Join us for a family-friendly screening of the inspiring documentary 2040, followed by a craft session where you can make your own climate action poster, placard or collage for upcoming marches, local campaigning or for your bedroom window.  

Motivated by concerns about the planet his 4-year-old daughter would inherit, award-winning director Damon Gameau (That Sugar Film) embarks on a journey to explore what the future could look like by the year 2040 if we simply embraced the best solutions already available to us to improve our planet and shifted them rapidly into the mainstream. He meets with innovators and changemakers in many fields, from solar power to progressive farming, to draw on their expertise and practical suggestions. Structured as a letter to his 4-year-old daughter, who will be 25 by the year 2040, this is an insightful and thought-provoking piece with a hopeful message of how we can all make a positive difference to the world in both big ways and small.

Into Film recommends this film for children aged 8+

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

Each screening of A Confucian Confusion will be preceded by a video introduction from Tony Rayns.

Edward Yang’s first cinematic foray into comedy may have been a surprising stylistic departure, but in its richly novelistic vision of urban discontent, it is quintessential Yang. This relationship roundelay centers on a coterie of young Taipei professionals whose paths converge at an entertainment company where the boundaries between art and commerce, and love and business, have become hopelessly blurred. Evoking the chaos of a city infiltrated by Western chains, logos, and attitudes, A Confucian Confusion is an incisive reflection on the role of traditional values in a materialistic, amoral society.

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.

"Identidad is a deeply personal and urgent exploration of Argentina’s dark past - a past that continues to shape the lives of those searching for the truth. At its core, this film is about memory, justice, and the resilience of identity."

Stolen at birth during Argentina’s dictatorship, a 46-year-old man finally finds his biological family. The doubts Daniel Santucho Navajas had about his identity were finally exposed when the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo, who store the genetic information of victims of the military dictatorship in Argentina, found a DNA match for him in July 2023. Reconnecting with his biological family, Daniel uncovers the truth of what happened to him. He learns he was born in a detention centre and covertly adopted while his mother remains one of the thousands of disappeared people. Through his search for the truth, he discovers a widespread programme of illegal adoption and crimes committed during the military dictatorship from 1976-1983.

"Identity" is a documentary film by Daniel's sister Florencia Santucho and Rodrigo Vazquez-Salessi. This film is Florencia Santucho's directorial debut, while Rodrigo Vázquez-Salessi is an award-winning filmmaker and war correspondent who honed his craft in Argentina before moving to the UK in 1995 to study at the National Film & TV School.

This UK premiere of the film is presented in partnership with Alborada Films and will be followed by a Q&A with co-director Rodrigo Vazquez-Salessi. Chaired by Pablo Navarrete (Alborada Films)

The film is produced by Bethnal 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).

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.

Just in time for Oktoberfest, we're excited to welcome back our wonderful friends from Lost and Grounded Brewers on Saturday 11 October for another beer & cheese tasting event. They will be traveling to the cinema from Bristol to teach us a thing or two about their delicious lagers and ales, and  in keeping with the time of year, the tasting will be followed by an iconic German film: Tom Tykwer's innovative and deliciously 90s Run Lola Run.

During the tasting, you'll get to try all the varieties currently on our menu, as well as a few others in the Lost and Grounded range. As per the brewers' suggestion, there will be a tasty cheese pairing for each of the beers, supplied by the lovely Soho Dairy, who you may remember from our previous wine tastings. Their stall can be found over on Berwick Street Market (W1F 0PH) and is worth seeking out, as they are fiercely independent and community-orientated, and offer an excellent assortment of prize-winning cheeses, straight from independent UK dairy producers.

Timings:

19:00  Beer tasting with cheese pairings

21:00  Screening of Run Lola Run

22:30  Expected finish

Tickets are £32.50 for members and £34.50 for non-members, and include the tasting as well as an unallocated seat for the screening of Run Lola Run.

Please note that all beer varieties in the tasting will contain gluten, and there are no non-alcoholic versions available. All cheeses will contain dairy, and some might be produced with animal rennet, meaning not all offerings will be vegetarian-friendly.

About the film:

In this visually and conceptually impressive film, two-bit Berlin criminal Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) delivers some smuggled loot for his boss, Ronnie (Heino Ferch), but accidentally leaves the 100,000 Mark payment in a subway car. Given 20 minutes to come up with the money, he calls his girlfriend, Lola (Franka Potente), who sprints through the streets of the city to try to beg the money out of her bank manager father (Herbert Knaup) and get to Manni before he does something desperate.

About Lost and Grounded Brewers:

Lost and Grounded Brewers is an independent brewery based in Bristol, established by Co-Founders Alex Troncoso and Annie Clements in July 2016. With a contemporary focus on sustainability and operating from their state-of-the-art brewhouse, their process echoes traditional German brewing methods to produce beers with balance, nuance and a depth of character. Renowned for their award-winning lager Keller Pils, their diverse range comprises of fine, specialty lagers, Belgian-inspired beers and Garden Cinema favourite, Garden Pale Ale.

Website | Instagram

If you would like to watch the film without attending the beer & cheese tasting event, you can buy a regular film ticket for the screening here.

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.

Both films in our Kiyoshi Kurosawa double bill will be introduced by film historian Ellisha Izumi.

A landmark in the history of Japanese cinema, Cure was the breakthrough film for director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Released to critical acclaim in both the East and the West, this nerve-shredding thriller charts the hunt for a depraved serial killer in a bleak and decaying Tokyo.

A series of murders have been committed by ordinary people who claim to have had no control over their actions, many of them having killed friends, co-workers or even their spouse. There are only two links between each crime: an X carved into the neck of each victim, and a mysterious stranger who seems to have had brief contact with the perpetrator a short period of time before each killing. But to follow these leads and end a seemingly inexplicable wave of terror, police detective Kenichi Takabe (Koji Yakusho) will need to put his own sanity on the line and endure a descent into hell.

A multibuy discount applies for our Kiyoshi Kurosawa double bill. To claim, add a ticket for both Cure and Pulse to your basket and proceed to checkout where the cost will be reduced by £4.

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. This screening 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.

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.

Amongst the best-loved family films of all time, Steven Spielberg’s hugely influential tale follows troubled 10-year-old Elliott who stumbles upon a gentle alien stranded on Earth. Elliott smuggles the alien that he names 'E.T.' into his suburban California house, introduces him to his brother and sister, and attempts to find his new friend safe passage home.

Accompanied by John Williams’ fantastical score, ET has had children and grown-ups laughing and shedding a quiet tear ever since it first captivated cinema audiences in 1982.

Into Film recommends this film for children 8+. The film includes some frightening scenes, bad language and rude humour, which may not be suitable for young children. For more information, visit the BBFC.

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.

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+.

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

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 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.

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

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

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

The Garden Cinema View:

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

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

Monica Vitti stars here as Giuliana, the slightly whacky girl with whom bourgeois lawyer Pietro (Giorgio Albertazzi) meets cute at a bohemian bacchanal. Just as quickly, the two get married, setting the stage for a humorous study of then-contemporary romance and the state of sexual politics in Italy. Something of a time capsule, I Married You for Fun contributed significantly to Vitti branching out from the inscrutable Antonioni talisman to becoming more synonymous with Italian cinema in the 1960s.

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.

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’. 

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.

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

Join us for an evening of screenings and a live Zoom conversation with Ken Loach as he discusses some of his most controversial and suppressed films - works that TV networks and other institutions have tried to keep from the public. We will discuss The Gamekeeper, The Navigators, The Save The Children Fund Film, Which Side Are You On?, and A Question of Leadership. Discover the untold stories behind these banned and buried films, as well as first-hand accounts of the battles Loach fought to bring them to the general public.

Estimated timings:

18:00 - 19:15  Ken Loach in Conversation

19:15 - 19:45  Break

19:45 - 20:35  The Save The Children Fund Film

20:35 - 20:45  Comfort break

20:45 - 21:35  A Question of Leadership

21:35 - 21:45  Comfort break

21:45 - 22:40  Which Side Are You On? 

Tickets for the event, which includes the conversation and all three screenings, are £20 for members, and £22.50 for non-members.

This event is preceded by a screening of The Gamekeeper at 15:30. If you choose to book this film in addition to Ken Loach in Conversation, tickets for The Gamekeeper will be discounted to £10 (members) or £12 (non-members). The discount will appear automatically after putting both tickets in the basket. You can buy tickets here.

The Navigators will screen as part of our regular Ken Loach: A Retrospective programme on 20 October and 11 November. You can buy tickets for these screenings here.

About the films:

The Save the Children Fund Film, was commissioned in 1969 by the eponymous charity, although London Weekend Television put up two-thirds of the budget in return for screening rights. However, when the charity discovered that Loach's film represented their efforts in England as characterised largely by class prejudice and one of their schools in Kenya as a hotbed of neo-colonialist attitudes, they threatened to sue Loach and destroy the film, faced with which LWT meekly wrote off their investment and agreed not to screen it. Fortunately, however, the charity agreed to the print being lodged with the BFI, and the film received its first public screening in 2011.

A Question of Leadership: Ken Loach's examination of Thatcherism's impact on the trade unions was made for ATV, and scheduled to appear on ITV network on 5 August 1980. But after the Independent Broadcasting Authority found it in breach of impartiality rules, ATV was forced to withdraw it. Eventually, cut by 12 minutes to accommodate a 'balancing' programme, it was broadcast a year later, late-night and only in the midlands region.

Which Side Are You On? was commissioned for transmission as part of the South Bank Show, but was not shown because of its 'highly partial view on a controversial subject'. London Weekend Television, the commissioning company, felt that it was more of a political film than an arts film. Loach's brief was to make a programme that showed what the striking miners were writing and singing. He felt that this was what he delivered and was angered that the programme was banned on the basis that it overstepped official guidelines on political impartiality. Loach has always felt that no documentary can ever be neutral or 'balanced' (and nor can the news) and he acknowledges that he made the film entirely from the miners' point of view. Following the decision to pull the programme he said 'It is clear that only approved people can make comments about a struggle as decisive as the miners.'

- BFI, screenonline

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.

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.

Filmmaker Mark Forbes examines classism that has plagued the UK film industry for decades through the lens of individuals from working-class backgrounds as we observe the challenges they encounter when attempting to enter the field.

The screening will be followed by an industry panel to discuss the issues raised and to give the audience a chance to share their experiences of working in the industry.

Quiet on Set will be preceded by short film, The Secret Assistants (UK, 20m), dir. Katey Lee Carson.

Celebrating our 10th year, London Breeze is a BIFA accredited independent film festival showcasing emerging filmmakers and award-winning films from the UK and around the world. By providing a platform for new talent, we also aim to highlight important issues through creative storytelling. Our aim is to inspire film fans, engage communities and young people from diverse backgrounds, while nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive festival that fosters creativity and confidence - from the filmmakers who submit their films to the content we screen and the events we host.

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)

Our screening on 21 September will be introduced by Victor Fan (KCL).

Although most commonly associated with the wuxia genre, in 1979 King Hu directed the epic fantasy-horror, Legend of the Mountain. Heavily influenced by traditional Chinese aesthetics and Zen Buddhist philosophy, it has come to be regarded as one of his greatest filmmaking achievements.

A young scholar, Ho Yunqing (Shih Jun, A Touch of Zen, Dragon Inn), is tasked by an eminent monk to transcribe a Buddhist sutra said to have immense power over the spirits of the afterlife. To execute his work in peace, he travels to an isolated monastery deep in the mountains, where he encounters a number of strange people, including the mysterious and beautiful Melody (Hsu Feng, A Touch of Zen, Dragon Inn). As malicious spirits attempt to steal the sutra, Ho becomes entangled in a conflict between duelling forces of good and evil. Will he leave the mountain alive?

Few comedians are more influential than the legendary stand-up Lenny Bruce, who was born 100 years ago today. A visionary social critic and satirist, who consistently pushed far beyond the boundaries of what it was permissible to say - and think - in the conservative climate of mid-20th century America, Bruce died aged just 40 after a life lived at full tilt. Lenny, adapted from Julian Barry's 1971 play for the equally intense and accomplished film-maker Bob Fosse (Cabaret, All That Jazz) casts a nervy and energised Dustin Hoffman as Bruce in one of his most distinctive early performances, alongside the Cannes and BAFTA-winning Valerie Perrine as Honey, his stripper 'Shiksa goddess'.

To discuss the film, Lenny Bruce, and his influence on his own remarkable work, we will be joined after the screening by the hugely acclaimed stand-up comedian Stewart Lee.

Please be advised that, given the historical setting, as well as the themes and nature of Lenny Bruce's act, designed to challenge the nature - and users - of offensive language, some terms and phrases spoken might be distressing.

An event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Abductees, Paul Vester’s documentary following five parallel accounts of alien abduction, using a variety of animation styles and techniques. The film boasts a remarkable array of contributing animators and is rightly regarded as one of the greatest animated documentary shorts ever made. Beautiful, funny, haunting and not a little frightening.

The film is accompanied by a contemporary Channel 4 TV documentary about the film’s production and followed by a selection of Paul’s subsequent work. The screening concludes with a Q&A with Paul and producer Irene Kotlarz.

London-born filmmaker, animator and installation artist Paul Vester studied at the Central School of Art and the Royal College of Art in London and worked as a designer, animator and director for several London production companies before establishing his own studio, Speedy Films, in 1972. French TV commercials and the Arts Council of Great Britain financed his film Sunbeam (1980). British and U.S. TV commercials financed his next film, Picnic (1987). With Abductees, made for Channel 4 (1995) he was an early pioneer of the of animated documentary form. In 1997 he moved to Los Angeles where he worked for Rhythm & Hues and Klasky Csupo before teaching for 17 years in the Experimental Program at CalArts. His next film, In the Woods (2008) was made with a Guggenheim Fellowship. This was followed by two installations, Prototypes For a Clock 1 & 2, looping video installations that mark time passing by counting forwards in cycles of random lengths. He is currently working on a short piece celebrating a composition for player piano by Conlon Nancarrow; this will be screened in the show as a work-in-progress.

Abductees: short film (Paul Vester, UK, 1995)

Secret Passions: C4 documentary (Paul Madden, UK, 1995)  

Snake Attack: MTV sting (Paul Vester, UK, 1989)

Bubblicious, Inkspots: TV Ad (Paul Vester, UK, 1993)

Hershey, Tastetations: TV ad (Paul Vester, US, 1997)

Xerox, The Printer that Thought it was a Copier:  TV ad (Paul Vester, US, 1998)

Geico, Gecko: TV ad (Paul Vester, US, 1998)

Oasis - All Around the World: music promo (Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris/Paul Vester, US, 1998)

Drew Carey Green Screen Show: TV clip (Paul Vester, US, 2003)

In the Woods: short film (Paul Vester, US, 2008)

Nancarrow: composition for player piano (Paul Vester, UK, work in progress)

London Animation Club is a monthly event for animators and people interested in animation in the capital, created and curated by Martin Pickles. Club members and regular guests meet and present their work in informal surroundings conducive to talking and sharing ideas. Our guests range from well-known figures, such as Phil Davies, the producer of Peppa Pig, and Peter Firmin, the co-creator of Bagpuss, through to award-winning independent animators like Emma Calder, along with experimental filmmakers and academics, with much in between. In 2024 we started doing special events at the Garden Cinema.

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 Estonian short films. In partnership with Estonian Film Institute, Estonian Embassy in London.

Full programme will be announced soon.

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.

CenterFrame Script Club Podcast is live at The Garden Cinema! As part of London Breeze Film Festival's industry programme, Script Club will record their monthly podcast in front of a live audience. With special guest, Alice Lowe, writer and director of Prevenge (2016) taking part in the discussion and analysis of her successful film script. Script Club focuses on the writing and structure of the script itself, rather than general opinions of the film. Come and take a deep-dive into the craft of screenwriting for filmmakers.

Celebrating our 10th year, London Breeze is a BIFA accredited independent film festival showcasing emerging filmmakers and award-winning films from the UK and around the world. By providing a platform for new talent, we also aim to highlight important issues through creative storytelling. Our aim is to inspire film fans, engage communities and young people from diverse backgrounds, while nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive festival that fosters creativity and confidence - from the filmmakers who submit their films to the content we screen and the events we host.

Here's a great opportunity to talk to a range of festivals about your film and find the best fit for your work. Leaders in their field of helping filmmakers strategise and navigate the complex world of the festival circuit, Festival Formula have invited in film festivals from around London and the UK for you to talk to about your film.

Stay for networking drinks in the atrium bar at 3pm led by Festival Formula to find out more about how they can support you with your film projects - ticketholders only. 

Celebrating our 10th year, London Breeze is a BIFA accredited independent film festival showcasing emerging filmmakers and award-winning films from the UK and around the world. By providing a platform for new talent, we also aim to highlight important issues through creative storytelling. Our aim is to inspire film fans, engage communities and young people from diverse backgrounds, while nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive festival that fosters creativity and confidence - from the filmmakers who submit their films to the content we screen and the events we host.

In partnership with TikTok and My SMASH Media, join us for an exciting and nervewracking live pitching event as seven finalist compete in front of a panel of industry professionals for a funding pot worth £10k to enable them to make their short film. The winner will receive £5k in cash from TikTok and £5k in kind from other partners including Adobe, Festival Formula, Shorts TV and British Urban Film Festival. The winner's film will premiere at next year's LBFF and screen at BUFF.

Celebrating our 10th year, London Breeze is a BIFA accredited independent film festival showcasing emerging filmmakers and award-winning films from the UK and around the world. By providing a platform for new talent, we also aim to highlight important issues through creative storytelling. Our aim is to inspire film fans, engage communities and young people from diverse backgrounds, while nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive festival that fosters creativity and confidence - from the filmmakers who submit their films to the content we screen and the events we host.

Have you ever imagined a world where life could be just a little (or a lot) better or worse? The filmmakers of this programme of shortfilms have done just that. Prepared to be amazed and just a little afraid:

Black Vultures Over Britain (UK 14m) Dir. Haris Salihovic, Tyler Richards

For Better (UK 15m) Dir. Kitty Percy

Sucker (UK 12m) Dir. Fae Al-Kalamchi

Bury Your Gays (UK 20m) Dir. Charlotte Cooper

The Narrator (IRN 20m) Dir. Mohammad Paidar

Nervous Ellie (7m) Dir. David Yorke

So Here We Are (UK 7m) Dir. Warren Mendy

Celebrating our 10th year, London Breeze is a BIFA accredited independent film festival showcasing emerging filmmakers and award-winning films from the UK and around the world. By providing a platform for new talent, we also aim to highlight important issues through creative storytelling. Our aim is to inspire film fans, engage communities and young people from diverse backgrounds, while nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive festival that fosters creativity and confidence - from the filmmakers who submit their films to the content we screen and the events we host.

This shorts programme will impact you in ways that will surprise, delight and occasionally scare you. Prepare to feel the impact and stay for a panel discussion about the themes they raise:

Will We Disappear In the Cover of The Sky? (UK 5m) Dir. Aarti Bhalekar, Anushka Khemka

Plastic Surgery (UK 12m) Dir. Guy Trevellyan

1 Million Deaths (GRC 16m) Dir. George Chrysanthakopoulos

This is Rubbish (UK 15m) Dir. Claudia Kurucz

The Farm on Our Street (13m) Dir. Hackney City Farm Volunteers

There Will Come Soft Rains (UK, 15m) Dir. Elham Ehsas

The Art of Imperfection (6m) Dir. Vladislav Motorichev

Funeral of the Earth (4m) Dir. Jaewon Park

The Hidden Art Trail (10m) Dir. Alla Larionova

Celebrating our 10th year, London Breeze is a BIFA accredited independent film festival showcasing emerging filmmakers and award-winning films from the UK and around the world. By providing a platform for new talent, we also aim to highlight important issues through creative storytelling. Our aim is to inspire film fans, engage communities and young people from diverse backgrounds, while nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive festival that fosters creativity and confidence - from the filmmakers who submit their films to the content we screen and the events we host.

A showcase of children and youth films by our youngest emerging filmmakers aged 5 to 19:

The Real Deal (UK 4m) Dir. James Willett

Doors (UK10m) Dir. Jamie Larsson

Scrutiny of Friendship (UK 10m) Dir. Ralph Hutchins; Run (UK 9m) Dir. Amelia Zubrzycki

An Italian Memory (UK 4m) Dir. Noah Berridge

The Shadow (UK 4m) Dir. Freddie Say

Grab ’n’ Go (UK 5m) Dir. Ethan Claydon, Gerogia Ward, Jack Shelley, Jamie Chatfield, Jamie Gray, Lily McGuinness, Lola Percy

Trapped (UK 5m) Dir. Archie Bunbury

Lament (UK 5m) Dir. Ava Oliver

The Witch (UK 3m) Pauline Quirk Academy 

Turning Pages (UK13m) Sparks Film School

Behind Young Eyes (UK 4m) Dir. Abbie Simpson

Keepsake (UK 2m) Pauline Quirk Academy

Nana’s Necklace (UK 4m) Pauline Quirk Academy

Celebrating our 10th year, London Breeze is a BIFA accredited independent film festival showcasing emerging filmmakers and award-winning films from the UK and around the world. By providing a platform for new talent, we also aim to highlight important issues through creative storytelling. Our aim is to inspire film fans, engage communities and young people from diverse backgrounds, while nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive festival that fosters creativity and confidence - from the filmmakers who submit their films to the content we screen and the events we host.

A collection of six films from around the world that are directed by women and/or centre women in their storytelling. Here you will find stories about women rebelling — against societal expectations and limitations placed upon them, and against self-inflicted barriers. It includes a beautifully hand-drawn animation (Void Spaces); a documentary about a Yemeni woman who truly embodies her name 'Fariha', meaning ‘Joy’ in Arabic (Fariha); and an off-beat comedy about a woman whose husband sends her away in an effort to subdue her, but her new-found freedom has the opposite effect: (Warmest Regards, E).

Favours Dir. Agnes Skonare (SWE 11m)

Fariha Dir. Badr Yousef (YEM/QAT 27m)

Love Bites Dir. Mahmoud Zain (EGY 12m)

On the Edge Dir. Sahar el Echi (TUN 18m)

Void Spaces Dir. Marta Koch (POL 14m)

Warmest Regards, E Dir. Tina Nowarre, Shireen Daley (CAN 7m)

Celebrating our 10th year, London Breeze is a BIFA accredited independent film festival showcasing emerging filmmakers and award-winning films from the UK and around the world. By providing a platform for new talent, we also aim to highlight important issues through creative storytelling. Our aim is to inspire film fans, engage communities and young people from diverse backgrounds, while nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive festival that fosters creativity and confidence - from the filmmakers who submit their films to the content we screen and the events we host.

Join London Breeze for the first industry event of LBFF10 festival programme.

My SMASH Media, experts in providing film project advice and tools for success on their platform, will lead this 30 minute presentation open to all ticket holders on the best way to pitch your film to a producer or industry panel.

This will be followed by a 2 hour closed workshop for pitching finalists only.

Learn more at: https://www.mysmash.media/

Celebrating our 10th year, London Breeze is a BIFA accredited independent film festival showcasing emerging filmmakers and award-winning films from the UK and around the world. By providing a platform for new talent, we also aim to highlight important issues through creative storytelling. Our aim is to inspire film fans, engage communities and young people from diverse backgrounds, while nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive festival that fosters creativity and confidence - from the filmmakers who submit their films to the content we screen and the events we host.

9-year-old Babs must save her little pig named Oink from her grandfather’s secret plan to take part in a sausage competition. When 9-year-old Babs receives a pig named Oink as a present from her grandfather, she convinces her parents to keep it under the condition that Oink follows puppy training. But her parents are not the biggest threat to Oink; her grandfather is secretly taking part in the sausage competition organised by The Society for Meat Products from Fresh Pigs!

On Saturday the film will be preceded by the short animation: First Flight: The Sky's The Limit Dir. Molly Rose Hill (UK 4m)

On Sunday the film will be preceded by the short film Hopefully Hope dir. ShuHeng Yin (UK, 3m)

On Sunday mornings our Family Screenings are followed by a free activity for Children. A short stop-motion animation workshop will take place immediately after the film.

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.

Resistance comes in many forms as seen in this programme of eight narrative short films about resisting those who would, for example, erase your cultural identity (Beyond the Rush); control or dismiss women’s rights over their bodies (Endolife/Egg Timer); coerce you into committing a capital offence (Mum’s the Word) or stop you from reaching the top in the traditionally male world of motor racing (Set Pace).

Endolife (UK, 13m) Dir. Lisanne Van Ingen

Set Pace (UK, 13m) Dir. Daisy Ifama

POST (UK, 9m) Dir. Jo Lane

Beyond the Rush (UK, 16m) Dir. NIYADRE

Egg Timer (UK, 13m) Dir. Rosie May

Mum's the Word (UK, 11m) Dir. Oz Arshad

Forces Mineures (FRA, 10m) Dir. Jessamine-Bliss Bell

Eternal Kinship (NPL, 11m) Dir. Arbin Rai

Celebrating our 10th year, London Breeze is a BIFA accredited independent film festival showcasing emerging filmmakers and award-winning films from the UK and around the world. By providing a platform for new talent, we also aim to highlight important issues through creative storytelling. Our aim is to inspire film fans, engage communities and young people from diverse backgrounds, while nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive festival that fosters creativity and confidence - from the filmmakers who submit their films to the content we screen and the events we host.

We all need resilience in these times to withstand the many challenges we are confronted with. Here are a few tales of brave souls who have to dig deep when life throws up a challenge.

One in Two (UK, 13m) Dir. David Izekor

Baby Blues (IRL, 8m) Dirs. Sophie Lynch, Alannah McQuaid

Choice (MKD, 17m) Dir. Marko Crnogorski

Don't Be Late, Myra (PAK, 15m) Dir. Afia Serena Nathaniel

Dress Smart (IRL, 8m) Dir. Trevor Kaneswaran

An Excess Baggage (FRA, 16m) Myriam Garcia Marienstras

An Imperfect Cadence (UK, 16m) Nathan Haines

Content warning: mentions of suicide

Celebrating our 10th year, London Breeze is a BIFA accredited independent film festival showcasing emerging filmmakers and award-winning films from the UK and around the world. By providing a platform for new talent, we also aim to highlight important issues through creative storytelling. Our aim is to inspire film fans, engage communities and young people from diverse backgrounds, while nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive festival that fosters creativity and confidence - from the filmmakers who submit their films to the content we screen and the events we host.

A curated selection of stunning short narrative and documentary films that have remembering people, places and events – be they good or bad, for better or worse – at their core.

The Actor (UK, 4m) Dir. Louis Ellison

Continuations (JPN, 16m) Dir. Satoru Okabe

Summer Souvenir (NLD, 18m) Dir. Louka Hoogendijk

Tusky (UK, 15m) Dir. Steven Boyle

Defenders of the Tyrrhenian Sea (UK, 12m) Dir. Jack Shanks

Carrot Cake (UK, 19m) Dir. Olive Pascha

Gesualdo (UK, 13m) Dir. Nicholas Hulbert

Celebrating our 10th year, London Breeze is a BIFA accredited independent film festival showcasing emerging filmmakers and award-winning films from the UK and around the world. By providing a platform for new talent, we also aim to highlight important issues through creative storytelling. Our aim is to inspire film fans, engage communities and young people from diverse backgrounds, while nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive festival that fosters creativity and confidence - from the filmmakers who submit their films to the content we screen and the events we host.

Director Lucy D'Cruz will join us for a Q&A following the screening.

Somewhat of a “horse whisperer”, Irish-born Hugh MacDermott is no ordinary young man. Rejecting conformity and materialism, the troubled but determined 19 year old embarks on a 2 year journey alone, on horseback, across the incredible vast and varied landscapes of Argentina, in a search for something greater in life. Struggling with his sexuality and past life events, he is spurred on by a will to succeed, inspired by a string of strange coincidences linking to a beloved childhood book he read with his late brother, “Tschiffely’s Ride”, that keeps guiding him forward.

Celebrating our 10th year, London Breeze is a BIFA accredited independent film festival showcasing emerging filmmakers and award-winning films from the UK and around the world. By providing a platform for new talent, we also aim to highlight important issues through creative storytelling. Our aim is to inspire film fans, engage communities and young people from diverse backgrounds, while nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive festival that fosters creativity and confidence - from the filmmakers who submit their films to the content we screen and the events we host.

Director Charlie McDowell will join us for a Q&A following the screening.

Based on Tove Jansson’s beloved novel and starring Glenn Close, The Summer Book tells the story of Sophia, a nine-year-old girl who is growing up fast, and her grandmother (Glenn Close), who is nearing the end of her life. Together with Sophia’s father, they spend time at their family’s summer home on a tiny unspoiled island in the Gulf of Finland, exploring the islet, talking about life, nature and everything but their feelings about Sophia's mother's death and their love for one another. By the end of the summer, emotional wounds are healed, bonds are deepened, and the grandmother is able to leave this life peacefully.

Celebrating our 10th year, London Breeze is a BIFA accredited independent film festival showcasing emerging filmmakers and award-winning films from the UK and around the world. By providing a platform for new talent, we also aim to highlight important issues through creative storytelling. Our aim is to inspire film fans, engage communities and young people from diverse backgrounds, while nurturing the next generation of filmmakers. We are committed to a diverse and inclusive festival that fosters creativity and confidence - from the filmmakers who submit their films to the content we screen and the events we host.

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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

The screening on 22 October will be followed by a panel with the Director, Max Duncan & Dr Charlotte Goodburn (Lau China Institute, KCL), chaired by PhD student Linda Calabrese (Lau China Institute, KCL).

When a massive Chinese industrial park lands in rural Ethiopia, a dusty farming town finds itself at the new frontier of globalization. The sprawling factory complex’s formidable Chinese director Motto now needs every bit of mettle and charm she can muster to push through a high-stakes expansion that promises 30,000 new jobs. Ethiopian farmer Workinesh and factory worker Beti have staked their futures on the prosperity the park promises. But as initial hope meets painful realities, they find themselves, like their country, at a pivotal crossroads.

Filmed over four years with singular access, Made in Ethiopia lifts the curtain on China’s historic but misunderstood impact on Africa, and explores contemporary Ethiopia at a moment of profound crisis. The film throws audiences into two colliding worlds: an industrial juggernaut fueled by profit and progress, and a vanishing countryside where life is still measured by the cycle of the seasons. Its nuance, complexity and multi-perspective approach go beyond black-and-white narratives of victims and villains. As the three women’s stories unfold, Made in Ethiopia challenges us to rethink the relationship between tradition and modernity, growth and welfare, the development of a country and the well being of its people.

This is a joint presentation by the Lau China Institute at King’s College London and The Garden Cinema’s Chinese Cinema Project strand.

Shyam Benegal is one of India’s most venerated filmmakers whose early films were iconic in India’s Parallel Cinema movement. Manthan is not only one of his finest films from that time, but also the story behind it was unique – that 500,000 farmers each contributed a small amount of money towards the making of the film that told the story of the birth of the milk cooperative movement while touching on so many issues like caste, class, gender and economic discrimination. The film was integral to spreading the message of the benefits of the cooperative movement to farmers across the country and a vital part of building that movement.

Manthan is presented from a beautiful new 4K restoration by Film Heritage Foundation.

Mehelli Modi from Second Run will introduce the screening. Manthan is being released on Blu-Ray by Second Run in October.

To help the creatives in our membership community develop their WIP projects, we're excited to host our first ever Members' Scratch Night on Thursday 31 July. 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.

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

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 1 per member. 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.

Are you the person in your friend group who everyone asks for film recommendations once the end of October approaches? Do you know your Craven from your Carpenter, and your Krueger from your Karloff?

These skills you've been honing may well save you from eternal damnation, because on Wednesday 22 October we're hosting our diabolical and (loosely) Halloween-themed Members' Film Quiz! Join us for an evening of trivia questions, picture rounds and much more. There will be (cursed) prizes up for grabs for the top 3 teams including:

• 6-month memberships for Arrow Video's brilliant ARROW Player - the streaming home of cult cinema! Featuring a world beating array of horror titles in beautiful restorations with extra features, as well as classic & contemporary cult masterpieces from sci-fi to action and more, to keep you entertained on these eerie nights.
• Deliciously warming Chai gift sets with tea & candles from The Tea Makers of London, to snuggle up with during gloomy autumn storms.
• Free cinema tickets to be claimed for any spooky (or mundane) film of your choice

There will also be a (questionable) bonus for the best team name, and a special (poisoned) drink for best costume.

We have space for 10 teams of max. 5 contestants each. Tickets are £5, and are restricted to 1 per member, so please make sure to be logged in and book quickly once ticket sales open on Friday 26 September at 13:00.

Important info before booking:

• If you would like to be placed on a team with friends (who must also be members of the cinema), you can either:

Purchase your tickets individually, and leave their names during the checkout process, so we can place you on the same team OR purchase tickets for the entire team, and assign each ticket to the individual team members (you will need to know their surname as well as the email address their membership is registered under, to do this)

• If you're joining by yourself, you will be placed on a Garden Cinema All Stars team - a great opportunity to meet fellow members!

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

About Arrow Video & ARROW Player:

Since launching in the UK in 2009, Arrow Video has grown to become one of the world’s most notable labels for physical and digital releases of genre, cult and horror films from around the globe. The label has passionately trailblazed a multi-award-winning slate of releases in deluxe, definitive editions with state-of-the-art restorations, in-depth curation of new and archival extra features, newly commissioned artwork, accompanying booklets and special packaging. Expanding into North America in 2015, Arrow Video's best-in-class Blu-ray, UHD releases and extensive catalogue is complemented by premium digital and on-demand services with ARROW Player. This streaming platform shares the same ethos, curating the finest cult films from celebrated filmmakers including John Carpenter, David Cronenberg, Takashi Miike, Dario Argento, and many more.

Arrow Video | ARROW Player | Instagram

About The Tea Makers of London:

Founded in 2010, The Tea Makers of London is a family-owned business with roots in the tea plantations of Sri Lanka. They specialise in single-origin, fully traceable teas and elegant tea ware, sourced directly from some of the world’s most renowned tea gardens. By building lasting relationships with farmers, they bring tea lovers a rich spectrum of flavours - from robust breakfast blends to delicate oolongs and soothing herbal infusions. With a focus on flavour discovery and uncompromising quality, The Tea Makers of London seeks to create meaningful moments of calm, connection, and enjoyment in every cup.

Website | Instagram

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.

Special screening of the 20th anniversary of Next: A Primer on Urban Painting.

This documentary, co-produced with agnès b, takes place in the United States, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Germany, England, Spain, Japan, and Brazil, and features painters, writers, designers, and members of the global graffiti/street art community who show us their work and illustrate the evolution of modern graffiti from its beginnings in 1970s New York to the early 2000s. This film captured the early days of the global street art movement with many artists who are still active and even more famous today. Trailblazers like Lee Quiñones and Doze Green are given their proper treatment within contemporary art history. It also profiles the next generation of artists that are beginning to make their mark.

Made at the dawn of the digital revolution, Aravena shot his film using a combination of digital video, Super-16, and 35mm, borrowing the modus operandi of the street artists themselves to assemble a collage of sequences into a film that is as free and dynamic as the work of its subjects.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with director Pablo Aravena, hosted by Cedar Lewisohn.

Pablo Aravena is a London-based Chilean-Canadian filmmaker and curator. His acclaimed documentaries, including NEXT: A Primer on Urban Painting and Chile Estyle, explore street art and urban subcultures across the globe. He’s now working on Aqui Estamos, a portrait of the UK Latin club music scene.

Cedar Lewisohn is a writer, artist and curator based in London. He curated the exhibition Street Art at Tate Modern in 2008 and is the author of the book Street Art: The Graffiti Revolution, published in the same year.  

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.

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.

This brooding psychological drama stars Russell Tovey and Tom Blyth who meet under complicated circumstances. An undercover cop, tasked with arresting men cruising public bathrooms, is suddenly faced with hidden desires. Using lo-fi VHS footage to explore voyeuristic notions of surveillance, this story of forbidden love addresses pertinent themes of state surveillance and societal intolerance.

Please be aware that Plainclothes contains a sequence of flashing lights, which might affect viewers with photosensitive epilepsy.

The Garden Cinema View:

Plainclothes is a strong debut about pervasive homophobia - within law enforcement, within families, and the internalised kind that exists within individuals themselves. The film depicts a not so distant era where being queer could easily jeopardise one's entire professional life and self-esteem.

The film features electrifying performances by Tom Blyth, who plays the police bait tormented by his role prosecuting gay men cruising, and Russell Tovey, who plays his first lover, also living a closeted life. Despite the anxiety and pain, the sexual tension between the two men is electrifying and their chemistry utterly believable.

Whilst the film could have avoided some the showy camerawork and editing it uses to emphasise the protagonist's inner turmoil, this is a high-stakes, suspenseful debut, in the vein of All of Us Strangers, that will fill you to the brim with emotion.

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.

Both films in our Kiyoshi Kurosawa double bill will be introduced by film historian Ellisha Izumi.

Kiyoshi Kurosawa delivered one of the finest entries in the J-Horror cycle of films with this moody and spiritually terrifying film that delivers existential dread along with its frights. Setting his story in the burgeoning internet and social media scene in Japan, Kurosawa's dark and apocalyptic film foretells how technology will only serve to isolate us as it grows more important to our lives.

A group of young people in Tokyo begin to experience strange phenomena involving missing co-workers and friends, technological breakdown, and a mysterious website which asks the compelling question, 'Do you want to meet a ghost?' After the unexpected suicides of several friends, three strangers set out to explore a city which is growing more empty by the day, and to solve the mystery of what lies within a forbidden room in an abandoned construction site, mysteriously sealed shut with red packing tape.

A multibuy discount applies for our Kiyoshi Kurosawa double bill. To claim, add a ticket for both Cure and Pulse to your basket and proceed to checkout where the cost will be reduced by £4.

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

In this visually and conceptually impressive film, two-bit Berlin criminal Manni (Moritz Bleibtreu) delivers some smuggled loot for his boss, Ronnie (Heino Ferch), but accidentally leaves the 100,000 Mark payment in a subway car. Given 20 minutes to come up with the money, he calls his girlfriend, Lola (Franka Potente), who sprints through the streets of the city to try to beg the money out of her bank manager father (Herbert Knaup) and get to Manni before he does something desperate.

A regular ticket for Run Lola Run does not include the beer & cheese tasting event beforehand. If you would like to attend the beer & cheese tasting as well as the screening, please purchase a ticket here. The tasting ticket already includes an unallocated seat for the screening - there is no need to book a separate ticket for the film.

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.

As he pedals through the streets of Paris to deliver meals, Souleymane repeats his story. In two days, he has to go through his asylum application interview, the key to obtaining papers. But Souleymane is not ready.

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.

Set in the mid-90s, Steve is a reimagining of Max Porter's Shy. The film follows a pivotal day in the life of headteacher Steve and his students at a last-chance reform school amidst a world that has forsaken them. As Steve fights to protect the school’s integrity and impending closure, we witness him grappling with his own mental health. In parallel to Steve’s struggles, we meet Shy, a troubled teen caught between his past and what lies ahead as he tries to reconcile his inner fragility with his impulse for self-destruction and violence.

The Garden Cinema View:

Steve is a fascinating watch which blends social realism, mockumentary, and black comedy with inventive camerawork and editing. Beneath this hybrid aesthetic lies a bleak story about disenfranchised teenagers, a broken system, and a few self-sacrificing educators running on empty.

The film's emotional impact is provided by exceptional ensemble performances. Cillian Murphy delivers a deeply humane yet increasingly unhinged performance as the dedicated pedagogue, Tracey Ullman skilfully balances the bleak and the hilarious as the head of their team, and Jay Lycurgo is remarkably truthful as the brilliant delinquent.

Unfortunately, the final act wraps things up too neatly, turning suddenly saccharine in what feels like a concession to streaming audiences. Despite this misstep, Steve remains a bleakly entertaining ride with heart.

The cult phenomenon of Rocky Horror is explored in depth like never before with an extraordinary cast of contributors. From humble origins as a London fringe theater play to its meteoric rise as the biggest cult film of all time, this is the definitive story of the Rocky Horror Show. With intimate access to its creator Richard O’Brien and other major players such as Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, and Lou Adler, the documentary explores what makes the play and film so singular: its groundbreaking and transgressive themes, iconic performances and epic songs that took over popular culture.

The Garden Cinema View:

You may well know the major stops on this journey, but it’s nevertheless a pleasure to have the trajectory of this cult classic laid out in the words of the main players. There’s some quite touching father-son moments between a sprightly Richard O’Brien and director Linus O’Brien, and it’s equally delightful to see a happy and healthy Tim Curry. A perfect appetiser for your next visit to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. And if you’ve never seen it? What are you waiting for?

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.

Our screening on 27 September will be followed by a Zoom Q&A with co-director Shih-Ching Tsou.

The American dream has rarely seemed so far away as in Shih-Ching Tsou and Sean Baker’s raw, vérité Take Out, an immersion in the life of an undocumented Chinese immigrant struggling to get by on the margins of post-9/11 New York City. Facing violent retaliation from a loan shark, restaurant deliveryman Ming Ding has until nightfall to pay back the money he owes, and he encounters both crushing setbacks and moments of unexpected humanity as he races against time to earn enough in tips over the course of a frantic day. From this simple setup, Tsou and Baker fashion a kind of neorealist survival thriller of the everyday, shedding compassionate light on the too often overlooked lives and labour that keep New York running.

With Tsou's new feature, Left-Handed Girl, playing at festivals to critical acclaim, this screening offer an opportunity to revist the start of her wonderful career as a director, writer, and producer.

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 Cici Peng.

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.

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.

'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.

This screening will preceed our Ken Loach in Conversation event. If you choose to book this in addition to the film, tickets for The Gamekeeper will be discounted to £10 (members) or £12 (non-members). The discount will appear automatically after putting both tickets in the basket. You can find more details about Ken Loach in Conversation, and what's included in the event, here.

George Purse (Phil Askam) is a former steelworker who has taken the job as gamekeeper on the Yorkshire estate of a duke. He’s not popular with locals in the pub after expressing forthright views on poaching, and with his aristocratic boss mostly absent, George measures out his seasons on the land, tending to the animals and patching up his rundown cottage.

Based on Barry Hines’ novel, The Gamekeeper is a haunting critique of the class system, its understated manner betraying nothing of its power and pertinence. - Irish Film Institute

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.

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 Friday 24 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 leave the familiar surroundings of the Pacific North West 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 Reichart 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), remerges 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.

In one of the year’s most surprising pairings, Dwayne Johnson and indie icon Benny Safdie (Uncut Gems, Good Time) team up in The Smashing Machine, the powerful story of pioneering mixed martial arts/UFC fighter Mark Kerr.

The Garden Cinema View:

Winner of the Silver Lion for Best Director for Benny Safdie (and a 15 minute standing ovation) at the Venice Film Festival, The Smashing Machine takes an unconventional and refreshing approach for a sports biopic.  

Shot with documentary-like realism (handheld camera, zooms, 16mm film), Safdie's first solo directorial effort recounts the joys and sorrows of MMA legend Mark Kerr, played, like we‘ve never seen him before, by Dwayne Johnson. Johnson, often associated with roles of invincibility and strength, becomes here a fragile anti-hero.

Safdie transforms Kerr’s professional bouts and personal struggles into a visual poem of falls and resurrections, of rings and hotel rooms, of applause and silence. There are no triumphant celebrations of epic victories, on the contrary the fights are moments of alienation, and the camera lingers more on the pauses than on the blows.

With the role of his life, Johnson is a serious Oscar contender as Mark ‘The Smashing Machine’ Kerr.

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 Sidney Lumet film gives a makeover to the classic children's book The Wizard of Oz. Adapted from the 1974 Broadway musical of the same name, and set in 1970s Harlem, the film boasted Quincy Jones as the musical supervisor, and an impressive, all-star cast with Diana Ross as Dorothy, Michael Jackson (in his feature film debut) as Scarecrow, Nipsey Russell as Tin Man, Ted Ross as Cowardly Lion, and Richard Pryor as The Wiz.

Requested by Garden Cinema member Ed Gutteridge who writes: 'It’s so underseen and a total visual and aural delight!'

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.

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.

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

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

The Garden Cinema View:

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

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

This film was proposed by our member Joseph Miller, who writes: 'This would be a superb way to honour Loach’s work in this upcoming season! One of the best docs about one of the best directors.'

Louise Osmond's funny, provocative and revealing profile delves into the life and career of one of Britain’s most celebrated and controversial filmmakers. Having been granted exclusive access to the set of his latest film - the Palme d'Or-winning I, Daniel Blake - Osmond uses this as the starting point to assay Loach’s career, from his early work as a theatre director, to his TV dramas and later extensive career as an award-winning film director.

This surprisingly candid documentary is more than just a document of Loach’s work but a playful study on the process and struggles of creating such a unique career and body of work.

Please note, the screening on Tuesday 7 October is our free members' screening, while the one on Wednesday 15 October is a regular screening, which is open to the general public.

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.

As the autumn breeze kicks in, what better way to warm yourself up than joining us in the Atrium Bar for a whisky tasting!

On Friday 24 October whisky connoisseur Martyn Miller will be taking you through four of the finest whiskies from Scotland. The tasting will be part of Ken Loach: A Retrospective, and followed by his humorous and uplifting The Angels' Share.

We’re also excited to be partnering up with Auld Hag's The Shoap for the event. This Scottish deli on the top of St John’s Street boasts a wonderful selection of Scottish produce, making the tastiest slices and pies in central London, and can be found a couple of minutes away from Angel Station. They will be providing traditional oat cakes to enjoy during the tasting, and setting up a pop-up shop for you to buy Scottish scran to take home.

Event timings:

19:00  Whisky tasting

20:45  Time for drinks & pop-up shopping from Auld Hag

21:15  Screening of The Angels' Share

23:00  Expected finish

Tickets are £35 each and include the whisky tasting, as well as an unallocated seat for the screening. They are restricted to 2 per member, meaning you can bring a pal along, even if they're not a member.

About the film:

Set in Glasgow, Scotland, The Angels' Share tells the story of a young father who narrowly avoids a prison sentence. He is determined to turn over a new leaf and when he and his friends from the same community payback group visit a whisky distillery, a route to a new life becomes apparent. More light-hearted than some of his earlier films, this warm, funny caper from Ken Loach is set in Glasgow, with a cast of non professional, first-time actors. The film won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2012.

The film will be screened with English subtitles.

About Martyn Miller:

Martyn Miller is a veteran of the wines and spirits industry having joined a wine retailer in 1985. He has taught wine appreciation and ran wine and whisky tasting sessions as well as writing commercial literature on wine, beer and whisky.

About Auld Hag & The Shoap:

In the midst of lockdown, Gregg Boyd followed up on a life long mission to set up a Scottish food and drink business in London. After running a stall at various food markets and a pop-up in a Walthamstow-based brewery, they have now opened a Scottish cafe, bakery and deli right by Angel station. The Times wrote about The Shoap: '...which serves up Stornoway black pudding, Lorne sausage, tattie scones, smoked fish from Arbroath, Highland venison, Cullen skink, Glasgow rolls, Dundee cake and Aberdeen butteries, has been inundated since it opened its doors last month in Islington.'

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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.