tokmakchieva 8’05

Speeding, Of Course

70-year-old Timo makes the most of his short ride to work. Speeding up on a bicycle he ends up in a ditch, but the adrenaline rush leaves a feeling of pleasure.

Finland 2025 Dir: Anni Sairio, Joonatan Turkki 4’00

S the Wolf

Through memories of his changing thinning hair, a man revisits his teenage years weaving together fragments of youth and growth towards his personal transformation throughout the large journey of his life.

France 2025 Dir: Sameh Alaa 10’30

Poppy Flowers

A daughter tries to reconcile with her mother through memories of their shared rituals, exposing the intricate aspects of their relationship.

Estonia 2024 Dir: Evridiki Papaiakovou 4’25

Shadows

At an overcrowded airport, Ahlam, a 14-year old runaway mother, fights the lurking shadows that attempt to steal the only dream that will set her free.

France, Jordan 2024  Dir: Rand Beiruty 12’20

Ordinary Life

A breath of air, a movement, a touch and, in between, a dissolution. Gestures of everyday life in variation, sensual, floating in pastel colours.

Japan 2025 Dir: Yoriko Mizushiri 9’50

Quota

When every global citizen is required to have their CO2 emissions tracked, it makes little impact… that is, until they discover the consequences of reaching their designated quota.

Netherlands 2024 Dir: Job, Joris and Marieke 2’40

Persuasive, illustrative and able to get over abstract details in attractive and compelling ways, animation is the perfect tool to document someone’s vision of the truth. This past decade has seen a boom in non-fiction films that use animation to tell their stories and LIAF has been one of the vanguards with our annual showcase dedicated to the documentary form dating back to 2008. This year’s programme features 12 of the best true life stories coupled with mind-blowing imagery.

Independent animation remains a dynamic and evolving art form, showcasing a stunning array of styles, materials, and techniques—from hand-drawn and paint-on-glass to collage, sculpture, cut-outs, puppetry, abstract forms, and innovative CGI. This year's LIAF highlights the most diverse and exciting developments within this vibrant medium.

After sorting through a huge pile of 2,400 entries, we’ve curated a selection of 77 outstanding new films from 30 countries. These films range from humorous and dramatic to bizarre, subtle, frightening, and autobiographical. What they all share is our belief that they represent the best of the best. These 8 international competition programmes showcase a variety of techniques, genres, and styles. This is your annual glimpse into the vibrant world of international indie animation.

There will be a panel of filmmakers taking part in a discussion after the screening.

The panel will be announced shortly.

Please visit https://liaf.org.uk/ for more details

Better Man

The stories of three men who use exercise as a way to cope with inner traumas that have often resulted in low self-esteem.

Czech Republic 2025 Dir: Eliška Jirásková 6’05

I am a Rebel

Veteran British animator and Oscar-winner Bob Godfrey describes how he got started in Animation and the losses of one era ending and the excitement of a new one beginning.

UK 2025 Dir: Martin Pickles 4’55

Azkena

Lorea's reference points are her mother and grandmother. Through these two generations she observes the bond that women have experienced around motherhood. Now it is up to her to decide whether or not to become a mother herself and to look for answers to pending questions.

Spain 2024 Dir: Ane Inés Landeta, Lorea Lyons 9’05

Mealitancy

Through audio recordings taken in the field and poetic moving images, the film portrays activists who use food as a tool in their anti-consumerist struggle.

Belgium 2024 Dir: Marie Royer, Zinia Scorier 12’05

Strokes of Wildflowers

Stroke survivors share their stories about the mental and physical struggles they face and the importance of community within their recovery.

UK 2025 Dir: Livvy Seabrook-Wilkins 3’45

Biting the Hand that Feeds You

The contest is called 'Payday', and Chantal is in a rush because she has a lot to say on the subject. For once, she ticks all the boxes: director, woman... She's ready to start taking notes, drawing... But all too soon, her everyday reality comes rushing back.

Belgium, France 2025 Dir: Chantal Peten 5’55

On Hannah Fields

A patch of land in Derby, UK, is adopted by an ex-NHS Psychiatric Nurse and transformed by a cyclical system of recovery. A poetic portrait of a place, the people who support it and that it supports.

UK 2024 Dir: Lewis Heriz 3’25

Tiny Film about Rape

Harrowing tales of sexual violence told from the survivors point of view.

Czech Republic 2025 Dir: Tereza Nebe Motýlová 9’05

Warp and Weft

A love letter to the act of hand-making, traditional craft practices, and the people who love them. Stemming from the fear of these artforms slipping away in a society that no longer values the human labour behind them.

UK 2025 Dir: Isolda Milenkovic 3’45

The Mustached Clown Circus

In a Latin American country, a child’s notebook recounts a series of horrifying events that happened at the Big Moustache Clowns Circus.

Argentina 2025 Dir: Ana Comes, Tomas Alzogaray Vanella, Paz Bloj 10’40

Polio

Mrs. Jaroslava shares her story of growing up with polio – a disease that stole part of her youth, but gave her friendships that lasted a lifetime.

Czech Republic 2025 Dir: Klára Kubenková 5’05

Winter in March

Helpless in the face of a repressive state, a young couple leaves their home – an escape that turns into a surreal nightmare.

Armenia, Belgium, Estonia, France 2025 Dir: Natalia Mirzoyan 16’20

Some films need extra time to develop their themes, to grow and draw us more comprehensively into their worlds. It takes time to think. Reflection tends to work best at a slower tempo. This competition programme is dedicated to showcasing the best of these longer films. 7 longer short films, 7 thoughtful and complex stories.

Independent animation remains a dynamic and evolving art form, showcasing a stunning array of styles, materials, and techniques— from hand-drawn and paint-on-glass to collage, sculpture, cut-outs, puppetry, abstract forms, and innovative CGI. This year's LIAF highlights the most diverse and exciting developments within this vibrant medium.

After sorting through a huge pile of 2,400 entries, we’ve curated a selection of 77 outstanding new films from 30 countries. These films range from humorous and dramatic to bizarre, subtle, frightening, and autobiographical. What they all share is our belief that they represent the best of the best. These 8 international competition programmes showcase a variety of techniques, genres, and styles. This is your annual glimpse into the vibrant world of international indie animation.

Several filmmakers will be in attendance to introduce their films at the start of the screening.

Please visit https://liaf.org.uk/ for more details

Strange Teen Spirit

Anton is about 15 years old. He observes. Alone. A phosphorescent green trail descends from the rocky plateaus and flows over the city. No one notices. Not even Kata and her gang, who run, tag, sing, scream. Anton dreams of joining them.

France 2024 Dir: Frank Ternier 15’40

Can you Hear Me?

Nastia, who has lived abroad for years, starts to teach her mum how to use the Internet. Different perceptions of technology become the starting point for exposing intergenerational conflicts and long-forgotten family threads. Can an intimacy regained via zoom be a turning point for the future relationship between two adults?

Poland 2025 Dir: ​Anastazja Naumenko 15’00

La Vie avec un idiot

Accused by the authorities of not working hard enough, Vladimir is forced to live with an idiot as punishment. He chooses him from an asylum and his name is Vova. This idiot can only pronounce one syllable: ooh.

France 2025 Dir: Theodore Ushev 18’10

Autokar

In the 1990s, 8-year-old Agata leaves Poland for Belgium. Through her eyes, the reality of migration becomes an initiatory experience.

Poland 2025 Dir: ​​Sylwia Szkiladz 17’30

Ploo

'If it keeps starting over, it must be forever', says the white moth. But a gentle whisper breathes in each dawn, 'one day, all days will be gone'. Ploo blends attributes of vector graphics and screen display technology with the human condition.

Germany 2025 Dir: Jon Frickey 15’10

The Golden Donkey

As the people of a medieval village celebrate the beginning of summer, the royal family experiences an identity crisis. The king thinks he’s made of glass, the princess dreams of becoming the king and the prince is trapped in the body of a donkey.

Belgium 2024 Dir: Anne Verbeure 15’35

Signal

Claudie is passionate about her unusual job: scanning the cosmos for signs of extraterrestrial life, hoping to make contact. Completely absorbed in her mission, she gradually loses touch with those around her, and even reality itself could fade away.

Belgium, France 2025 Dir: Emma Carré, Mathilde Parquet 16’45

Buckle up your glitter belts: Lesbian Space Princess has officially landed at LIAF after snatching the coveted Teddy Award at this year’s Berlin International Film Festival. Join us for this very special preview screening before it lands on the big screens for a wider UK theatrical release in 2026.

Heartbreak. Kidnapping. Gay-pop idols. And one impossibly needy space princess blasting through the cosmos on an intergalactic mission to save her bounty hunter ex-girlfriend from the Straight White Maliens. A riotous, candy-coloured animated comedy adventure through the vastness of queer space.

The film follows Princess Saira, recently dumped by her impossibly cool girlfriend Kiki for being a little too needy. But just as Saira is perfecting her sulk, Kiki calls in with a galactic-level problem: she’s been kidnapped by the misogynist alien bros known as the Straight White Maliens. Their ransom demand? One of the most powerful weapons in all of lesbian kind.

Cue Saira’s reluctant-but-fabulous quest across the galaxies, complete with dangerous missions, starry-eyed encounters with gay-pop idols, and musical numbers that absolutely slap. Part space opera, part rom-com, part glitter-fueled fever dream, Lesbian Space Princess is a love letter to queer resilience and messy, magical relationships— with enough camp to fuel a rocket. The result? A queer comedy-musical that has critics and audiences alike laughing, singing, and crying gay tears of joy.

The screening will be followed by a pre-recorded Q&A with filmmakers

Please visit https://liaf.org.uk/ for more details

LRB Screen continues its exploration of visions of London created by non-British filmmakers: films in which the city is a key player, rather than a backdrop; in which its buildings, streets, parks and rivers cast a distinctive shadow over the drama; in which a fresh encounter makes the city unfamiliar and mysterious again.

Next up is the path-breaking Babylon. Compellingly scored by Dennis Bovell and partly based on his false imprisonment in the 1970s for running a Jamaican sound system, it follows a young DJ (Brinsley Forde MBE, who fronted the real-life reggae group Aswad) as he pursues his musical ambitions in south London while facing down police brutality, the National Front and evidence of structural racism at every turn.

Following its world premiere at Cannes, and subsequent UK screenings – which preceded the Brixton riots by a matter of months – it was declared ‘too controversial, and likely to incite racial tension’ to be shown at the New York Film Festival and was not released in the United States until 2019.

For the New York Times, Wesley Morris wrote that Babylon ‘still feels new … You’re looking at people who, in 1980 England, were, at last, being properly, seriously seen,’ while Robert Abele in the LA Times described the film as ‘assertive and ebullient … alive as a movie can be.’

Introducing Babylon, and discussing it afterwards with regular host Gareth Evans, will be the film journalist and broadcaster Ellen E. Jones: co-host of the BBC’s Screenshot and author of Screen Deep: How Film and TV Can Solve Racism and Save the World.

Ladybird Ladybird screenwriter Rona Munro will join us for a post-screening Q&A on Sunday 2 November.

Based on a true story, Ladybird, Ladybird tracks the heartbreaking tale of a woman whose tumultuous past and mental illnesses cause her children to be taken away from her by social services. Ken Loach once again demonstrates his proficiency for drawing excellent performances from unlikely actors with this gut-wrenching drama anchored by an award-winning central turn from erstwhile comedian Crissy Rock.

Like his previous films, Loach has a clear and resolute view on this complex and humanistic tale of a citizen let down by the establishment in place to support her. Crissy Rock won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival and it is easy to see why her startlingly raw performance as Maggie gained so much critical acclaim. - BFI

Ladybird Ladybird will be screened with English subtitles.

The screening will be followed by a conversation between Professor Paul Preston and historian and author Richard Baxell.

David is an unemployed communist that comes to Spain in 1937 during the civil war to enroll the republicans and defend the democracy against the fascists. He makes friends between the soldiers. 

Land and Freedom, though set during the Spanish Civil War, has much to say about Britain in the 1980s and 90s. Ken Loach, a committed socialist director, draws parallels between the triumph of fascism in Spain and the rise of the far right amid the widespread unemployment at the time the film was made. The film won two awards at the Cannes film festival and remains one of his most acclaimed. - BFI iPlayer

Land and Freedom won a César Award for Best Foreign Film (1995)

Based on an iconic Estonian novel. In 1933, a young woman leaves her rural home to chase her dream of becoming a writer in the city. She takes job as a maid for a middle-aged printing house owner, who quickly starts pursuing her romantically. They marry, but his passionate declarations of love soon turn cold. As political tensions rise in the country, their love story unfolds in a divided society, revealing toxic behaviours and power games that start innocently but lead to dire consequences.

Both screenings will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.

The London Baltic Film Festival, a showcase of the latest films from Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania, is the UK’s only celebration of cinema from the three Baltic countries, offering a unique lens into the filmmaking, the people, history, and culture of the three nations.

The festival is supported by the Embassy of Estonia, Embassy of Latvia, Embassy of Lithuania, the Estonian Film Institute, National Film Centre of Latvia, and Lithuanian Film Centre.

This is the fifth edition of the LBFF. Don't miss out on experiencing Baltic cinema on the big screen.

A powerful historical drama, based on the true story of Maria Leiko, a famous Latvian stage and silent-film actress who late in her career travels to Stalin’s Russia (1937) upon the news of her newborn granddaughter. Soon after, Maria is faced with the brutality of the KGB, who threaten both her family and career, where she ultimately plays her life’s most tragic role: an innocent victim destroyed as she struggles between her ideals and the murderous regime that surrounds her.

The film has received critical acclaim, awards, and success at film festivals internationally.

Both screenings will be followed by a Q&A.

The London Baltic Film Festival, a showcase of the latest films from Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania, is the UK’s only celebration of cinema from the three Baltic countries, offering a unique lens into the filmmaking, the people, history, and culture of the three nations.

The festival is supported by the Embassy of Estonia, Embassy of Latvia, Embassy of Lithuania, the Estonian Film Institute, National Film Centre of Latvia, and Lithuanian Film Centre.

This is the fifth edition of the LBFF. Don't miss out on experiencing Baltic cinema on the big screen.

The UK premiere and the opening film of the London Baltic Film Festival 2025. Both screenings will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.

True renovation begins from the inside... In present-day Vilnius, Ilona, a perfectionist 29-year-old, feels the pressure to be settled and successful by the time she turns 30. She moves into a seemingly perfect apartment with her boyfriend Matas, with whom things are getting serious. But as the building's renovation begins, it's not just cracks in the walls that are revealed - Ilona’s inner doubts also start to surface as she strikes up an unexpected friendship with Oleg, a Ukrainian construction worker.

The film premiered at this year's Karlovy Vary Film Festival and played in competition.

All ticket holders are welcome to attend the drinks reception from 5pm-6pm in the cinema's Atrium Bar.

The London Baltic Film Festival, a showcase of the latest films from Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania, is the UK’s only celebration of cinema from the three Baltic countries, offering a unique lens into the filmmaking, the people, history, and culture of the three nations.

The festival is supported by the Embassy of Estonia, Embassy of Latvia, Embassy of Lithuania, the Estonian Film Institute, National Film Centre of Latvia, and Lithuanian Film Centre.

This is the fifth edition of the LBFF. Don't miss out on experiencing Baltic cinema on the big screen.

UK premiere and Estonia's official selection for the 2026 Academy Awards in the International Feature Film category.

The film explores the lives of young adults, united by their uncertainty about the future and a shared longing for a purposeful existence. Sebastian, working as a store clerk, finds his ordinary workday shaken up when he meets Silo, a free-spirited wanderer. Together, they smoke weed and dream of a one-way ticket to Brazil.

Rolling Papers premiered at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, has won multiple awards, including Just Film 2024 - Audience Award winner & Film of the year 2024 - Cultural Endowment of Estonia.

Both screenings will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.

The London Baltic Film Festival, a showcase of the latest films from Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania, is the UK’s only celebration of cinema from the three Baltic countries, offering a unique lens into the filmmaking, the people, history, and culture of the three nations.

The festival is supported by the Embassy of Estonia, Embassy of Latvia, Embassy of Lithuania, the Estonian Film Institute, National Film Centre of Latvia, and Lithuanian Film Centre.

This is the fifth edition of the LBFF. Don't miss out on experiencing Baltic cinema on the big screen.

Enjoy a selection of the most acclaimed short films coming from Estonia. The screening consists of contemporary and classic award-winning short films. In partnership with Estonian Film Institute and Estonian Embassy in London.

Programme:

Sauna Day (2024) 11’ 

Dir. Anna Hints and Tushar Prakash

Sauna day invites you into the world of Southern Estonian men who go to the dark-intimate space of a smoke sauna after a hard day's work. Beneath their tough exteriors lies a desire for connection, veiled in secrecy. Co-directed by Anna Hints, the author of the acclaimed Smoke Sauna Sisterhood.

Manivald (2017) 13’  

Dir. Chintis Lundgren

Award-winning short film (Sundance, EFTA, Annecy) about a hot young plumber Toomas who breaks into the harmonious life of Manivald and his retired mother.

Jungle Law (2024) 18´

Dir. Madli Lääne

Three teenagers meet while hanging out by the sea. They begin to seduce and challenge, dominate, and obey each other. Festivals and awards include Odense International Film Festival (Artist award, International Competition) & 22nd Alice Nella Città (Best International Short Film / Onde Corte International Competition).

Body Memory (2011) 10’

Dir. Ülo Pikkov

Our body remembers more than we can expect and imagine. It also remembers the sorrow and pain of the predecessors, sustaining the stories of our parents and grandparents as well as their ancestors. But how far back is it possible to go in the memory of the body? An Estonian contemporary classic, winner of numerous awards across the festival circuit.

Winter in March (2025) 16’

Dir. Natalia Mirzoyan

Helpless in the face of a repressive state, a young couple leaves their home for good - an escape that turns into a surreal nightmare. The film premiered at Cannes this year and has been on a busy festival tour since then.  

On Weary Wings Go By (2024) 10’

Dir. Anu-Laura Tuttelberg

A stop-motion film shot in the wilderness with porcelain puppets as characters. The film expresses the arrival of winter in the Nordic nature. The sun moves low above the horizon, the days get shorter. The film was shot throughout three winters on the North coasts of Estonia and Norway. It has won awards and has played in more than 80 festivals around the world.

Miisufy (2023) 11’

Dir. Liisi Grünberg

Digital pet cat Miisu gets tired of her owner and starts to revolt. Inspired by Tamagotchi, Miisufy observes the world through the eyes of digital pets.

The London Baltic Film Festival, a showcase of the latest films from Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania, is the UK’s only celebration of cinema from the three Baltic countries, offering a unique lens into the filmmaking, the people, history, and culture of the three nations.

The festival is supported by the Embassy of Estonia, Embassy of Latvia, Embassy of Lithuania, the Estonian Film Institute, National Film Centre of Latvia, and Lithuanian Film Centre.

This is the fifth edition of the LBFF. Don't miss out on experiencing Baltic cinema on the big screen.

Toxic has achieved critical and commercial success, winning at the prestigious Locarno Film Festival and receiving numerous accolades across the film festival circuit.

Abandoned by her mother, 13-year-old Maria is forced to live with her grandmother in a bleak industrial town. During a violent clash on the street, Maria meets Kristina, a girl of the same age who is striving to become a fashion model. Trying to get closer to her, Maria enrolls in a mysterious modeling school, where the girls are preparing for the biggest casting event in the region. Her ambiguous relationship with Kristina and the intense, cult-like environment of the modeling school force Maria on a quest to discover her own identity.

Both screenings will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers.

The London Baltic Film Festival, a showcase of the latest films from Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania, is the UK’s only celebration of cinema from the three Baltic countries, offering a unique lens into the filmmaking, the people, history, and culture of the three nations.

The festival is supported by the Embassy of Estonia, Embassy of Latvia, Embassy of Lithuania, the Estonian Film Institute, National Film Centre of Latvia, and Lithuanian Film Centre.

This is the fifth edition of the LBFF. Don't miss out on experiencing Baltic cinema on the big screen.

Youth Eternal is a coming-of-age story about a group of millennials who start to face their self-destructive tendencies as they each head straight into their crisis of thirty-somethings and embark on a journey to embrace responsibility.

It is summer, and a group of millennials is at a music festival, relishing their seemingly carefree lives, while their close friends, Ieva and Alex, are embarking on parenthood. Kitija is suffering from depression and fails to find support as friends start to become more alienated from each other. Anna is trying to take care of her mental health by quitting weed, which turns out to be a challenge to her relationship with Kaspars, who grows it in their house. Unable to influence Martin's self-destructive lifestyle, Dainis starts to document it on video, becoming a participant and a creator of a reality show of his own. The friends start a wild journey into the new reality of becoming responsible for themselves.

Both screenings will be followed by a Q&A.

The London Baltic Film Festival, a showcase of the latest films from Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania, is the UK’s only celebration of cinema from the three Baltic countries, offering a unique lens into the filmmaking, the people, history, and culture of the three nations.

The festival is supported by the Embassy of Estonia, Embassy of Latvia, Embassy of Lithuania, the Estonian Film Institute, National Film Centre of Latvia, and Lithuanian Film Centre.

This is the fifth edition of the LBFF. Don't miss out on experiencing Baltic cinema on the big screen.

A childhood visit to Gaza leaves a lasting memory of the sea and a mother’s smile. Years later, a video of youth practicing parkour amid ruins rekindles a longing for home.

In a relentless pursuit of a memory that reinforces her sense of belonging, filmmaker Areeb Zuaiter crosses paths with Ahmed, a parkour athlete in Gaza, sparking a journey where conflicting aspirations intersect. Nostalgia confronts ambition, and the weight of a confined past meets the pull of an unpredictable future. As they explore Gaza’s wreckage - cemeteries, a bombed mall, an abandoned airport - shared stories reveal joy, grief and the urge to flee. Their bond is not only a journey through memory, but also an exploration of identity, belonging and the haunting legacy of a home left behind.

This screening will be followed by a self-guided collage session with Gather with Anis, exploring expression through art, creating a space for people to sit with their feelings after the film and channel them into something tangible.

Anis means "sweet companion" in Arabic. Gather with Anis creates spaces for people to explore and learn together in the company of companions new and familiar.  

London Palestine Film Festival (LPFF) presents its 2025 edition showcasing some of this year’s most anticipated new releases reflecting on Palestine. We aim to present stories of political realities as experienced by Palestinians at home and in the diaspora through the creative lens of cinema.

Eric Bishop (Steve Evets) is a postman and Man U supporter on the edge of a nervous breakdown. He never got over his divorce from his first wife; his second wife has left him in loco parentis for two wayward stepsons; and now he’s having visions of Eric Cantona. Is this the first sign of madness? Or are the wise words of the charismatic Frenchman just what Eric needs?

Successful on several levels, Looking for Eric is powerful enough to satisfy Loach loyalists, and appealing enough to win over everyone else – if they would only go to see it. As Ken Loach has spent a 40-year career demonstrating, there’s little justice in this world, but if there was, this would be a massive, world-beating hit. - Little White Lies

After the resounding success of our first edition, the Members' Scratch Night returns on Monday 27 October to help more of the creatives in our membership community develop their WIP projects. This is an opportunity to test out material - be it unfinished films, scripts, pieces of writing, or other art forms - in front of a supportive audience, who will then be able to provide you with their thoughts and feedback in a casual setting. The event will take place in the Atrium Bar, and will be hosted by fellow cinema member Roberto Prestia.

We'll have six 15-minute slots available for members to present their material (with microphones and a projector available to use), and additional tickets for audience members who are interested in discovering new work by fellow members, and in contributing to their creative process.

Tickets for the event are £5, and include a token for a complimentary glass of house wine, a beer or a soft drink at the bar. They are restricted to 2 per member, so you're welcome to bring along a +1 for the occasion.

The schedule on the night will be as follows:

19:00-20:00  Introduction and first three presentations of 15 minutes each

20:00-20:30  Break for drinks, providing feedback, and mingling

20:30-21:15  Additional three presentations of 15 minutes each

21:15-22:00  Drinks, providing feedback, and further mingling

Please ensure you select the right option when booking a ticket:

• Only six Presenter tickets will be available to purchase for those looking to present a project.
• The additional tickets will be Audience tickets, for members who want to watch the presentations and provide feedback.

About Roberto:

Roberto Prestia is a London based independent filmmaker. In his quest for DIY filmmaking and creative freedom, he has made constant use of scratch nights and workshops with fellow creatives, as a tool for developing his early shorts as well as his second feature film, which is currently in the making.

The screening on Saturday November 8 will be introduced by Assistant Programmer Joe Miller.

His name is Joe, and he’s an alcoholic. He’s only been sober for 10 months, and although AA advises against romance in the first year of recovery, Joe falls in love with a nurse named Sarah. She’s a social worker who has seen a lot of guys like Joe, but there’s something about him–a tenderness, a caring–that touches her.

A love story full of humour, passion and danger, My Name is Joe was filmed in the heart of one of the poorest and most neglected neighbourhoods of Scotland's biggest city. Two street-wise but vulnerable people struggle to overcome the harsh conditions that weigh them down, leaving few choices in their lives.

My Name is Joe won Best Actor at Cannes (Peter Mullan) and a BIFA award for best British Independent Film.

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.

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.

The screening on 7 November will be followed by a panel discussion hosted by The New Arab.

Palestine’s Official Submission for the Academy Awards is set in 1936 Mandatory Palestine. Yusuf flees his rural home for Jerusalem’s charged streets, forced to confront colonial rule, rising migration and the inexorable drift toward a defining revolt. As villages across Mandatory Palestine rise against British colonial rule, Yusuf drifts between his rural home and the restless energy of Jerusalem, longing for a future beyond the growing unrest.

The Garden Cinema View:

Annemarie Jacir (Salt of this Sea, Wajib) tackles the pre-Nakba peasant revolt of 1936, and the wider colonial context, in this ambitious and wide-reaching epic. In order to weave together dense geopolitical context and fictional plot, Jacir quite deftly creates a patchwork of characters - the young Yousef who hails from a small village, Afra and her family of farmers, Amir, an influential newspaper editor, and his journalist wife Khuloud, Father Boulos, the village priest, and the British dignitaries - whose personal intertwined stories play out against the consequences of the factual history.

Unsurprisingly, and despite weaving so many strands together (including archival footage), Annemarie Jacir does so seamlessly. And although the various protagonists are fairly archetypal, she creates real emotional engagement with their respective destinies, and rouses anger at the cruelty and injustice of the decades that would follow, and that would eventually lead us to what we are witnessing today.

The New Arab is a progressive London-based news site that covers issues from the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. It offers a platform for diverse, expert voices and has become a trusted source for news, analysis and commentary for and about the region.

On 2 November, the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, Film Lab Palestine are calling upon cinemas, festivals and organisers around the world to screen Palestinian film. This global effort is a show of solidarity with Palestine, an act of amplification for censored Palestinian voices, and a contribution to shifting the distorted narrative.

SAFAR Film Festival and The Garden Cinema are proud to participate in this year's Palestine Cinema Days Around the World, presenting a free screening of Tewfik Salah's 1972 classic The Dupes, followed by a panel discussion.

The Dupes is set in 1958 and follows the journeys of three Palestinian refugees—Abu Qais, Assad, and Marwan— who are desperate to escape the harsh conditions of refugee camps in Lebanon and seek a better life in Kuwait. From three different generations and with only their shared nationality and desired destination in common, to get there they they must put their trust in a smuggler promising safe passage - and endure the searing desert sun.

Hailed as one of the first Arab films to put Palestinian refugees at the centre of their own story, The Dupes is a powerful political drama based on the acclaimed novella Men in the Sun (1962) by Palestinian author and militant Ghassan Kanafani. This black-and-white film is an unmissable classic which shines a stark light on the plight of forcibly displaced Palestinians in the aftermath of the Nakba. Today, over 50 years since its release, it offers a hauntingly timeless insight into the enduring devastation of the Israeli occupation and the perilous realities facing refugees as they cross borders in search of better circumstances.

This is a free event and space is limited. Tickets are limited to 2 per booking. If you book and are no longer able to attend, please inform the box office as soon as possible.

About Tewfik Saleh

Tewfik Saleh was a pioneering Egyptian filmmaker known for his realistic and political cinema. Born in Alexandria in 1926, he studied film in Paris. His bold films tackled deep social and political issues, most notably The Dupes (1972), based on Ghassan Kanafani’s novel Men in the Sun. Saleh was known for his humanistic style and independent stance, often clashing with censorship authorities. He received several international awards and passed away in 2013, leaving behind a powerful legacy in Arab cinema.

About the organisers

SAFAR Film Festival is the UK’s largest festival of Arab cinema which screens annually across the UK in June. Organised by The Arab British Centre, we showcase the broad range of talent from the region by working with curators on themed programmes and inviting filmmakers for live Q&As. We develop the UK film landscape through industry opportunities for early-career filmmakers, curators and artists. We aim to increase access to Arab cinema in the UK by working with screening partners across the country, as well as digital programmes. @safarfilmfestival

The Arab British Centre aims to further understanding of the Arab world by promoting its culture, sharing its knowledge and supporting a community of individuals and organisations that work to enhance friendship and collaboration between people of the UK and the Arab world. @arabbritishcentre

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.

Embark on a magical moral adventure with Pinocchio, a wooden puppet brought to life who must prove himself brave, truthful, and unselfish to become a real boy. Jiminy Cricket, his assigned conscience, tries to steer Pinocchio through the scrapes and capers of life in the real world.

From the enchanting music (including the iconic 'When you Wish Upon a Star') to the thrilling moments— from Stromboli's puppet show to the belly of Monstro the whale— this film beautifully balances wonder, humour and heart. A masterpiece of early animation, this classic delights with vivid storytelling that still resonates today.

Contains smoking scenes.

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.

Poor Cow is Ken Loach's debut feature film.

Following his Wednesday Plays Up the Junction (1965) and Cathy Comes Home (1966), Ken Loach directed his first feature film with the powerful Poor Cow. Reuniting him with his Cathy Comes Home star Carol White, the film follows Joy (White) as she copes with working-class pressures while her husband is in jail. However, she suddenly finds herself romantically involved with young crook Dave (Terence Stamp) in what could be a hopeful change. What follows is a unique character study and portrait of London in one of its most colourful, textured periods, seen through the eyes of one of Britain’s most acclaimed filmmakers. - BFI, iPlayer

These screenings of the new restoration of Princess Mononoke will screen in the English language dub.

For subtitled screenings please see here. 

From the legendary Studio Ghibli, and Academy Award-winning director Hayao Miyazaki, comes an epic masterpiece that has dazzled audiences worldwide with its breathtaking imagination, exhilarating battles, and deep humanity.

Inflicted with a deadly curse, the young warrior Ashitaka heads west in search of a cure. There, he stumbles into a bitter conflict between Lady Eboshi, the proud people of Iron Town, and the enigmatic Princess Mononoke, a young girl raised by wolves, who will stop at nothing to prevent the humans from destroying her home and the forest spirits and animal gods who live there.

These screenings of this new restoration of Princess Mononoke will screen in the Japanese with English subtitles. For dubbed screenings please see here. 

From the legendary Studio Ghibli, and Academy Award-winning director Hayao Miyazaki, comes an epic masterpiece that has dazzled audiences worldwide with its breathtaking imagination, exhilarating battles, and deep humanity.

Inflicted with a deadly curse, the young warrior Ashitaka heads west in search of a cure. There, he stumbles into a bitter conflict between Lady Eboshi, the proud people of Iron Town, and the enigmatic Princess Mononoke, a young girl raised by wolves, who will stop at nothing to prevent the humans from destroying her home and the forest spirits and animal gods who live there.

Winner of the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993.

Bob Williams is a survivor: he supplements his dole by becoming embroiled in whatever scam is on offer. From rustling sheep to rodding drains, he does what he can to keep his family fed. But now, life has dealt him a bitter blow. His van has been stolen and his daughter, Coleen, is approaching her first communion. She needs the traditional white dress, shoes, veil and gloves. Where on earth is the money going to come from?

'What I liked best was the underlying humour, even in this desperate situation. These are characters whose minds have not been deadened and who are naturally articulate and even poetic.' - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times, 1994

Winner of Best European Film at Berlin, 1991.

Fresh out of Barlinnie prison, young Glaswegian Stevie arrives in London and lands a job on a construction site. Life in the capital is unforgiving, but when he meets Susan, a struggling singer chasing her own dreams, he begins to navigate the brutal ups and downs of survival with something approaching hope.

Riff Raff marks Robert Carlyle's breakout starring role in what's also a rousing ensemble piece that finds its humor in the rough camaraderie of the building site. The film mines its laughs from the authentic banter and brotherhood of men scraping by, while never losing sight of the harsh realities that bind them together. - BFI

Cervantes Institute in London is celebrating International Flamenco Day (16 November) with a screening of the documentary "Red Carnation" by director Roser Corella. The film tells the story of the life of flamenco dancer Manuel Liñán, focusing on the creative process behind the show "Muerta de Amor" and offering an intimate glimpse into his experience and his deep connection with flamenco.

The documentary follows flamenco dancer Manuel Liñán in his search for personal freedom through flamenco. Beyond celebrating this art form, the film explores the universal desire to live without fear or taboos. Flamenco becomes the mirror and driving force of a story about love, intimacy and struggle, where tradition and freedom coexist. A journey in which bodies speak and remind us of the profound need to love and be loved.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with director Roser Corella and artist Alejandro Postigo, who specialises in copla, flamenco and contemporary dance.

Site&Sound is an event series that explores the relationship between architecture and film. Each session will feature curated clips and short films around a chosen theme, inviting discussion around particular elements of representation and the different techniques employed by filmmakers. Themes will examine a multitude of perspectives on architecture, ranging from varying building types to their individual component parts and how these are interpreted by the viewer as they see the world through the lens of the built environment.

This edition turns to cinema’s unsettling relationship with the built form. From haunted corridors to endless suburban streets, film has long drawn on architecture to evoke what Freud described as the uncanny: the strange within the familiar, the familiar made strange. We will explore how directors use buildings, rooms and landscapes to frame psychological states - shaping dread and disorientation on screen. The Shining, for example, represents an impossible hotel, with interiors, expressionist shadows and eerily deserted spaces that are not just backdrops but active agents in disturbing our sense of what is normal and what is other-worldly.

How does cinema translate inner unease into spatial experience?

What happens when buildings disturb, entrap or destabilise their inhabitants?

And why do these uncanny spaces continue to fascinate us?

Speakers include:

David Bickle

Leila Taylor

Sofia Smith

Site&Sound is very grateful for the graphic support from TM (TsevdosMcNeil) who have provided the branding and identity.

Ricky and his family have been fighting an uphill battle against debt since the 2008 financial crash. An opportunity to regain some independence appears by becoming a self-employed delivery driver, but when he and his wife are pulled in different directions, everything will come to a breaking point.

It’s difficult to imagine a more socially engaged or powerful condemnation of the exploitative gig economy than Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You, which places the viewer on the ground with an English family trudging through the muck left behind by the erosion of workers’ rights in Europe. Here, the supposed economy of free choice promulgated by neoliberal policies manifests as a domestic realm in which one’s job penetrates into every waking moment, leaving stressed bodies and minds with no time and little wherewithal for a personal life or obligations. - SLANT

The film was nominated for a BAFTA and the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival.

Sorry we Missed you will be screened with English subtitles.

Every second of Souleymane’s new life in France is precious. Having fled Guinea, his asylum interview looms. He powers through the streets of after dark Paris as a delivery rider, sleeps in hostels and prepares for his make-or-break appointment. Pressure builds as his date with destiny approaches. Boris Lojkine’s portrait of a modern migrant propels us into the precarious world of an otherwise invisible man. Steeped in compassion, Souleymane’s Story combines the pace of a thriller with the emotional gut punch of a social drama. An award-winning French production in which the dynamic storytelling is matched by a star-making performance from charismatic newcomer Abou Sangaré as Souleymane.

The Garden Cinema View:

Souleymane's Story offers a fresh angle on migration narratives, with a protagonist who is too honest to manipulate France's asylum system effectively. This is a cinematic choice that humanises the faceless category of ‘migrants’ that pervades contemporary discourse; rather than assuming all migrants face identical struggles, director Boris Lojkine treats Souleymane's experience as distinctly his own.

The film captures the chaotic and gritty energy of nocturnal Paris with loose, frenetic cinematography that adds to the high stakes of the story. Abou Sangaré is extraordinary in depicting a man tormented by internal conflict and facing racism from different sides of society. His final monologue is a masterclass in both acting and scriptwriting - a moment that crystallises everything the film has been building toward.

One of humanity’s greatest achievements, the International Space Station is a $150 billion science laboratory hurtling around Earth at 17,000mph, its thin metal walls shielding astronauts from the most hostile environment humans have ever endured. Microgravity, the vacuum of space, extremes of temperature, micrometeorites - life here is perilous.

To mark 25 years of continuous habitation onboard, Space Station We Have a Problem reveals how astronauts are only a technical glitch or software error away from disaster. From malfunctioning spacesuits and docking disasters, critical leaks and even the entire space station backflipping out of control, this is life and death played out in low earth orbit, coupled with the bravery and brilliance that each time, saves the day.

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:

Dr. Constance Petersen (Ingrid Bergman) is a psychiatrist with a firm understanding of human nature—or so she thinks. When the mysterious Dr. Anthony Edwardes (Gregory Peck) becomes the new chief of staff at her institution, the bookish and detached Constance plummets into a whirlwind of tangled identities and feverish psychoanalysis, where the greatest risk is to fall in love. A transcendent love story replete with taut excitement and startling imagery, Spellbound is classic Hitchcock, featuring stunning performances, an Academy Award-winning score by Miklos Rozsa, and a captivating dream sequence by Surrealist icon Salvador Dalí.

Stromboli marked the beginning of the collaboration between director Roberto Rossellini and Ingrid Bergman. It all began with a letter she sent him a couple of years earlier: “If you ever need a Swedish actor who speaks very good English and a little German, who can make herself understood in French and can only say ‘ti amo’ in Italian, then I’ll come and make a film with you.”

Stromboli received a hostile reception from critics and American audiences upon its release, likely due to the scandal surrounding Rossellini and Bergman's affair. However, the film has since been recognized as a masterpiece -included in The Criterion Collection and celebrated in the British Film Institute's Sight & Sound critics' poll as one of the greatest and most influential films ever made.

Synopsis:

Lithuanian Karin (Ingrid Bergman) flees her war-ravaged home country and winds up in Italy, where she's sent to an internment camp. There, she meets Antonio (Mario Vitale), a POW who's just been freed. They enjoy a brief romance, punctuated by Antonio's marriage proposal, and Karin, seeing her chance to escape the camp, accepts. But Antonio takes her back to Stromboli, the volcanic island he lives on, and Karin struggles with a language barrier, brutal living conditions and her outsider status.

After the screening on Friday, November 14, Ken Loach's longtime collaborator Rebecca O'Brien will join Gareth Evans for a post-film discussion.

To mark the publication of the new edition of Loach on Loach (edited by Graham Fuller, published by Faber and Faber), copies will be available for purchase at our Atrium bar both before and after the screening.

Determined to have a normal family life once his mother gets out of prison, a Scottish teenager from a tough background sets out to raise the money for a home.

A typically powerful social realist drama, Sweet Sixteen represents Ken Loach's fourth collaboration with Glaswegian scriptwriter Paul Laverty. Shot around the council estates of Greenock, an economically depressed, former shipbuilding town near Glasgow, the film revisits themes familiar from their previous work, featuring the hardships of people at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

The film won Best Screenplay Award at Cannes Film Festival (Paul Laverty) and a BIFA Award for Best British Independent Film.

Two Indonesian poets meet in Tainan Park at night, orating and transforming their daytime encounters into poetry, as they take the wearied remainders of the everyday into nocturnal reveries. The park, long a gathering place for migrant workers, becomes a whimsical site of possibility: at once a refuge, a space of imagination, as well as a zone of invisibility.

Blurring the boundaries of reality and illusion, between storyteller and story, Taman-taman (Park) unfolds like a game, constantly shifting its own rules in playful, unexpected ways.

Winning awards at both Taiwan International Documentary Festival (TIDF) and IDFA, the film continues Your Bros. Filmmaking Group’s long-term collaboration with Taiwan’s migrant community. Founded in 2017, the group works through field research, creative workshops, and collective storytelling that give form to the lived realities of migrant workers.

The screening will be followed by an online Q&A with the filmmakers So Yo-hen, Tien Zong-yuan, and Liao Hsiu-hui, moderated by Phuong Le, a Vietnamese film critic based in London.

Presented as part of Sine Screen’s Whose Homeland 25-26 film season, with the support of the BFI, awarding National Lottery funding.

Sine Screen is a London-based screening collective dedicated to showcasing independent cinema and moving-image works from across East and Southeast Asia. It aims to create space for critical dialogue around dominant representations of ESEA cultures and histories through diverse programming, and has received support from the British Film Institute and Arts Council England.

From the makers of Ernest and Celestine comes a new trio of joyful animations featuring some of the wisest cracking animals that you could ever hope to meet.

An all-animal theatre troupe perform the three charming tales, telling the peculiar antics of farmyard creatures: a fox who grows too attached to a family of chicks to devour them, a stork too lazy to deliver a baby, and a duck filling in the big shoes of Santa Claus. If you think life in the country is a walk in the park, think again!

The witty dialogue, great cast and unique visual style are sure to please the whole family. Featuring the voices of Bill Bailey, Adrian Edmonson, Celia Imrie, Matthew Goode and Phil Jupitus.

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.

The Big Flame was writer Jim Allen's second Wednesday Play and his first with director Kenneth Loach. After The Lump, about the exploitation of casual labour in the building trade, Allen used his Marxist credentials to depict striking Liverpool dockers enacting a Communist-style system of workers' control.

The play was filmed in Loach's accustomed drama-documentary format, honed on previous Wednesday Plays like Up the Junction and Cathy Come Home. Real dockers appear, and the actors speak not well-rehearsed lines but in the disjointed, often incoherent, manner of authentic speech. It is captured on murky 16mm film, giving the picture the same quality as contemporaneous newsreel footage. Only the occasional voiceovers diverge from the apparent objectivity of this fly-on-the-wall aesthetic. - BFI, screenonline

The Blood on Satan's Claw was proposed for our Halloween programme by our member Helen Gardner, who writes, 'the finest British folk horror of the period and my absolute favourite horror film of all time.The idyllic English countryside never looked so threatening.'

It's rural England in the early 18th century. A deformed skull is discovered - it has an intact eye and strange fur but when that skull disappears the village becomes afflicted by its supernatural power. Starring Linda Hayden and Patrick Wymark, this quintessential folk horror, written by Robert Wynne-Simmons, is a heady concoction of old-style horror and sex, served up in an unnervingly modern visual presentation. It explores and seems to unpick the dawning decade's fears about promiscuity and the generation gap, poking fun at the moral majority's lack of tolerance toward youth culture and non-Christian belief systems.

Content warning: Includes a scene of sexual assault.

For Halloween, the smaller beings in our audience can enjoy a mildly macabre film of their own, with pay-what-you-can screenings of The Book of Life.

On Friday 31 October there will be prizes for the best Halloween costume.

From producer Guillermo del Toro (Pinocchio, Pan's Labyrinth)  comes an animated comedy drawing on Mexican folklore. The Book of Life is the journey of Manolo, a young man who embarks on an incredible adventure that spans three fantastical worlds where he must face his greatest fears. Rich with a fresh take on pop music favorites, The Book of Life encourages us to celebrate the past while looking forward to the future.

Into Film recommends this film for ages 5+

'Guillermo del Toro’s creative fingerprints are everywhere in this refreshingly sparky and laugh-out-loud funny family film'- The Guardian

'The Book of Life is bursting with vibrant colours and magic – a constantly expanding, neverending party.' -Sight & Sound

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 Evolution of Horror and MUBI present: THE DRILLER KILLER. The screening will be processed by a panel discussion.

Reno is a struggling artist pushed to the edge by the economic realities of New York living in the late seventies and the punk band practicing in the apartment below. His grip on reality soon begins to slip, and he takes to stalking the streets with his power tool in search of prey.

Transfusing exploitation with experimentation, The Driller Killer spills blood, guts, and ideas too. Drilling down into genre, Abel Ferrara’s notorious breakthrough mashes together throbbing punk concerts, lurid grindhouse kills, wicked political satire, and bohemian arthouse digressions.

20:30 Panel Discussion

21:10 Drink Break

21:30 Film Screening

Panellists:

Mike Muncer (Host) - Host of The Evolution of Horror Podcast

Prano Bailey-Bond - Filmmaker and Writer / Director of Censor

Reece Shearsmith - Actor / Writer behind Inside No 9 and League of Gentlemen

Becky Darke - Horror movie critic, journalist and podcaster

Adapted from Edith Wharton's classic novel, and now digitally restored, Terence Davies’ drama features an acclaimed performance by Gillian Anderson as a young woman looking to make a good marriage, drawn into a downward spiral when her honour and her love for another prevent her from accepting the advances of a wealthy banker.

The film proved Davies a master of period filmmaking and literary adaptation, and deserves to be regarded as one of the best British features of its era.

This screening will begin with a live dance performance by Rachel Wang and concludes with an in-person Q&A with Japanese filmmaker Kaori Oda, director of Thus A Noise Speaks.

Curated by The Knot Collective, the programme presents intimate non-fiction films that move beyond stereotypes to explore the complex tensions between duty and selfhood in East Asian motherhood. In cultures where maternal self-sacrifice and emotional restraint are idealised, these works centre the agency and emotional depth of mothers navigating egg donation, mental illness, single parenthood, and raising non-binary children.

MOM

Artist. Rachel Wang

2025, UK, China, 5’

In this dance performance that opens the programme, the artist discovers the resemblance between the deep red cloak symbolising her mother and the hem of her own skirt. Realising her true longing for this connection to her mother, she finds the answers to her healing journey and decides to rebuild this connection.

Fantastic Eggs and Where to Find Them

Dir. Vitty Ho

2024, Hong Kong, Taiwan, 30’

This is an egg donation diary of a 27-year-old girl, as well as a love letter to her unborn child, whom she will never meet. Five blood draws, nine ovulation injections, two ovulation-triggering shots, countless pills and growth hormones, and one general anesthesia surgery, resulting in 40 eggs, NT$99,000, and a lifetime of endless concern.

Transparent, I am.

Dir. Yuri Muraoka

2020, Japan, 12’

In the year of 2020 when the world was forced to 'change'. I wanted to confirm what changed and what did not change in me and wrote a poem 'Transparent, I am.' This film is based on it. The white mask I wore became the screen projected my past. My family are sometimes hurt and suffer, but support me who suffers from schizophrenia. Nonoho, Yuri, Nemu and Hana. The four of us live today to the fullest while looking for the answer to 'Who are we?'  - Yuri

Tiger and Ox

Dir. Seunghee Kim

2019, South Korea, 8’

A mother told her daughter to keep her father’s absence a secret. Years later, they look back on the prejudices they encountered as a single-parent family in South Korea.

Thus A Noise Speaks

Dir. Kaori Oda

2010, Japan, 38’

A family dinner shifts from celebration to discomfort when Oda reveals to their family that they are non-binary. But the dinner is a recreation of the real event two weeks after the fact and the director has re-staged it to force their family members to consider their responses and the dynamics at play.

The Knot Collective is a newly established film club dedicated to showcasing independent works that centre the narratives of East and Southeast Asian women and non-binary individuals, using cinema as an act of collective reflection and cross-cultural dialogue that weaves stories into the fabric of diasporic identity and shared cultural memory.

Our screening on Saturday 8 November will be followed by a Q&A with director David Wilkinson. 

The Marbles is the explosive new documentary uncovering the world’s greatest art heist - the stealing/removal of the Parthenon Marbles - and the global fight to bring them home. From ancient theft to modern-day resistance, this is a story of empire, identity, and justice.

The Masque of the Red Death was proposed for our Halloween programme by our member Rachael Grant, who writes, 'Nothing screams Halloween more effectively than a Roger Corman + Vincent Price Poe adaptation, all delivered in glorious Technicolor.'

Having sardonically invited the villagers to eat scraps off his table at a feast, Prince Prospero learns that one of their miserable hovels is plagued with the dreaded Red Death. Prospero orders the entire village to be burnt to the ground. Unperturbed by this, Prospero assembles his noblemen for the commencement of the masque. Every guest is to come in disguise. Gradually the ball is transformed into a terrifying Dance of Death, as a man in red, the Red Death, comes to claim Prospero in the macabre finale.

Please note, the screening on Monday 20 October is our free members' screening, while Halloween night is a regular screening, which is open to the general public.

In a sedate Massachusetts suburb circa 1970, unemployed family man and amateur art thief J.B Mooney sets out on his first heist. With the museum cased and accomplices recruited, he has an airtight plan. Or so he thinks.

A brilliant look at the folly of man, The Mastermind also features Alana Haim, Gaby Hoffmann, John Magaro, Hope Davis and Bill Camp. Rich in textured detail, this sly depiction of an era subverts long-held illusions and confronts disillusionment.

The Garden Cinema View:

Only Kelly Reichardt’s third film without regular writing partner Jonathan Raymond, she also leaves the familiar surroundings of the Pacific Northwest for Massachusetts and Ohio. Whilst these might feel like departures for the Reichardt faithful, The Mastermind ultimately settles perfectly into her filmography. A heist film which features one of the most laid-back robberies in cinema, and then a drifter film which evokes earlier Reichardt visions of marginal US life such as Wendy and Lucy and even River of Grass. In fact that latter film’s debt to New Hollywood (Badlands in particular), re-merges in the 1970s setting of The Mastermind, along with the loose crime and road trip elements that feel akin to John Cassavetes. Cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt and production designer Anthony Gasparro evoke New England fall colours, matched by the warm tones of the period dressing. Josh O’Connor adds another role to his growing collection of lived in, and clapped out, men. Rob Mazurek’s complex but laid back jazz score binds it all together.    

Scripted by former railwayman Rob Dawber The Navigators lays bare the unappetising choice faced by railway workers after the still contentious privatization of British Rail in the mid-1990s. Either they can continue existing jobs for lower pay and safety standards, or accept redundancy and break up long-established teams, the quality of whose work is at least as much due to personal camaraderie as effective management. The film’s tragic conclusion is as inevitable as it is shocking - and matched by real-life incidents, since filming commenced in the wake of the 2001 Hatfield train crash. It went straight to television in Britain, but was a top-ten box-office hit in Paris, whose audiences must have been bewildered by the British notion of how to run a railway. – BFI

The Outcasts was proposed for our Halloween programme by our member Jane Townsend who writes that although the film is 'not exactly horror, it is weird and spooky and rich in Irish mythology.'

This eerie folklorish tale is set in 19th‑century Ireland amid an isolated rural community where poverty and superstition are rife. Maura (Mary Ryan), an introverted farm girl suspected of witchcraft, discovers a mystical world of the imagination through ‘a wild, ungodly man’ – the mysterious wanderer Scarf Michael (Mick Lally). Director Robert Wynne-Simmons combines horror, earthy drama, dreamlike fantasy and tragedy to produce this intelligent and visually stunning directorial debut.

With thanks to Robert Wynne-Simmons for facilitating these screenings.

After getting a flat tire in the middle of nowhere, newly engaged couple Brad and Janet encounter the eerie mansion of the flamboyant, seductive Dr. Frank-N-Furter and a variety of eccentric characters. Through elaborate dance and rock music, the mad scientist unveils his latest creation: a perfect, muscular man.

This special Halloween edition of Composing Cinema will be introduced by Oscar nominated composer Gary Yershon and showcases the work of the pioneering Elisabeth Lutyens (1906-1983). Lutyens is often cited as the first female British composer to score a feature film. Her uncompromisingly modern style was not popular with conservative concert audiences, but was happily suited to the science-fiction and horror movies for which she frequently wrote.

Peter Cushing stars as Dr. Christopher Maitland, a writer and collector of occult items (with a preference for those with a somewhat macabre history), who is offered the chance to purchase a highly expensive and unusual item: the skull of the Marquis de Sade. Warned against obtaining the item by fellow collector (Christopher Lee in a rare non-villainous role), the skull's influence draws Maitland in, and madness and death soon follow…

Adapted from a short story by Robert Bloch (Psycho) and featuring a score by avant-garde composer Elisabeth Lutyens, The Skull is one of the most expertly crafted British horror films of its era.

On Wednesday, 19 November, the screening will serve as a fundraiser for a Palestinian cultural charity. Irish musicians will perform before the screening and crafts will be on sale in the Atrium bar. The doors will open from 19:00. It will be introduced by historian Geoffrey Bell, author of several books about Ireland, including The Twilight of Unionism.

Cillian Murphy and Pádraic Delaney play brothers who join the Irish Republican Army in 1920 after witnessing the killing of a friend at the hands of the Black and Tans, the British body employed to suppress revolution in Ireland. As the conflict gets increasingly violent and friends and family are tortured and murdered, the brothers become ideologically divided, with tragic results.
The film provoked controversy, with many critics decrying it (some without having seen it) for its negative view of the British. – BFI

The film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival (1996)

The Wind That Shakes The Barley will be screened with English subtitles.

This event will help us raise funds for the Jenin Cultural Centre. Crafts on sale will include ceramics,photography, collages, badges by Croí na Gaeilge, lin prints and Films of Resistance tote bags. Proceeds from items by @mosaicsforpalestine will go to the Ghassan Abu Sittah Children's Fund.

The Jenin Cultural Centre currently provides shelter and therapeutic art activities to hundreds of children and adults in the city of Jenin and those who have been made homeless since the destruction of the Jenin refugee camp in Spring 2025. A team from the Centre is also planning a tour of the UK in Spring 2026 to showcase Palestinian music and films, and give talks on life in Jenin and the West Bank. If you wish to support or donate to this project, please visit the fundraiser page.

This UK Premiere of State of Statelessness by Drung Collective as part of Tibet Film Festival London will be introduced in-person by cultural anthropologist Dr. Dawa Lokyitsang.

State of Statelessness is the first-ever Tibetan-language anthology feature film, exploring the profound themes of statelessness and migration through four poignant stories of Tibetans living in exile. Directed by Tibetan filmmakers in India, America, and Vietnam, the film captures the painful realities of a scattered people, from a father’s tale of the Mekong River to a son’s discovery of a family secret in Dharamshala.

The screening will be followed by a storytelling workshop led by Dr. Dawa Lokyitsang at the nearby Poetry Cafe drawing on the themes of the film. More information and tickets available here.

The Tibet Film Festival was founded in 2008, inspired by Dhondup Wangchen, a self-taught Tibetan filmmaker, who was imprisoned for his film Leaving Fear Behind. The Tibet Film Festival takes place in Zurich, Dharamsala (India), Berlin and London and showcases films made by Tibetans inside Tibet and in exile.

The screening on 16 November will be followed by a Zoom Q&A with the director Chen Yu-hsun, moderated by Dr Yayu Zheng (The Courtauld Institute of Art).

Bun Bites Screening and Chinese Cinema Project jointly present a special screening of Taiwanese filmmaker Chen Yu-hsun's debut feature Tropical Fish (digital restoration), celebrating its 30th anniversary.

Shot from the perspective of a young boy, Tropical Fish is a disarming comic fairytale about early-adolescent unease, first love, and the endless pressure of school exams. Unfolding like a summer daydream, the film is filled with light-hearted humour and charm. Winner of Best Original Screenplay at Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards 1995 and also a nominee for the Golden Leopard at Locarno Film Festival.

Ah-Jiang is a school failure and day dreamer. Before his senior high school entrance exam, he accidentally witnesses a child’s kidnapping and unexpectedly becomes a hostage himself. While the whole society is concerned about the upcoming exam, Ah-Jiang instead finds freedom and joy in an unsupervised summer adventure.

Nell Dunn's Up the Junction, directed by Ken Loach, is a controversial and mould-breaking TV drama, watched by an audience of nearly 10 million on first transmission. A record 400 viewers complained to the BBC, mostly about the programme's bad language and depiction of sexual promiscuity. Now, these aspects seem relatively mild. At the time, Up the Junction's depiction of abortion had a major impact, contributing to the national debate which led to the legalisation of abortion in 1967. -BFI, screenonline

Video Bazaar invites you to the Garden Cinema this Halloween for two rare screenings of Eckhart Schmidt’s notorious cult classic, Der Fan.

Released in 1982, Der Fan stands as one of the most unsettling works of the German New Wave. The film follows Simone, a disaffected teenager whose obsession with a pop idol named R transcends adoration and descends into pure horror. This film is far more than just a provocation; Schmidt crafts a chilling portrait of alienation, youth culture, and the consuming power of celebrity worship and parasocial relationships.

Anchored by Désirée Nosbusch’s remarkable performance and propelled by a cold, minimalist synth score from cult German new wave band, Rheingold, Der Fan is both hypnotic and horrifying, capturing the sterile surfaces and hidden violence of West German society at the dawn of the 1980s. At once art-house meditation and exploitation shocker, it remains one of the most unforgettable and uncompromising horror films of its time.

Join us on 24 October as well as on Halloween night itself to witness this singular vision on the big screen!

This screening is presented by the cult film club, Video Bazaar, who are proud to present this rarely screened film and are dedicated to bringing the weird, the obscure and forgotten classics to London audiences at The Garden Cinema.

Wander into the Hundred Acre Wood for a tender adventure that honours friendship, imagination, and quiet magic. Inspired by five stories from A.A. Milne's books and created in Disney's legendary, hand-drawn style, Winnie the Pooh is a delight for the whole family.

While searching for honey, Pooh and his friends embark on an adventure to find Eeyore's missing tail and rescue Christopher Robin from an unknown monster called 'The Backson'.

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.

The 29th Made in Prague Film Festival presents the UK premiere of Wishing on a Star, an offbeat crowd-pleaser that captivated audiences at the 2024 Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals and was nominated for the Best Documentary Award at the Chicago International Film

Neapolitan astrologer Luciana has an unusual recipe for happiness: on your birthday, travel to the exact spot on Earth where the planets align, for a fresh start. This humorous docudrama follows her quiet yet extraordinary life and five clients embarking on “birthday trips” to destinations as varied as Taipei, Beirut, and a tiny nearby village. Each journey promises a symbolic rebirth, offering the chance to alter one’s destiny and uncover hidden desires. Blending warmth, wit, and wanderlust, the film reveals how a change of sky — and a leap of faith — might just change your life. An offbeat crowd-pleaser.

Organised in collaboration with the Italian Cultural Centre

'A playful, lighthearted hybrid doc from Peter Kerekes on steering one’s fate, as an Italian astrologer sends her troubled clients off globetrotting'- Carmen Gray, The Film Verdict

Modern, funny, and refreshingly real, Messy, Loud & Growing dives into the chaos of youth, love, and identity in a digital and unpredictable world. From house party drama in Shoobs, and sisterhood tested by social media in Ugly Instagram, to heartache and delicious revenge in the film, The Incredible Sensational Fiancée of Sèyí Àjàyí, these coming-of-age stories capture the beautiful mess of figuring it all out.

Films Screening:

Shoobs (Lisle Turner.)

This is a raucous coming-of-age story set at a banging South London house party in the early noughties. Lisa is taking advice on how to deal with her feelings for both Blazer and Jada, but is it good advice?

Ugly Instagram (Temi Yussuf)

Lost in a world of hashtags, reposts, and likes, Libby, 23, lands herself and her sister Tola, 26, in a sticky situation. With the consequences of Libby's decisions staring her and her sister in the face, they question whether the pursuit of virtual validation is the reality they thought it would be.

The Incredible Sensational Fiancée of Sèyí Àjàyí (Abbesi Akhamie)

In the whimsical pan-African community of Alkebulan, a brilliant scholar plots revenge after discovering her fiancé's engagement to another woman!    

Empowering through knowledge and celebration', is one of the primary tenets of Women Of The Lens Film Festival, which aims to bring heartwarming stories to film loving audiences and support the careers of black women in the film industries. Debuting in 2017, Women Of The Lens Film Festival highlights the experiences and achievements of talented filmmakers, meanwhile showcasing courageous stories from underrepresented women working in the film industry. Our 2025 programme will feature narratives that spotlights triumphs, gender representation, heritage and tradition, politics, family and relationships, healing and love and so much more. As well as all of this, our exciting programme will include panel discussions from industry professionals, where you can make your own contribution to some vibrant conversation. Not only this, we’ll be further congratulating filmmaking talent with our first, not to be missed, Awards Ceremony, to sign off what will be an inspiring festival. Grab your tickets now, we can't wait for you to join us!

Women Of The Lens Film Festival presents our first Awards Ceremony. Built to acknowledge the efforts of filmmakers striving to make their own unique, industry mark, we will honour and celebrate remarkable talent and in doing so, ensure that we make significant contributions to the improvement of our industry across the board. We welcome you to join us in this landmark event!

Empowering through knowledge and celebration', is one of the primary tenets of Women Of The Lens Film Festival, which aims to bring heartwarming stories to film loving audiences and support the careers of black women in the film industries. Debuting in 2017, Women Of The Lens Film Festival highlights the experiences and achievements of talented filmmakers, meanwhile showcasing courageous stories from underrepresented women working in the film industry. Our 2025 programme will feature narratives that spotlights triumphs, gender representation, heritage and tradition, politics, family and relationships, healing and love and so much more. As well as all of this, our exciting programme will include panel discussions from industry professionals, where you can make your own contribution to some vibrant conversation. Not only this, we’ll be further congratulating filmmaking talent with our first, not to be missed, Awards Ceremony, to sign off what will be an inspiring festival. Grab your tickets now, we can't wait for you to join us!

Unbound: Women, Power & Possession is an unflinching strand that dives deep into the lives of women reclaiming control over their bodies, stories, and futures. From breaking spiritual dogmas and societal shame, to surviving motherhood on the edge, and confronting the politics of sex across continents, these films spotlight raw, resilient journeys of women reclaiming their bodies and identities in a world that often demands silence.

Films Screening:

Oath Bound (Ola Laniyan)

Four years after being tricked, sold and mentally entrapped into the Nigerian sex slave industry, Nneka decides she has had enough. Today, she breaks the Oath with the African Gods.

Skettel Moon (Lee Ferguson)

A young mother struggles to keep her head above water as she navigates motherhood, her neurodivergent toddler, and the gritty Atlanta nightclub where she works. All on a quarter tank of gas.

Black Women And Sex (Godisamang Khunou)

This film explores the tension between black women and the politics of sex, through the sexual realities of three unique women - a South African trans woman, a Nigerian woman raised in a Polygamous home and a Zambian woman jailed for a sex tape. Their stories examine how patriarchy impacts women and how self love and the owning of one's sexuality can fight against limiting and constraining views, on a personal and political level.  

Trigger Warning: Scenes of a sexual nature, some simulated genital exposure, some scenes of simulated abuse.

Empowering through knowledge and celebration', is one of the primary tenets of Women Of The Lens Film Festival, which aims to bring heartwarming stories to film loving audiences and support the careers of black women in the film industries. Debuting in 2017, Women Of The Lens Film Festival highlights the experiences and achievements of talented filmmakers, meanwhile showcasing courageous stories from underrepresented women working in the film industry. Our 2025 programme will feature narratives that spotlights triumphs, gender representation, heritage and tradition, politics, family and relationships, healing and love and so much more. As well as all of this, our exciting programme will include panel discussions from industry professionals, where you can make your own contribution to some vibrant conversation. Not only this, we’ll be further congratulating filmmaking talent with our first, not to be missed, Awards Ceremony, to sign off what will be an inspiring festival. Grab your tickets now, we can't wait for you to join us!

From the Jamaican dancehalls to Chicago’s electric blues clubs, this powerful strand, Voices of Power: Icons Who Changed Sound, celebrates landmark artists whose voices redefined music history. Bam Bam: The Sister Nancy Story and Roots and Blues: The Muddy Waters MOJO Museum, shine a bright spotlight on two absolute legends. Sister Nancy and Muddy Waters' rhythms, broke barriers, moved generations, and continue to echo across reggae, hip hop, rock, pop and soul. These are the untold stories behind the sounds that shaped the world.  

Films Screening:

Roots and Blues: The Muddy Waters MOJO Museum (Chandra Cooper and Nate Wyse.)

This is a documentary exploring the extraordinary life and lasting legacy of Muddy Waters, born McKinley Morganfield, the father of modern Chicago blues. Executive Producer and Co-Director Chandra Cooper, Muddy Waters’ great-granddaughter, highlights the Muddy Waters MOJO Museum, housed in his first home, which became a gathering place for legendary musicians and will soon serve as a cultural center. Roots and Blues celebrates Muddy’s enduring influence, the city that embraced him, and the global impact of Chicago blues.  

Bam Bam: The Sister Nancy Story (Alison Duke)

The hit song “Bam Bam” has long held the status of an anthem in the reggae genre and is one of the most sampled vocals ever. Lesser known is the story behind the song and, even more so, the woman behind the voice. Entertaining and empowering, Sister Nancy’s story proves that great music overcomes obstacles and that staying true to oneself is the key to success, both in the music industry and in life.

Empowering through knowledge and celebration', is one of the primary tenets of Women Of The Lens Film Festival, which aims to bring heartwarming stories to film loving audiences and support the careers of black women in the film industries. Debuting in 2017, Women Of The Lens Film Festival highlights the experiences and achievements of talented filmmakers, meanwhile showcasing courageous stories from underrepresented women working in the film industry. Our 2025 programme will feature narratives that spotlights triumphs, gender representation, heritage and tradition, politics, family and relationships, healing and love and so much more. As well as all of this, our exciting programme will include panel discussions from industry professionals, where you can make your own contribution to some vibrant conversation. Not only this, we’ll be further congratulating filmmaking talent with our first, not to be missed, Awards Ceremony, to sign off what will be an inspiring festival. Grab your tickets now, we can't wait for you to join us!

From the Senate floor to the racetrack, the skatepark to the streets of Kabul and Tehran, these films spotlight women who won't abide by detrimental societal expectations, who rewrite rules, and aim to reclaim their voice. Our Strand, Her Power, Her Path, celebrates women of courage such as Senator Wynona Lipman and Formula 1 business owner Carol Glenn, and honours the quiet revolution of girls and women who will stand tall, take full reigns of their ambitions and speak up, to dance when the world says not to. This strand is a rallying cry for freedom, visibility, and unstoppable determination.

Films Screening:

Stronger Than Steel: The Senator Wynona Lipman Story (Celeste A. Bateman)

This documentary explores the life of Sen. Wynona Lipman (1923-1999), the first African American Woman Senator in New Jersey (USA). It examines her family and remarkable achievements, highlighting legislative initiatives and career benchmarks.

Boneless 180 (Laya Hartman)

Dayna Doles, one of few black girls in a wealthy Detroit suburb, grows a deep love for skateboarding. Ostracised, she meets pro-skater Christiana Smith and begins to unlock her true potential.

Faghan Daughters of Afghanistan (Emanuela Zuccalà)

On August 15, 2021, the Taliban reconquer Afghanistan after twenty years of Western military presence, establishing a religious dictatorship. The country falls into violence, extreme poverty and human rights violations. The Taliban establish a gender apartheid that segregates women within their homes, prohibiting them from studying beyond the age of twelve, working, going to gyms, parks or beauty salons. In public, women are forbidden to show their faces, and even to make their voices heard. For Afghan women, the only choice is between social death and fleeing abroad.

Baraye (Daniella Raphaël)

In the quiet confines of her home, an Iranian woman dreams of dancing freely to Shervin Hajipour’s Grammy-winning song, Baraye. In a country where dance is forbidden, movement becomes defiance, a language of resilience. This dance film gives shape to the unspoken grief, hope, and strength of Iranian women. A testament to the universal fight for gender equality and the right to express oneself without fear.

Set Pace (Daisy Ifama.)

This film tells the story of legendary Carol Glenn, Britain's first black, female motorsports official, as she sets out on a new venture to launch her own Formula Ford single seater race team, breaking boundaries as the first black woman in the UK to do so. A true hidden gem, 67-year-old Carol has spent almost 40 years volunteering on the track and self-funding her passion travelling to race circuits across the world, from Silverstone to Le Mans to Texas. Now, Carol has turned her hand to a new project – turbocharging the industry with her own race team, the first of its kind in the UK.

Trigger Warning: Contains scenes of war and some scenes of implied abuse

Empowering through knowledge and celebration', is one of the primary tenets of Women Of The Lens Film Festival, which aims to bring heartwarming stories to film loving audiences and support the careers of black women in the film industries. Debuting in 2017, Women Of The Lens Film Festival highlights the experiences and achievements of talented filmmakers, meanwhile showcasing courageous stories from underrepresented women working in the film industry. Our 2025 programme will feature narratives that spotlights triumphs, gender representation, heritage and tradition, politics, family and relationships, healing and love and so much more. As well as all of this, our exciting programme will include panel discussions from industry professionals, where you can make your own contribution to some vibrant conversation. Not only this, we’ll be further congratulating filmmaking talent with our first, not to be missed, Awards Ceremony, to sign off what will be an inspiring festival. Grab your tickets now, we can't wait for you to join us!

The Mediator and Seeing Without Sight, invite us to see and feel the world differently. Our Strand, Redefining Connection explores the power of human bonds beyond the surface, as characters confront isolation, challenge perceptions, and find meaning in unexpected places. Whether through a life-changing phone call or a deeper understanding of beauty beyond what we can see, these stories remind us that real connection begins where assumptions end.

Films Screening:

The Mediator (Dean Leon Anderson)

Chris is struggling with his new life, after an accident leaves him bedridden, severely paralysed and cared for by his sister Olivia. Chris is visited by Mary, a young woman Olivia has hired with a unique specialised job as a relations mediator, making only three conference calls on behalf of her client to help restore their personal relationships with others. Chris's view of the world changes when he makes a surprise connection with Mary, who helps others mend relationships to alleviate her own empty life.

Seeing Without Sight (Alyscia Cunningham)

One can be tempted to think that, although beauty comes in many forms, and although the people, places or objects that exhibit beauty are of diverse sorts, it can only be sensed visually. What is the perception process that underlies the experience of beauty from the perspective of a woman without the sense of sight? This is a documentary that delves into the lives of girls and women with vision loss, challenging viewers to perceive beauty beyond sight. Through their stories, it aims to redefine societal norms of beauty, inviting a deeper understanding and appreciation.

Empowering through knowledge and celebration', is one of the primary tenets of Women Of The Lens Film Festival, which aims to bring heartwarming stories to film loving audiences and support the careers of black women in the film industries. Debuting in 2017, Women Of The Lens Film Festival highlights the experiences and achievements of talented filmmakers, meanwhile showcasing courageous stories from underrepresented women working in the film industry. Our 2025 programme will feature narratives that spotlights triumphs, gender representation, heritage and tradition, politics, family and relationships, healing and love and so much more. As well as all of this, our exciting programme will include panel discussions from industry professionals, where you can make your own contribution to some vibrant conversation. Not only this, we’ll be further congratulating filmmaking talent with our first, not to be missed, Awards Ceremony, to sign off what will be an inspiring festival. Grab your tickets now, we can't wait for you to join us!

What does it mean to belong? Rooted & Rising in Home and Heritage brings together powerful personal journeys exploring identity, ancestry, and connection. From Windrush memories and family reunions to spiritual legacies and inner-city sisterhood, these films trace the threads of heritage and legacy across generations and continents, celebrating the strength found in history, the beauty in rediscovery, and the evolving meaning of our homes.

Films Screening:

My Dad, Guyana And Me (Noella Letitia Mingo)

One woman's voyage of discovery to understand her heritage and what makes somewhere truly home.        

Irpinia (Jameisha Prescod)

This is a story of black British hope from the perspective of what is known in the UK as the Windrush Generation. At the age of 24, Dudley Porteous boarded a ship called the Irpinia in search of a better life in England, the so-called mother country. Now 86 years old, Dudley reflects on his exciting journey to sea and the harsh reality that lay ahead.

It's A Family Thing (Lea Anderson)

This film introduces the 51st anniversary of an African American family reunion. Whilst unravelling the necessity and history of this deep rooted tradition, the film portrays three siblings - Max, Beryl and Antoine - separated since birth, recalling their life long journey to reunite and emphasising the importance of family connections and belonging.

Adinkra (Peter Palmer and Golda Kesse)

In modern-day England, skeptical Samira is pulled back into Karim’s life when buried family secrets resurface. As whispers of West African ancestral wisdom blur reality and myth, they must face the past, mend their fractured bond, and unlock a legacy more powerful than they imagined.

Ties (Tassia Quirino)

Delving into the lives of three black women, Ties attempts to answer essential questions: Do I feel seen? Do I feel at home? How do I feel in London? As the narrative unfolds, five threads intertwine; belonging, community, heritage, representation and sisterhood. Through intimate interviews and glimpses of diverse London neighbourhoods, each story reveals shared ties and unique journeys of each character.  

Empowering through knowledge and celebration', is one of the primary tenets of Women Of The Lens Film Festival, which aims to bring heartwarming stories to film loving audiences and support the careers of black women in the film industries. Debuting in 2017, Women Of The Lens Film Festival highlights the experiences and achievements of talented filmmakers, meanwhile showcasing courageous stories from underrepresented women working in the film industry. Our 2025 programme will feature narratives that spotlights triumphs, gender representation, heritage and tradition, politics, family and relationships, healing and love and so much more. As well as all of this, our exciting programme will include panel discussions from industry professionals, where you can make your own contribution to some vibrant conversation. Not only this, we’ll be further congratulating filmmaking talent with our first, not to be missed, Awards Ceremony, to sign off what will be an inspiring festival. Grab your tickets now, we can't wait for you to join us!

Tumble out of bed and stumble to the kitchen, pour myself a cup of MURDER. For Halloween 2025, Zodiac Film Club have been workin’ 9 to 5 to bring you Office Killer (1997), the criminally underwatched sole feature by Cindy Sherman. Overlooked copy editor Dorine never quite fits in with her yuppie co-workers. But when she’s downsized from office drudge to home-worker, she finds an unexpected new way to stay connected with her colleagues. Beware what happens when grammatical sticklers get to write their own endings!

Expect a schlocky script (co-written with Todd Haynes), slick visuals, and a stacked line-up: our strange queen Carol Kane, supported by Molly Ringwald, Jeanne Tripplehorn, and Michael Imperioli. Our Halloween cup overfloweth with 90s candy.

Join us in the bar from 8pm for drinks, office-inspired costume judging, and further Zodiac Halloween highjinx.

Zodiac Film Club is a London-based cinema community, newsletter and independent programmer. With a focus on good-looking films, complex female characters and overlooked genres, we create a fun, friendly and irreverent space for watching, discussing and thinking about cinema. We have written about film for publications including Dazed Digital, Indie and My McQ and been featured in i-D and Time Out. Our collaborators have included The London Short Film Festival, GiF and Final Girls Berlin Film Festival.