The final film in his' Living trilogy', preceded by Songs from the Second Floor and You, the Living, Swedish master Roy Andersson’s defiantly weird vision of humanity – surrealist, absurdist and supremely bleak in equal measure – continues to mark him out as one of contemporary cinema’s most singular voices.

The film is a series of mordantly funny vignettes around two narrative strands – one involving a couple of salesmen trying to hawk vampire fangs and rubber masks, the other involving former Swedish King Charles XII, reappearing in modern times.

Shifting between dreams and reality, Andersson explores man’s inhumanity to man in a provocative, disturbing film that works as a searing, tragicomic indictment of our times.

This film was proposed by our member Stephen Cahill, who writes: 'Another film that came and went in the blink of an eye… and I missed it! Another one of Andersson’s takes on life..'

About Endlessness is a reflection on human life in all its beauty and cruelty, its splendor and banality. We wander, dreamlike, gently guided by our Scheherazade-esque narrator. Inconsequential moments take on the same significance as historical events: a couple floats over a war-torn Cologne; on the way to a birthday party, a father stops to tie his daughter's shoelaces in the pouring rain; teenage girls dance outside a cafe; a defeated army marches to a prisoner-of-war camp. Simultaneously an ode and a lament, About Endlessness presents a kaleidoscope of all that is eternally human, an infinite story of the vulnerability of existence.

Please note, the screening on Tuesday 3 December is our Free Members' Screening. Booking for this will open on Thursday 28 November at 13:00. The screening on Tuesday 10 December is open to the general public.

In the city, thoughtful Nurse Prabha’s routine is upset when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger, flightier and rebellious roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a spot in the city to be intimate with her secret boyfriend. Their colleague Parvaty fights to stay in her home without any requisite paperwork left by her late husband. A trip to a beach town allows them each to find a space for their desires to manifest.

The Garden Cinema View:

Payal Kapadia’s hugely acclaimed fiction debut was the first Indian film to be selected in Official Competition at Cannes in three decades, where it received an eight minute standing ovation and was awarded the Grand Prix.

All We Imagine as Light is an excellent character study of three women from different generations facing distinct challenges. The gradual unfolding of their friendship bond is masterfully depicted. Equally prominent is the city of Mumbai, in all its chaotic and sensual energy. Though the film explores the city's class inequalities and aggressive gentrification, it never falls into kitchen-sink drama clichés, and retains a dreamlike, poetic quality. The excellent soundtrack by R&B Kolkata artist Topshe also amplifies the city's seductive atmosphere.

All We Imagine as Light is cinema at its best. Rather than heavily relying on one cinematic element, Kapadia skilfully combines image, sound, and performance to convey meaning beyond words. In this sense, this is the closest film to visual poetry we have seen recently.

Anora, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and impulsively marries Vanya, the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened when Vanya's parents send their henchmen to annul the marriage, setting off a wild chase through the streets of New York.

Nominated for Best International Independent Film at the British Independent Film Awards 2024.

The Garden Cinema View:

Sean Baker obtained the Palme d'Or at this year's Cannes Film Festival with Anora, making him the first American filmmaker to win the prize since 2012.

Similarly to Baker's previous works (Tangerine, The Florida Project, Red Rocket), Anora focuses on a deeply flawed yet captivating protagonist, brought to life with great humanity by Mikey Madison. What makes Baker's films so exhilarating is that despite his characters’ questionable decisions and political incorrectness, they always feel authentic. Anora commands our empathy from the start, and by the end, she also gains our respect.

Baker's casting and work with actors is clearly his forte. Beyond Madison's commanding central performance, Anora features masterfully orchestrated (and genuinely entertaining) ensemble work from the Russian mafia characters, including Compartment No. 6’s Yuriy Borisov.

True to form, Baker's directing appears effortless, unspooling intricate, lengthy shots, with a deceptive ease that undermines their complexity.

Four years ago, Tony D'Amato's (Al Pacino) Miami Sharks were at the top. Now, his team is struggling with three consecutive losses, sliding attendance, and aging heroes, particularly 39-year-old quarterback Jack 'Cap' Rooney (Dennis Quaid). Off the field, D'Amato is struggling with a failed marriage and estranged children, and is on a collision course with Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz), the young president/co-owner of the Sharks organisation.

To celebrate the launch of Chris Shepherd’s debut graphic novel, Anfield Rd for Titan Comics, Chris is programming this Bar Shorts. Breaking with Bar Shorts tradition Chris will screen just the one film: Willy Russell’s classic 1977 TV Play for Today -  Our Day Out. It follows a group of teachers as they take a group of Liverpudlian school children on a trip to Wales. But the trip doesn’t go as planned.

Afterwards we will be joined by comedy legend and fellow scouser Alexei Sayle who will chat with Chris about Anfield and 1980s Liverpool. Alexei is an author, actor, stand-up comedian, television presenter and a recording artist. His autobiography Stalin Ate My Homework explores the world of Liverpool suburb Anfield.

Chris will be signing copies of Anfield Road in the bar before and after the event.

Join brave, independent Belle on the adventure of a lifetime as she sets out to rescue her father---and discovers the enchanted castle of a mysterious beast. Enjoy this timeless tale overflowing with unforgettable characters and music you'll never forget, universally acclaimed as one of Walt Disney Animation Studios' finest features.

Visually lavish and musically exuberant, the fairy-tale adaptation was one of the first Disney features to incorporate elements of computer-generated imagery with hand-drawn animation. An instant classic, it became the first animated film to garner an Oscar nomination for best picture, winning awards for best score and original song.

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

Bethlehem Cultural Festival X Films of Resistance: Love, Hopes and Dreams – A Night of Palestinian Shorts

Directed by Palestinian filmmakers on the ground in the last couple of years, these award-winning shorts tell moving stories of relationships, kinship and resilience. The selection of films reflects the experiences of generations living under occupation, drawing a loving portrait of Palestine through what are ultimately stories about life itself.

The shorts will be followed by a Q&A.

This screening will support fundraising efforts for Alrowwad Cultural Centre in Aida camp, Bethlehem.

Palestine Islands, 2023, Julien Menanteau & Nour Ben Salem, 22 mins.

After seeing her blind grandfather faint, 12 year-old Maha imagines a crazy project: to make him believe that the Wall of Separation has fallen, thereby making a return to his native land possible.

Bridging the Borders Award Winner - Palm Springs Shortfest

Palestine 87, 2022, Bilal Alkhatib, 14 mins.

A man fleeing the Israeli army during the First Palestinian Intifada is sheltered by two strangers who prevent his capture.

Golden Tanit Award Winner for Best Short Film - Carthage Film Festival

The Deer’s Tooth, 2024, Saif Hammash, 16 mins.

A young man in a refugee camp sets out on a perilous journey to fulfil his little brother's wish: to throw his baby tooth into the sea.

Official selection - Cannes Film Festival's La Cinef

Blood Like Water, 2023, Dima Hamdan, 15 mins.

Shadi embarks on a secret adventure, and accidentally drags his family into a trap where they only have two choices; either collaborate with the Israeli occupation, or be shamed and humiliated by their own people. Based on true stories.

Iris Prize Award Winner

Orange From Jaffa, 2024, Mohammed Almughanni, 27mins

Mohammed, a young Palestinian, is desperately looking for a taxi to take him through an Israeli checkpoint. The driver, Farouk, discovers that Mohammed has already failed to cross the checkpoint. Trouble begins.

Best International Film Award Winner - Clermont-Ferrand International Film Festival

Bethlehem Cultural Festival provides a platform to celebrate Palestine’s rich and diverse cultural scene through music, theatre, film, cookery, dance, architectural heritage and discussion.

Films of Resistance are a collective offering a decentralised screening and fundraising resource. All funds raised through their screenings are reinvested into Palestinian filmmaking and cultural centres in Palestine.

The long-awaited return to fiction filmmaking from Academy Award-winner Andrea Arnold, Bird is a tender, striking and extraordinarily surprising coming-of-age fable about marginalised life in the fringes of contemporary society. 12-year-old Bailey (astounding newcomer Nykiya Adams) lives with her devoted but chaotic single dad Bug (Barry Keoghan) and wayward brother Hunter in a squat in Gravesend. Approaching puberty and seeking attention and adventure, Bailey’s fractured home life is transformed when she encounters Bird (Franz Rogowski), a mysterious stranger on a journey of his own. A wondrous portrait of the transition from childhood to adolescence that remains grounded in her typically empathetic social realism, Arnold’s latest strides to the wildly poetic rhythm of her own drum.

The Garden Cinema View:

Whilst looking every inch an Andrea Arnold film shot by Robbie Ryan, with familiar elements of Fish Tank and American Honey, Bird is nevertheless the most bonkers entry in her filmography to date. A kind of mash-up of The Florida Project, Wings of Desire, and Tracy Beaker, filtered through a soundtrack to an Adam Curtis film (original score from Burial), Bird can feel dizzyingly energetic, distinctly odd and outlandish, and very authentic, often within the same scene. Ultimately this is a tender coming-of-age tale, rooted by a fantastic central performance (Nykiya Adams – a great discovery), and textured by poetic imagery and a quirky use of music. Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski provide scene chewing extravagance, which plays into their respective star personas. However you feel about this heady concoction, Bird is undeniably fascinating and enjoyable.  

Steve McQueen's Blitz follows the epic journey of George (Elliott Heffernan), a 9-year-old boy in World War II London whose mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan) sends him to safety in the English countryside. George, defiant and determined to return home to his mother and his grandfather Gerald (Paul Weller) in East London, embarks on an adventure, only to find himself in immense peril, while a distraught Rita searches for her missing son.

The Garden Cinema View:

Blitz is not McQueen's most boundary pushing or experimental film. In fact, its classical approach has caught some reviewers off guard with its morally binary characters, straightforward anti-racist messaging, and mainstream approach to editing and sound design. However, the film's depth lies beyond these elements.

What truly elevates Blitz is its meticulous attention to historical detail, which is reflected by the outstanding production design. In this case, the extensive research seems to have shaped the final outcome, rather than simply serving as decoration or background. This approach uncovers lesser-portrayed details of 1940s London, such as the use of tube stations as bomb shelters, the vibrant nightlife during the raids, the looting of bombarded places and - crucially - the  racial divisions within the shelters.

Following a mixed-race boy (brilliantly portrayed by Elliott Heffernan) who escapes from a children's deportation train, and embarks on a journey of discovery that blends these unknown facts into a rich tale of survival and adventure. The film's sheer ambition is displayed in lengthy, colourful, and glamorous sequences reminiscent of classic Hollywood, and which transform what could have been a dull historical account into an almost immersive, cinematic experience.

Al Pacino reunites with his Scarface director Brian De Palma for this tough-minded thriller about a gangster looking for salvation down the mean streets of 1970s New York City.

Carlito Brigante (Pacino) gets released early from prison thanks to the work of his lawyer, Kleinfeld (Sean Penn). Vowing to go straight, Carlito nonetheless finds dangers waiting for him in the outside world. As Carlito works toward redemption, Kleinfeld sinks into cocaine-fuelled corruption. When Kleinfeld crosses the mob, Carlito gets caught in the crossfire and has to face a hard choice: remain loyal to the friend who freed him or protect a new life with the woman he loves (Penelope Ann Miller). With enemies closing in from all sides, Carlito must find his way before it’s too late.

Also starring John Leguizamo, Luis Guzmán, and Viggo Mortensen, Carlito’s Way has come to be regarded as among De Palma’s most accomplished films. A hard-hitting gangster noir laced with romance and melancholy, powerful performances and nail-biting suspense.

Our last members' social of the year may very well be the most wonderful one of all.

On Sunday 15 December, join us to mingle with fellow film fans over a warming mulled wine or oat hot chocolate in The Garden Bar. While you're sipping away, you'll get to enjoy the first (and possibly last!) ever performance by the Garden Cinema Christmas Collective; our fantastically talented Front of House team, featuring many familiar faces, are joining forces to bring you some festive musical delights - think jazzy Christmas, rather than classic caroling.

Afterwards, sink into our cosy seats for The Apartment, a film which has been proposed by a plethora of members over the years;

Barbara: 'This 62 yo, gorgeous, sweet , funny, romantic, often dark, though beautifully acted Christmas film deservedly won 5 Oscars (nominated for 10?) – including Best Picture. It would be such a treat to watch this festive masterpiece on ‘the big screen’ in December, in which ultimately love triumphs over loneliness and sadness – and fills human hearts with hope and joy. This is a truly great film.'

Jacqueline: 'The Apartment is a brilliantly written, melancholy film set at Christmas time with the two lead actors at the top of their game. I never tire of watching it and this is the perfect time of year to do so.'

Giselle: 'The Apartment (1960) with Jack Lemon and Shirley MacLaine. Was surprised to see it’s set at Christmas time, I’d love to see it again, it’s been such an age. And what better place than at the Garden Cinema!'

Tickets for the social and screening of The Apartment are £16.50 each, and restricted to 2 per member, meaning you can bring a friend along for the occasion. A complimentary oat hot chocolate or mulled wine is included in the ticket, as well as an unallocated seat for the film.

Event timings:

15:30  Members' social with live music performances (exact timings TBC)

17:00  Screening of The Apartment

19:10  Expected finish

There is an additional £5 matinee screening of The Apartment on Tuesday 31 December at 15:00. You can buy tickets for this here.

On Tuesday 26 November, we will hold a preview screening featuring a Q&A with director Jessica Hausner.

At an international boarding school, the unassuming, yet rigorous, Miss Novak (Mia Wasikowska) joins the teaching staff to instruct a new class on 'conscious eating.' Her impressionable teenage students each have their own reasons for joining the class - to improve fitness, reduce their carbon footprint, or get extra credit. Although early lectures focus on mindful consumption, Miss Novak's discussions soon become increasingly disordered and extreme. A suspicious headmistress, concerned parents and the failing health of her students lead everyone to question the inscrutable Miss Novak's motivations for teaching the class. As a few devoted pupils fall deeper under her cult-like tutelage, they are given a new, even more sinister goal to aspire to - joining the ominous 'Club Zero.'

The Garden Cinema View:

Jessica Hausner's latest satirical enigma is sure to fascinate and enrage in equal measures and has already been divisive with audiences and reviewers alike.

Club Zero highlights the problems arising from the health craze culture with alarming accuracy: the obsessive pursuit of health, the manipulative wellness jargon, as well as how genuine concerns like the environmental crisis can be coopted for coercive purposes. Like her previous work (Lourdes, Hotel, and Little Joe), the film acerbically critiques sacrosanct dogmas, while remaining stubbornly ambiguous about its aim. Hausner’s characters are equally morally ambiguous and difficult to pin down, further adding to the unsettling quality.

There are echoes of Haneke and early Lanthimos in the deadpan performances, composed cinematography, and exploration of human malice. Yet Hausner is a highly original filmmaker with a singular vision that exposes the complex structures of hierarchical systems in unexpected ways.

Conclave follows one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events - selecting the new Pope. Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with running this covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope. Once the Catholic Church’s most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence uncovers a trail of deep secrets left in the dead Pope’s wake, secrets which could shake the foundations of the Church.

The Garden Cinema View:

A cinematic offering that serves up the dependable acting talents of Fiennes, Tucci, Rossellini, and Lithgow, the muscular direction of Edward Berger, another tension ratcheting score from All Quiet on the Western Front composer Volker Bertelmann, and a tale of Vatican intrigue adapted from a pulpy Robert Harris thriller that resonates with a multitude of recent high stakes elections around the globe. This is as slick as filmmaking gets (in the year of our lord 2024), with twists and betrayals rattling along on well-oiled rails. Whether the political allegories, or the attempts at a transcendent ending, elevate Conclave is subjective. Maybe, however, being a very satisfying thriller is really the holiest of outcomes.

This film was suggested by our member Raphael Pour-Hashemi, who writes: 'I’ve been fortunate to see both Zardoz and Excalibur at the cinema recently but would love to see Boorman’s classic Deliverance on the big screen!'

Four city-dwelling friends (Jon Voight, Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox) decide to get away from their jobs, wives and kids for a week of canoeing in rural Georgia. When the men arrive, they are not welcomed by the backwoods locals, who stalk the vacationers and savagely attack them in the woods. Reeling from the ambush, the friends attempt to return home but are surrounded by dangerous rapids and pursued by a madman. Soon, their canoe trip turns into a fight for survival.

Please note, the screening on Tuesday 19 November is our Free Members' Screening, with booking opening on Thursday 14 November at 13:00. The screening on Thursday 26 November is a general public screening.

Proudly screening as part of our Trailblazers season.  

About the film:

A landmark of queer and independent filmmaking, Desert Hearts blazed a trail for lesbian representation on screen. Arriving in the Reno desert to finalise her divorce, uptight New York academic Vivian’s heart is hijacked by unruly tomboy Cay, who she is introduced to in one of cinema’s most rip-roaring ‘meet cute’ sequences. Shot with a languorous, sensual cinematography that Deitch achieved on a small budget, the film is ahead of its time in its unapologetic celebration of lesbian sexuality.

Proudly screening as part of our season celebrating the work of women filmmakers in the US in the 1970s and 80s, Desert Hearts, a landmark of queer and independent filmmaking, blazed a trail for lesbian representation on screen. In celebration of this pioneering film, we're thrilled to organise another queer members' mixer on Saturday 23 November.

Join us in the Garden Bar from 19:00, to meet fellow members - all are welcome, whether you're queer, questioning, or a raging ally. There will be the opportunity to craft your own badge featuring a queer cinematic icons, whilst enjoying a complimentary 'Flaming Hearts' cocktail. Meanwhile, we'll be blasting our favourite queer dancefloor anthems, and your musical suggestions will be welcomed with open arms!

At 20:30 we'll make our way into the screen, where Lillian Crawford will introduce the film, offering insight into the film's special place in the history of lesbian filmmaking.

Tickets are £16.50 each, and restricted to 2 per member, meaning you can bring a date or a mate. The ticket includes access to the pre-screening disco and badgemaking, a complimentary (non-)alcoholic cocktail, and an unallocated seat for the screening.

Timings:

19:00        ‘Flaming Hearts’ cocktail hour, Desert Hearts disco and queer ‘pin up’ badgemaking with artist Alex Michon

20:30        Film introduction by Lillian Crawford

20:45        Screening of Desert Hearts

22:20        Expected finish

About the film:

Arriving in the Reno desert to finalise her divorce, uptight New York academic Vivian’s heart is hijacked by unruly tomboy Cay, who she is introduced to in one of cinema’s most rip-roaring ‘meet cute’ sequences. Shot with a languorous, sensual cinematography that Deitch achieved on a small budget, the film is ahead of its time in its unapologetic celebration of lesbian sexuality.

About Lillian Crawford:

Lillian Crawford is a writer for publications including Sight & Sound, The Guardian, Times Literary Supplement, and BBC Culture. Lillian is also a curator and programmer, including of relaxed screenings for neurodiverse audiences with Stims Collective. She is currently completing a PhD on the BBC’s Screen Two films at Royal Holloway.

https://lillcrawf.co.uk/ / https://www.stims.uk/ 

A small town singer, Ali (Christina Aguilera), moves to the big city for her chance at stardom where she is enchanted by Burlesque, a glamorous nightclub packed with dancers, sizzling music, and an owner (Cher) in need of a star. This very campy musical was mostly panned by critics but struck a chord with audiences who felt its feelgood factor, songs, and spirit to overcome its flaws and turn it into a fun, guilty-pleasure viewing experience.

This Divas Do Film screening will be followed by a panel hosted by curator Rōgan Graham in conversation with members of Friends of the Joiners Arms and the writers behind upcoming book Sweat Ceilings to discuss the future of music venues and the destruction of London nightlife by greedy landlords.

Friends of the Joiners Arms is a Community Benefit Society campaigning to open an accessible, not-for-profit, community-run queer space in London

Sweaty Ceilings is a book by Sophie Mo and Tash Cutts  which celebrates London's landmark independent music venues, focusing on the history and untold stories behind each one.

We encourage the audience to sing along to the film's tunes!

The first-ever feature documentary on acclaimed London-born artist Chris Gollon (1953 - 2017), Life in Paint explores his pioneering use of music to create new imagery; from lyrics by Bob Dylan, Neil Young or Talk Talk, to direct collaborations with musicians such as Yi Yao, Eleanor McEvoy and Thurston Moore, who has hailed Gollon’s “creative and modest genius”.

A sensitive and innovative painter of women, Gollon also expressed a powerful common humanity via his androgynous figures, and there has been a surge of interest in his work since his untimely death just seven years ago. Via found footage and BBC clips, the film shows Gollon disarmingly revealing his creative process and innovative techniques. Moving montages of Gollon’s images, combined with music by artists including The Skids, Gavin Bryars, Sleaford Mods, Yi Yao and Eleanor McEvoy, provide insights into how Gollon fused the two art forms, and how each energised and changed the other.

The film will be followed by a Q&A with the film's director Mark Calderbank.

One Christmas Eve a long time ago, a baby crawled into Santa's bag of toys... Raised as an elf, Buddy (Will Ferrell) grows into an adult three times larger than the biggest elf--and realizes that he will never truly fit in at the North Pole. This holiday season, Buddy goes looking for his true place in the world--in New York City. Buddy finds his workaholic father (James Caan)--who's on Santa's "naughty" list, a new mother (Mary Steenburgen) and a 10-year-old brother who doesn't believe in Santa Claus or elves. Here, now, Buddy discovers his destiny--to save Christmas for New York and the world!​

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

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

Elf was suggested by our member Christine Tait because it's 'Just good silly fun for all.'

Hailed as one of the greatest achievements in Filipino cinema, Manila in the Claws of Light sets a haunting love story against the searing tensions of 1970s Philippines under martial law, pairing unflinching compositions with starkly artful cinematography

A provincial man arrives in the heaving capital, Manila, in search of his lost love, only to become ensnared in the city’s corrupting, cacophonous chaos. Directed by visionary Filipino neorealist Lino Brocka, the film pulses with raw reality and humanistic depth.

Filum Film Club screens neglected cinema from all over the world.

Now digitally restored, Charles Vidor's Gilda features a sultry Hayworth in her most iconic role, as the much-lusted-after wife of a criminal kingpin (George Macready), as well as the former flame of his bitter henchman (Glenn Ford), and she drives them both mad with desire and jealousy. An ever-shifting battle of the sexes set on a Buenos Aires casino’s glittering floor and in its shadowy back rooms, Gilda is among the most sensual of all Hollywood noirs.

Adapted for the screen by David Mamet from his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, the compelling, witty, and endlessly quotable script is delivered with razor-sharp precision by an ensemble cast at the height of their powers.

A group of Chicago real-estate salesmen-cum-con artists live on the edge. Life is good for the one on a roll. For the rest, life hangs in the balance. There is no room for losers. A-B-C: Always Be Closing, sell or go under, is the salesman’s mantra. With the pressure on, so begins a rainy night of cutthroat business and shattered lives. Delivering an Academy Award nominated performance. Al Pacino plays the fast-talking Ricky Roma, alongside Jack Lemmon giving a phenomenal performance as the veteran Shelley 'The Machine' Levene, struggling to keep his neck above water.

A special event to mark the re-publication by leading London independent press Prototype of a facsimile edition of Derek Jarman’s early, extremely rare and only poetry book A Finger in the Fishes Mouth, originally published in 1972.

Joining publisher Jess Chandler and editor Gareth Evans after the screening to talk about Jarman's poetry, life, legacy and ever-growing influence will be poet and writer CAConrad and scholar Declan Wiffen. The book will be on sale at the event. Thanks to James Mackay.

A stunning collage of ecstatic Super-8 fragments, Glitterbug was assembled by friends from Jarman's prolific filming of everyday events and his experimental investigations of the format. Associate director David Lewis and editor Andy Crabb worked with Jarman through the latter half of 1993 to distill Glitterbug from some 15 hours of home movies shot between 1970 and 1985. Jarman’s vibrant photography, combined with dynamic cutting, reveals glimpses into his picaresque life, from the London streets to the Spanish countryside-with visions of dances, performances, intimate moments and quiet observations. Especially touching are the sequences with longtime muse Tilda Swinton as she bashfully wanders around gardens, her joyful, intimate interaction with the camera a testimony to her and Jarman’s devoted friendship. Set to a mesmerizing score by Brian Eno, Glitterbug forms a hopeful counterpoint to Jarman's remarkable final film Blue and commemorates both Jarman’s exemplary life as a gay icon and his unique artistic vision.

Heavily illustrated from Jarman’s collection of postcards, the book combines text and visual imagery in a way which foreshadows his subsequent style as an artist and filmmaker. With the vast majority of the first edition having been destroyed by Jarman, this makes available again a missing, significant piece of his oeuvre. The facsimile retains the book’s original format, with a silver mirror cover, and an image accompanying each poem, printed in a striking green ink. Additional material comes in the form of a Foreword and Afterwords by writer and organiser So Mayer, Jarman's biographer Tony Peake and his late companion Keith Collins.

CAConrad has been working with the ancient technologies of poetry & ritual since 1975. They have published numerous collections and performed and exhibited internationally. The Book of Frank, along with two other collections, has recently been published by Penguin.

Declan Wiffen is a Lecturer in English Literature at The University of Kent. His essay on Derek Jarman and Queer Theory entitled ‘Staying with the Sodomy at Prospect Cottage: Derek Jarman and Nature's Queer Negativity’ has recently been published in The Edinburgh Companion to Queer Reading.

From executive producer Lupita Nyong’o, Goodbye Julia tells the story of Mona (Eiman Yousif) and her maid Julia (Siran Rick). As political tensions mount in Khartoum, Julia finds herself torn between the truth of what happened to her missing husband, the possibility of new love with activist Majier and how she can care for her son.  

Set around South Sudan’s succession from Sudan in 2011, Goodbye Julia tells a neglected but crucial historical story in exceptionally personal terms. Poignant, tender and beautifully shot, it is part of a wave of excellent films from Sudan including Talking About Trees and You Will Die at Twenty.

Goodbye Julia world premiered at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard, where it was the first Sudanese director and film to participate in the history of the festival. It went on to win the festival’s Freedom Prize and was later Sudan’s official submission to the Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film.

Proceeds from this screening will be shared with Hadhreen, a grassroots charity in Sudan offering community kitchens to Sudan's displaced people, facing humanitarian crisis.

Our screening on Monday 9 December will be followed by a q&a with producer Julia Ton and actor Mark Oosterveen.

January 2021. The UK is in its 3rd lockdown and all entertainment venues remain closed. For theatre actors Sam and Mark, the future looks bleak. As the pandemic drags on, Mark - single and childless - is increasingly socially isolated, while Sam panics about how he is going to support his young family.

They spend their days in the online digital world of Grand Theft Auto and when they stumble across a theatre, they suddenly have an idea to stage a full production of Hamlet within the game. This film charts their ridiculous, hilarious and moving adventure as they battle violent griefers and discover surprising truths about life, friendship, and the enduring power of Shakespeare.

All screenings are subtitled.

The Garden Cinema View:

Quite a unique film, which visually has more in common with artist moving image practitioners such as Jon Rafman or Ed Atkins, but is narratively closer to therapy-through-drama films like Sing Sing. Rising above any antecedent, is the surreal hilarity of pitting Shakespeare against the violent and nihilistic world of GTA, resulting in a kind of hyper-slapstick where the actors may die by unusual methods at any given moment. There are sequences that are surely scripted, or restaged, for dramatic impact. Although the very unreality of the mode of filmmaking makes concerns around authenticity feel quite inconsequential.  

The ultimate performance is shown in truncated form, suggesting that the end result of the production is of less value than the sense of community, and empowering nature of performance and practice, at a time when so many people were extremely anxious and isolated.

Now nominated for four BIFA awards.

This preview screening of Hard Truths is the final instalment in our discussion series, In the Works, hosted by Oscar nominated composer Gary Yershon. It's also a return to our 2022 series, Mike Leigh in Conversation. As such, Gary's guest is his long time collaborator, and Hard Truths director, Mike Leigh himself.  

About the film:

Sisters Pansy and Chantal are chalk and cheese, but their close bond is the foundation that their extended family is built upon. Lately, life has proven too much for Pansy, her anguish manifests in relentless criticism of the world, leaving her husband Curtley, son Moses and Chantal walking on eggshells. Things come to a head over the course of a Mother’s Day weekend.

Hard Truths reunites Leigh with lead actor Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets & Lies), and his regular filmmaking team including Suzie Davis (production design), Jacqueline Duran (costume design), Gary Yershon (score - naturally), and the great cinematographer Dick Pope, who sadly passed away in October.

Michael Mann's classic crime thriller Heat was released in 1995 and stars Al Pacino and Robert DeNiro as two men on opposite sides of the law whose live become tangled and destabilised in an intense game of cat-and-mouse. When one heist led by master thief Neil McCauley (DeNiro) is compromised due to a clue left behind, LAPD Lieutenant Vincent Hanna (Al Pacino) finds himself obsessed with pursuing them in an ever-escalating war - one that may cause significant collateral damage.

This film was proposed by two cinema members. Joel writes: 'If it’s not too early (for the festive spirit), I’d love to feel good about being bad this Christmas', while Ela suggested the film 'because it depicts, rather than tells, remorse, hope, and potential redemption taking place in the spirit and setting of Christmas, and because it’s simply a great film'.

This screening will be preceded by a members' wine & cheese tasting, which already includes a seat for the film in the ticket. If you'd like to attend both the tasting and the screening, please book your tickets here instead.

About the film:

When hitmen Ray and Ken (Farrell and Gleeson) are ordered to murder a priest in London, and the job goes wrong, they are told by their boss Harry (Fiennes) to lay low for a couple of weeks in the quaint city of Bruges, Belgium. However, Ray finds himself very much outside his comfort zone and his contrary ways lead him into increasingly dangerous situations with locals, tourists and a film crew. While Ken does his best to reign in Ray's behaviour, word reaches Harry that they have not been keeping their heads down as instructed and he decides to travel to Bruges himself to deal with the wayward pair.

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 Garden Bar, to network with fellow members.

On Thursday 12 December we will be joined by screenwriter - directors Daniel Kokotajlo (Starve Acre, Apostasy) and Luna Carmoon (Hoard). They will discuss their respective careers and approaches to screenwriting, and how they subsequently directed their features.

Tickets are restricted to 1 per member, and available for just £5, which includes a token for a complimentary house wine, beer or soft/hot drink.

About the speakers:

Daniel Kokotajlo

Daniel’s latest film Starve Acre — a psychological horror starring Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark for BBC Films and House Productions — had its world premiere in competition at London Film Festival 2023 and was released theatrically this year. Daniel’s first feature Apostasy — about a young mother’s struggle to leave the Jehovah’s Witnesses — was nominated for a string of awards (6 BIFAS, and a BAFTA for Outstanding Debut Film 2019), and won the London Film Festival IWC Bursary for Outstanding First Feature in 2019. Apostasy was made on the micro-budget scheme for IFeatures, and was subsequently released by Artificial Eye — where it went on to gross $500,000 at the UK box office — and was bought by Amazon for the US. Daniel is developing a few original feature projects in the UK. He has been selected as both a Screen Star of Tomorrow and by BAFTA as a Breakthrough Brit.

Luna Carmoon

Luna Carmoon is a self-taught writer/director born and bred in South East London. An original, provocative voice, her writing is subversive, distinctly dissecting the absurd with the mundane rooted in womenhood, working-class culture, and the mythology of memory. Conjuring oddness out of the familiar, her work is peppered from her own experiences and inspired greatly by 60’s and 70’s British cinema. Her feature debut Hoard was released this year and screened here at the Garden Cinema.

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

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)

Our screening on Thursday 5 December will be introduced by Mark Searby, the author of Al Pacino: The Movies Behind The Man.

From acclaimed director Chris Nolan comes the story of a veteran police detective (Al Pacino) who is sent to a small Alaskan town to investigate the murder of a teenage girl. Forced into a psychological game of cat-and-mouse by the primary suspect (Robin Williams), events escalate and the detective finds his own stability dangerously threatened.

Tickets to our fundraiser screening on 21 December are available here.

Beset with personal and professional problems, George Bailey (James Stewart) finds his previously happy life falling apart around him on Christmas Eve. Seeing no way out, George considers suicide from the edge of a bridge - but Clarence (Henry Travers), his guardian angel, intervenes and shows George what his beloved hometown of Bedford Falls would be like without him.

Shocked by what he sees and at the unforeseen circumstances of his absence, George reconsiders and begs Clarence to return him to the problems of the present and the loving community he has fostered throughout his life.

It's a Wonderful Life was suggested by our members Freddie Fordham - 'It’s one of my favourite films of all time, I watch it every year with my family and it just reminds me what life is all about' - and Nina Loncar - 'It's a wonderful film!'

After sorting through a huge pile of 2,400 entries, LIAF have curated a selection of 83 outstanding new films from 31 countries. These films range from humorous and dramatic to bizarre, subtle, frightening, and autobiographical. What they all share is our belief that they represent the best of the best. These 8 international competition programmes showcase a variety of techniques, genres, and styles. This is your annual glimpse into the vibrant world of international indie animation.

This programme represents our yearly exploration of abstract and experimental animation. It features 17 short films where animators use a wide range of techniques, from hand-drawn "musical scores" to high-definition computer-assisted imagery. Each film reflects a deep passion for animated movement and showcases the artist's skill in using colour and crafting non-narrative visuals to captivate the screen.

Please visit liaf.org.uk for more details

SKRFF

A graffiti wall in Vienna becomes an archeological site and a sgraffito sculpture, as skrffologists activate traces of the past with stop motion animation. But can history ever be remembered clearly in all its complexity?

Austria 2024 Dir: Corrie Francis Parks, Daniel Nuderscher 7’00

Shapes

A psychedelic and mysterious galaxy composed of different shapes, textures, patterns and colours.

Hong Kong 2023 Dir: Tsz-wing Ho 5’20

Help Desk

A hypnotic hand drawn animation, providing a meditative and contemplative space, oscillating between flatness and depth, control and instability.

UK 2023 Dir: Edwin Rostron 3’10

Rekonstrukt

In 1923, Andor Weininger, a Hungarian-born artist, musician and leader of the Weimar Bauhaus group, put down on paper the first animated film script for a Hungarian animated film, but the abstract work would not be realised until exactly one hundred years later.

Hungary 2023 Dir: Gabor Ulrich 4’05

Entropic Memory

This photographic exploration of family photo albums ravaged by water evokes hazy and indistinct memories, poignant witnesses of a fragile past.

Canada 2024 Dir: Nicolas Brault 6’30

Flow

Lens based video and photography combine with digital geometric shapes to imitate the invisible flow in nature.

Hong Kong 2024 Dir: Alex Bai 3’00

Lines

An aggressive battle unfolds between red and dark blue. The borderlines between the colours vibrate with tension as they fight for their lives.

Germany 2024 Dir: Martin Schmidt 4’10

Tao

Chinese Taoism, the concepts of yin and yang, and the Five Elements. Dao generates one, one generates two, two generates three and three generates all things.

Hong Kong 2024 Dir: Shuxin Yan Wang, Simai Stella Huang, Haoran Yan Yang 2’15

Dawn & Dusk

The time between dawn and dusk reveals how the dual nature of light changes on a microscopic level, through the vibrations of photons, the oscillations of electromagnetic waves, and the properties of light refraction and reflection.

Spain 2023 Dir: Toni Mitjanit 5’10

0.1g

Fluids leak from the body, seeping through various orifices and beyond the boundary of the skin.

Switzerland 2023 Dir: Raymond Hoepflinger 1’55

To Hear to See

A fusion of abstract optical soundtracks from analogue 16mm and 35mm film expanding on the 1930’s Russian experiments of Nikolai Voinov which impacted electronic music.

Australia 2023 Dir: Dirk de Bruyn 4’35

Clash

Two geometric objects explore and challenge each other’s domains by switching tactics and transforming body forms.

Hong Kong 2024 Dir: Yuming Liao, Jingxian Zhan, Yingyue Zhuang 2’30

Electronic Insects

The connection between nature and abstraction characterised by the shapes and forms of a myriad of insects’ features.

USA 2023 Dir: Keum-Taek Jung 1’30

Grain Cloud Atmosphere

Many grains make a cloud. Many clouds form an atmosphere. An exploration of the perception of time through the eyes and ears.

Italy 2023 Dir: Martin Moolhuijsen 6’40

Geometric Symphony

A symphony of flapping and vibrating imagery set to a whirlwind of perfectly synchronised optical sounds.

Hong Kong 2024 Dir: Ka Yuet Chan, Yau Hing Lam 2’15

Fusion

Drawn directly onto 35mm motion picture film without the use of camera or musical instruments, a visual and aural feast for the senses.

Canada 2024 Dir: Richard Reeves 3’15

(S)

An immersive loop of organic forms, reflecting on the entangled nature of life and art.

UK 2024 Dir: Mario Radev 12’30

This programme explores the full spectrum of human emotions through 9 captivating films that delve into themes of love, hate, jealousy, sensuality, melancholy, anxiety, confusion, fear, and doubt. Each film is powerful and moving, offering profound insights and striking visuals that resonate with contemporary issues.

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

After sorting through a huge pile of 2,400 entries, we’ve curated a selection of 83 outstanding new films from 31 countries. These films range from humorous and dramatic to bizarre, subtle, frightening, and autobiographical. What they all share is our belief that they represent the best of the best. These 8 international competition programmes showcase a variety of techniques, genres, and styles. This is your annual glimpse into the vibrant world of international indie animation.

Please visit liaf.org.uk for more details

It's Just a Whole

An unpleasant examination by a meticulous doctor leads to a supposedly inevitable medical intervention that leaves the young patient scarred in body and soul.

Germany 2023 Dir: Bianca Scali 10’35

In Thousand Petals

A young married woman collects the sweet memories of her romance. On closer inspection, she leaves bits of herself behind.

Belgium 2023 Dir: Louise Bongartz 10’05

Freeride in C

The serene whiteness of the mountains is interrupted by vibrant winter sports enthusiasts indulging in downhill skiing.

Latvia 2024 Dir: Edmunds Jansons 10’10

Chicken

A woman who is escaping an abusive situation stumbles and finds herself eye to eye with a hen who is in the same situation.

Germany 2023 Dir: Anna Benner 7’55

Three Birds

A wise birdwoman sends three birds to guide a girl into the dark unknown landscapes of her inner world.

Slovenia 2024 Dir: Zarja Menart 8’15

Yuck!

Yuck! Couples kissing on the mouth are gross. And the worst thing is, you can’t miss them: when people are about to kiss, their lips go all pink and shiny

France 2024 Dir: Loic Espuche 13’10

Stale Smoke

The most difficult questions and secrets are invariably the ones within families.

France 2023 Dir: Arthur Jamain 9’30

Cold Soup

A victim of domestic violence looks back at the years when she was married, recalling how difficult it was to stay afloat.

Portugal, France 2023 Dir: Marta Monteiro 9’50

Zarko, You will spoil the child!

Memories of a childhood in Split in the 1980s and a moving tribute to the love of a grandpa and grandma who did their best to keep their granddaughter smiling.

Croatia 2024 Dir: Veljko Popovic, Milivoj Popovic 13’00

This programme ‘From Absurd to Zany’ celebrates some of the funniest, weirdest and eye-poppingly nutty films that were entered this year. Tales of murderous dreams, existential crises, destructive machines that just want to hurt us, a young girl's anxiety about her appendix, an insane Jeff Bezos and the bakery he runs plus many more bonkers scenarios. Buckle up for a wild ride.

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

After sorting through a huge pile of 2,400 entries, we’ve curated a selection of 83 outstanding new films from 31 countries. These films range from humorous and dramatic to bizarre, subtle, frightening, and autobiographical. What they all share is our belief that they represent the best of the best. These 8 international competition programmes showcase a variety of techniques, genres, and styles. This is your annual glimpse into the vibrant world of international indie animation.

Please visit liaf.org.uk for more details

Gina Kamentsky's Pinocchio in 70mm

Pinocchio felt a longing deep within him. Someday, he would become a real girl and live a life beyond the confines of make-believe.

USA 2024 Dir: Gina Kamentsky 3’10

Mee and Burd

A post operative existential crisis inspires an animator to make a film about a post operative existential crisis.

UK 2023 Dir: Greg McLeod 7’45

Human Resources

Andy, followed by a friend filming the scene, goes to his recycling appointment. Wanda, the secretary of the company, welcomes him. We follow Andy through the whole process, until his last seconds of life.

France 2023 Dir: Trinidad Plass, Titouan Tillier, Isaac Wenzer 3’30

No Room

In this film, cars have legs. Maybe that is why they feel free to use the pavement as they please. There is no room, but could we perhaps be a little more considerate?

Croatia 2024 Dir: Jelena Oroz 6’20

A Round of Applause for Death

A surreal, abstract journey through a series of murderous dreams, where Death takes centre stage and faceless spectators applaud the inevitable.

UK 2024 Dir: Stephen Irwin 4’50

Hurikan

Hurikán rushes to save his favourite beer stand and impress the barmaid, by opening a new keg. In a gritty part of Prague, he faces off against thieves, police, and his own thirst. Although he retrieves the keg, he ultimately gives in to temptation.

Slovakia, Czech Republic, France, Bosnia and Herzegovina 2024 Dir: Jan Saska 13’05

Humanity

Life is hard even without having to tolerate other people's annoying habits. The problem is you can't kill somebody just because they chew too loudly.

Czech Republic 2024 Dir: Tereza Kovandová 7’40

Matta and Matto

In a dystopian world where touch is forbidden, Matta and Matto offer refuge to the lonely at Hotel Vaip. In the deceptive labyrinth of mind bending rooms at their transient hotel, deepest desires are fulfilled and surpassed, but this comes at a price.

Switzerland 2023 Dir: Bianca Caderas, Kerstin Zemp 10’15

I Am A Robot

An autonomous vacuum cleaner, a self-driving car and a supercomputer confess their murderous innermost thoughts as they go about their day.

USA 2024 Dir: Sean Buckelew 7’05

Extremely Short

A man sets out in search of the shortest thing in Tokyo, which turns out to be a single syllable uttered by a dying man.

Japan 2024 Dir: Koji Yamamura 5’20

Let Them Eat Cake

Jeff Bezos is an ambitious capitalist and businessman. This Jeff Bezos manages a local bakery and does everything in his power to satisfy his customers. EVERYTHING.

Denmark 2023 Dir: Mathias Rodrigues Bjerre 11’00

Bunnyhood

"Mum would never lie to me, would she?" Innocent Bobby discovers the answer to this question when she is surprised by a last minute trip to the hospital.

UK 2024 Dir: Mansi Maheshwari 9’05

This programme examines some big life moments and asks some pointed questions. The 10 powerful films include a breathtaking take on an author's experience with mescaline, the internal struggles of a group of female gymnasts, a humorous animated road movie documenting Poland during the communist era and a touching mother-daughter relationship.

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

After sorting through a huge pile of 2,400 entries, we’ve curated a selection of 83 outstanding new films from 31 countries. These films range from humorous and dramatic to bizarre, subtle, frightening, and autobiographical. What they all share is our belief that they represent the best of the best. These 8 international competition programmes showcase a variety of techniques, genres, and styles. This is your annual glimpse into the vibrant world of international indie animation.

Please visit liaf.org.uk for more details

The Last Drop

Kata is a member of the national rhythmic gymnastics team that is exposed to extreme coaching techniques. The pressure on her is building, and the finals are near.

Hungary 2024 Dir: Anna Tőkés 10’40

Misérable Miracle

Inspired by the poems and drawings of Henri Michaux, this film takes animation to the breathtaking limits of language and perception.

Japan, Canada, France 2023 Dir: Ryo Orikasa 8’15

All Futures

The arrival and evolution of humanity on Somnum, a virgin planet where night is eternal.

France, Argentina 2024 Dir: Barbara Cerro 11’55

On Hold

A young woman is stuck in the hold queue of a telephone hotline. A surreal episodic short film about the absurdities of urban life and the frustration of a paralysing standstill.

Switzerland 2024 Dir: Delia Hess 7’10

Surprisingly Beautiful

An unsuspecting artist is moved by a visit from a seemingly banal moth. As events unfold into the final fleeting moments, a hidden marvel is revealed which the artist fights to preserve.

Canada 2024 Dir: Kathryn Jankowski 7’00

Earth Coal

In the countryside of the past, within the mines and factories, these men appear to share similar sorrows. There seems to be something that resonates with us today—whether it’s a genuine connection or merely the simplicity of everyday life.

France 2024 Dir: Bastien Dupriez 12’45

Box

In a regulated system, different figures live isolated from each other in their boxes. They draw, cut, fold and stack the paper boxes on top of each other. As the stacks get higher and higher and collapse, the figures find each other and discover life together.

Switzerland 2024 Dir: Aline Schoch 8’00

It Shouldn't Rain Tomorrow

As she gets older, Oma’s perception begins to change. While her daughter tries to adapt to her new situation, she seems to sink deeper and deeper into herself. Portugal, Germany 2024 Dir: Maria Trigo Teixeira 11’15

Circle

A girl draws a circle on the ground. Passers-by step into it, one by one. Soon the circle is full of people struggling to make room for each other. Once the girl returns and erases the circle, people start heading on their way.

South Korea 2024 Dir: Yumi Joung 6’55

The Car that came back from the Sea

Six friends drive to the Polish Baltic coast and back in a small, beaten-up car. During their trip, their car and their country fall apart.

Poland 2023 Dir: Jadwiga Kowalska 10’45

Welcome to our annual deep-dive into the dark heart of animation. Here you will find films featuring a blind sculptor and his countless failed experiments, corn husk skulls, mental armadillos, evil twin babies, skeletons, maggots and death everywhere. Step in, take a seat, turn out the light and get ready for our annual showcase of all manner of dark, creepy, strange, violent and spooky films.

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

After sorting through a huge pile of 2,400 entries, we’ve curated a selection of 83 outstanding new films from 31 countries. These films range from humorous and dramatic to bizarre, subtle, frightening, and autobiographical. What they all share is our belief that they represent the best of the best. These 8 international competition programmes showcase a variety of techniques, genres, and styles. This is your annual glimpse into the vibrant world of international indie animation.

Please visit liaf.org.uk for more details

Playing God

A clay sculpture comes to life in the darkness of a workshop, surrounded by strange creatures.

Italy, France 2024 Dir: De Matteo Burani & Arianna Gheller 8’55

Duck

One stormy night, Bex's plans for a Chinese takeaway are disrupted when she nearly kills a mysterious old woman.

USA 2024 Dir: Mic Graves, Tony Hull 8’15

As I Was a Tree

In a surreal odyssey, the Self seeks escape.

Germany 2024 Dir: Jalal Maghout 10’40

Little Other

Two babies are about to be born. One of them is bound to be a regular child. The other is destined to be a trickster. But how to determine which is which?

Estonia 2024 Dir: Andres Tenusaar 12’00

Madeline's House

A little girl, Madeline, takes us on a tour of her beloved childhood home. The more rooms we explore, she slowly remembers the strange and disturbing events that led to her death.

UK 2023 Dir: Eliska Dvorackova 3’20

Dolores

Dolores is a 7-year-old girl who just wants to play, runs away from a fire demon and accidentally falls into a grave.

Mexico 2024 Dir: Cecilia Andalón Delgadillo 8’15

Sleepy

Thirteen-year-old Varka lives in a shoemaker’s home where she performs the duties of nanny and housemaid. Varka’s only wish is to get some sleep.

Russian Federation 2023 Dir: Igor Voloshin 13’30

Drizzle in Johnson

A scientist obsessively seeking the answers of the universe is thrust into a mind-bending odyssey of grotesqueries and genitalia.

Canada 2023 Dir: Ivan Li 20’40

Persuasive, illustrative and able to get over abstract details in attractive and compelling ways, animation is the perfect tool to document someone’s vision of the truth. This past decade has seen a boom in non-fiction films that use animation to tell their stories and LIAF has been one of the vanguards with our annual showcase dedicated to the documentary form dating back to 2008. This year’s programme features 11 of the best true life stories coupled with mind-blowing imagery.

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

After sorting through a huge pile of 2,400 entries, we’ve curated a selection of 83 outstanding new films from 31 countries. These films range from humorous and dramatic to bizarre, subtle, frightening, and autobiographical. What they all share is our belief that they represent the best of the best. These 8 international competition programmes showcase a variety of techniques, genres, and styles. This is your annual glimpse into the vibrant world of international indie animation.

Please visit liaf.org.uk/ for more details

Us Four

The bittersweet experiences of growing up and the evolving dynamics of sisterly relationships.

UK 2024 Dir: Alex Peake 6’45

Percebes

With the sea and urban Algarve as the backdrop, we follow a complete life cycle of a special shellfish called percebes, the goose barnacle.

Portugal 2024 Dir: Alexandra Ramires, Laura Gonçalves 11’25

Noggin

No sugarcoatin’ it, you’ve got brain damage from multiple sclerosis. Your memories are fading so gather everything left in that noggin, like paper and ink and photos and love of course.

USA, Italy 2024 Dir: Case Jernigan 7’10

High Street Repeat

The story of migration and enterprise, told through the changing face of Britain’s high street. This playful combination of stop motion with digital techniques and manipulation of photographic cut-outs creates a continuous transition between the past and present.

UK 2023 Dir: Osbert Parker, Laurie Hill 4’25

I Died in Irpin

24 February 2022 my boyfriend and I fled from Kyiv to Irpin. We spent 10 days in a blockaded city and managed to escape with the last evacuation convoy. Time passed, but the feeling that I died in Irpin has never left me since.

Czech Republic 2024 Dir: Anastasiia Falileieva 11’30

Joana

Joana is about to turn 6. Her father decides to make an animated documentary to portray her personality and the things she loves the most.

Spain 2024 Dir: Antoni Sendra Barrachina 2’50

Touching Darkness

10 year old Vítek has special abilities – he can feel and hear what others cannot. This is a door to his world and shows us that the absence of one sense doesn't have to be just an obstacle.

Czech Republic 2024 Dir: Jamaica Kindlová 4’50

Dying for Beginners

What happens as we die? A gentle step by step journey through the process of dying.

UK 2023 Dir: Emily Downe 4’20

Margarita's Story

A heart-wrenching film presenting the perilous journey of a 10 year old girl’s flight from Mariupol, Ukraine in March of 2022.

UK 2023 Dir: Jonathan Hodgson 3’30

Ur Heinous Habit

A blackmail email prompts a filmmaker to explore the intersection of shame and masturbation.

USA 2023 Dir: Eugene Kolb 13’45

Inside, The Valley Sings

Trapped in the never-ending horror of prolonged solitary confinement, 3 prisoners seek comfort and escape in the boundless vistas of their own imaginations.

Ireland 2024 Dir: Nathan Fagan, Natasza Cetner 15’00

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

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

After sorting through a huge pile of 2,400 entries, we’ve curated a selection of 83 outstanding new films from 31 countries. These films range from humorous and dramatic to bizarre, subtle, frightening, and autobiographical. What they all share is our belief that they represent the best of the best. These 8 international competition programmes showcase a variety of techniques, genres, and styles. This is your annual glimpse into the vibrant world of international indie animation.

Please visit liaf.org.uk for more details

Wander to Wonder

Mary, Billybud, and Fumbleton star in an 80’s kids’ TV-series called Wander to Wonder. After the creator of the show has died, they are left alone in the studio. Struggling to find enough to eat, they continue to make increasingly strange episodes for their fans.

Netherlands, Belgium, France, UK 2023 Dir: Nina Gantz 13’45

Butterfly

In the sea, a man swims. As he does, memories come to the surface.From his early childhood to his life as a man, all his memories are linked to water. Some are happy, some glorious, some traumatic.

France 2024 Dir: Florence Miailhe 15’00

Progress Mining

Feed the monster, have a cup of tea, and if it’s your first day – don’t pay attention to anything peculiar in Sector 3. Nick shows a new worker around the crumbling Progress Mining Company, while Mary tries to get it shut for repairs.

UK, Switzerland 2024 Dir: Gabriel Bohmer 16’30

Shoes and Hooves

A pedicurist in a small-town, Paula the centaur-girl longs to have human feet. When she meets Arnold the crocodile-man it is love at first sight. Can Paula take the first steps in her search for identity? What will be the price of her attempts to fit in and deny her true self?

Hungary 2024 Dir: Viktória Traub 15’00

The Voice of the Sirens

At the heart of the sea bed, between rocks and corals, primitive algae undulate, lulled by the muffled and roaring sound of the currents. Up above, on the surface of the water, something extraordinary has just appeared: a voice. So soft and seductive that it is unlike anything we have ever heard before.

France, Italy 2023 Dir: Gianluigi Toccafondo 19’45

The Sunset Special 2

On this exclusive luxury cruise two families meet. While artificial facades dissolve, psychedelic dreamworlds unfold and the reality beyond superficial comfort is unveiled.

Germany 2024 Dir: Nicolas Gebbe 18’50

Stampfer Dreams

This tribute to scientist Simon Stampfer features animated sequences inspired by his Optical Magic Discs, first showcased in Vienna in 1833. It presents 3 dreams that capture young Simon's visions of future advancements in technology and art, spanning from the 19th century to the present day.

Austria 2024 Dir: Thomas Renoldner 11’50

Gillian Armstrong's heartfelt adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's classic novel about love, family and the female spirit, stars Winona Ryder, Kirsten Dunst, Christian Bale, Claire Danes, and Susan Sarandon.

With her husband off at war, Marmee (Sarandon) is left alone to raise their four daughters, her Little Women. There is the spirited Jo (Ryder); conservative Meg (Trini Alvarado); fragile Beth (Danes); and romantic Amy (played at different ages by Kristen Dunst and Samantha Mathis). As the years pass, the sisters share some of the most cherished and painful memories of self-discovery, as Marmee and Aunt March (Mary Wickes) guide them through issues of independence, romance and virtue.

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  

Cine Brazil and London Film Week present a preview screening of Pictures of Ghosts.

Pictures of Ghosts is a journey through time, the architecture of Recife, and the history of cinema. Both a witness and participant, Kleber Mendonça Filho (Bacurau, Aquarius) films his way through the alleyways of his home city. He observes the changes to its city life, accelerated by economic difficulties, and celebrates the otherworldly ability of cinema to give us a glimpse into eternity.

Picture of Ghosts was Brazil’s official entry for Best International Feature Film at the 2024 Academy Awards and in Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival.

This screening will open with a short film:

Black Spring (Primavera Preta) - directed by Antonio Santos - 10 min

The neglected Historic Center of Recife, the beauty of the outskirts of Olinda, and the struggles and anxieties of Black youth intertwine in search of a supposedly promised future.

(Screening in partnership with the International University Film Festival MOV)

London Film Week presents a Preview screening ahead of the UK release in March 2025, don’t miss out!

New York’s hospitality industry—and that of many other big cities—relies heavily on the labour of undocumented migrants who face constant threats of deportation on top of the pressures of their work. Director Alonso Ruizpalacios highlights this tense reality in La Cocina, skillfully adapting Arnold Wesker’s 1957 play The Kitchen into a powerful critique of exploitative labour practices. With Rooney Mara and a breakout performance from Raúl Briones, the film dives into the high-stress environment of a restaurant kitchen to explore the lives behind it.

This screening will open with a short film:  

Do Not Resuscitate - directed by Kumyl Saied - 12 min

A withdrawn caregiver meets a boisterous artist and must make a decision, pursue romance, or remain anchored by his duty of care.

London Film Week proudly presents the Preview of the new film from acclaimed, BAFTA-winning director Rungano Nyoni (I Am Not a Witch).  

On an empty road in the middle of the night, Shula (Susan Chardy) stumbles across the body of her uncle. As funeral proceedings begin around them, she and her cousins bring to light the buried secrets of their middle-class Zambian family, in filmmaker Rungano Nyoni’s surreal and vibrant reckoning with the lies we tell ourselves.

As tensions rise, Shula and her cousin Nsansa join forces to reconcile the past for a more hopeful future. A fierce and darkly funny portrait of one woman’s strength in the face of crisis, Nyoni’s award-winning second feature proves her to be a distinctive filmmaker blazing a unique trail.          

Winner Best Director - Cannes Film Festival - Un Certain Regard 2024.

This screening will open with a short film:

Return - directed by Sophia Carr-Gomm - 11 min

An old man is isolated in his home. Haunted by the loss of his beloved, he embarks upon a journey to return to her.

A boy searching for his long-lost mother through Laos in this appealing debut from UK director Joshua Trigg. London Film Week presents a Preview screening followed by a Q&A.    

The film follows Satu, an abandoned child, and Bo, an aspiring journalist, on a journey to uncover Satu's origins. This coming-of-age road trip highlights the resilience and friendship between the characters, blending social themes with sentimental moments.      

Shot on 16mm, the visuals capture Laos’ vibrant beauty, adding depth to this warm, heartfelt narrative.      

This screening will open with a short film:

A Time Before - directed by Leo Metcalf - 12 min

Trapped between waking life and dreams, Olly delves into his childhood memories, navigating the fantastical dream worlds his sister created to shield them from family strife. A journey into the buried past that shapes who we are.

London Premiere: Loosely based on fact, Magnus van Horn’s fictionalised true crime nightmare will leave you with a shiver of pure fear. The film was screened in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and will be released on January 10, 2025 in the UK.

Karoline, a young factory worker, finds herself abandoned and pregnant while striving to climb out of poverty in post WW1 Copenhagen. Amidst her struggles, she meets Dagmar, a charismatic woman running a hidden adoption agency within a candy store, helping poor mothers in finding foster homes for their unwanted children. To escape poverty, Karoline takes on the role of a wet-nurse. A strong connection is formed between the two women, yet Karoline’s world shatters as she stumbles upon the dreadful revelation of the nightmarish fate she unknowingly embraces. The Girl with the Needle is a fairytale about a horrible truth.

The screening will open with the short film:

33 - directed by Maximilian Uriarte - 5 min

A man and his young clone journey through space on a generational ship on an unknown mission into the void.

London Film Week - Preview Screening: Continuing the observational nonfiction saga that began with Youth (Spring), Wang Bing returns to the Chinese district of Zhili, where more than 300,000 migrant workers from rural provinces are employed in clothing workshops.

In this enveloping second part of the Youth trilogy, shot between 2015 and 2019, Wang deepens his vérité portrait of a generation struggling to survive on meagre wages amidst a nation’s economic expansion, emphasising the distrustful, increasingly combative relationship between workers and management.

Wang’s epic documentary is a singular rendering of young people who have become so focused on “making a living” that they have no time for joy or rest. Says one of the film’s many subjects: “You have no rights, so what’s the use of having money?” Despite these grim realities, Wang’s film provides hope in its depiction of workers who may find their collective voice.

The final part of the trilogy, Youth (Homecoming), also screens in this year’s London Film Week.

London Film Week - Preview Screening: Wang Bing concludes his monumental Youth trilogy in expansive fashion, giving ever wider scope to the lives of migrant workers in Zhili’s textile factories, which the filmmaker recorded over the course of five years.

Centred around New Year’s break, when the workers are planning to visit their families in remote hometowns to celebrate the festivities, Homecoming functions as a sweeping portrait of contemporary rural China, incorporating images of tightly packed trains and buses climbing treacherous mountainside roads, and joyous interludes, including wedding celebrations for workers Shi Wei and Fang Lingping, into its scenes of factory life. Wang’s cyclical account of young people caught in constant survival mode comes to a poignant close here, giving definitive shape and meaning to his enormous act of observation.

The middle part of the trilogy, Youth (Hard Times), also screens in this year’s London Film Week.

Basel Adra, a young Palestinian activist from Masafer Yatta, has been fighting his community's mass expulsion by the Israeli occupation since childhood. Basel documents the gradual erasure of Masafer Yatta, as soldiers destroy the homes of families - the largest single act of forced transfer ever carried out in the occupied West Bank. He crosses paths with Yuval, an Israeli journalist who joins his struggle, and for over half a decade they fight against the expulsion while growing closer. Their complex bond is haunted by the extreme inequality between them: Basel, living under a brutal military occupation, and Yuval, unrestricted and free.

This film, by a Palestinian-Israeli collective of four young activists, was co-created during the darkest, most terrifying times in the region, as an act of creative resistance to Apartheid and a search for a path towards equality and justice.

Nominated for Best International Independent Film at the British Independent Film Awards 2024.

Berlinale Documentary Award and Panorama Audience Award for Best Documentary Film

The Garden Cinema View:

No Other Land follows frontline occupation/conflict documentaries such as For Sama, City of Ghosts, and 20 Days in Mariupol, in that it confronts us with the desperate immediacy of the situation in Gaza, whilst showcasing the extraordinary bravery of the filmmakers and journalists who record these atrocities. The footage is upsetting, and produces feelings of helplessness, and deep frustration and anger, as well as exhaustion. The efforts of Palestinian activist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham in telling this story are themselves commendable, and they show a collaborative pathway that might lead to a better future. That is until the terrifying coda that Basel filmed after the official end of the shoot, just after the recent escalation of Israel’s war with Hamas in October 2023.  

Our screening on Saturday 7 December will be followed by a Q&A with lead actor Susan Chardy.

The new film from acclaimed, BAFTA-winning director Rungano Nyoni (I Am Not a Witch), On Becoming a Guinea Fowl is a compelling drama about community and sisterhood.

Driving home from a party one night, Shula seems unfazed by the sight of her uncle's dead body on the deserted road. While preparations are made for his funeral, she finds herself plunged into the hidden secrets of her family. As tensions rise, Shula and her cousin Nsansa join forces to reconcile the past for a more hopeful future.

A fierce and darkly funny portrait of one woman’s strength in the face of crisis, Nyoni’s award-winning second feature proves her to be a distinctive filmmaker blazing a unique trail.

Winner Best Director - Cannes Film Festival - Un Certain Regard 2024.

Nominated for Best British Independent Film at the British Independent Film Awards 2024.

The Garden Cinema View:

Rungano Nyoni’s (now very) long awaited follow-up to the marvellous I Am Not a Witch once again uses animal metaphor, uneasy humour, and strains of surrealism to critique patriarchal Zambian society. Starting extremely strongly with a beguiling and semi-unreal opening sequence, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl settles into a satire of bickering customs and manners during preparations for a funeral. But a swivel towards a deeply upsetting family history of sexual abuse drags us into a register of grief and troubling collective suppression.

As with her previous feature, narrative resolutions and meaning drift into realms of allegory and even magic. However, such flights of fantasy, dream, and memory remain grounded by cinematographer David Gallago’s (Embrace of the Serpent) studied framings, and the frequent flashes of humour that puncture the heavy atmosphere.

Paddington in Peru brings Paddington's story to Peru as he returns to visit his beloved Aunt Lucy, who now resides at the Home for Retired Bears. With the Brown Family in tow, a thrilling adventure ensues when a mystery plunges them into an unexpected journey through the Amazon rainforest and up to the mountain peaks of Peru.

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

Point Break stars Keanu Reeves as FBI agent Johnny Utah, who goes undercover with a gang of surfers, led by Patrick Swayze’s Bodhi, who are suspects in a series of bank robberies. Rarely seen on big screens in the UK in recent years, Kathryn Bigelow’s ultimate 1990s cult classic returns with a new digital restoration.

1950. William Lee, an American expat in Mexico City, spends his days almost entirely alone, except for a few contacts with other members of the small American community. His encounter with Eugene Allerton, an expat former soldier, new to the city, shows him, for the first time, that it might be finally possible to establish an intimate connection with somebody.

The Garden Cinema View:

Luca Guadagnino’s second feature of 2024 works from another script from Challengers writer Justin Kuritzkes, but the resulting film is quite different from their propulsive tennis throupling. True to the spirit of William S. Burroughs, Queer presents a frank look at addiction, albeit within a seductive and somewhat fantastical milieu, and dabbles in surreal imagery before diving headfirst down the rabbit hole.

Daniel Craig is impressive as Burroughs surrogate William Lee. With a face as crumpled as his stained linen suit, his performance comes over as a seedy riff on elements of both Benoit Blanc and his iteration of Bond. Not a ‘safe’ hero for the audience, he nevertheless carries the first acts of Queer, hunting for booze and young men amongst an oddly artificial and anachronistic vision of 1950 Mexico City. This is a world of power games and construction, set into relief against the (naked) truth of several intimate scenes, shot erotically and tenderly by Guadagnino and Apichatpong Weerasethakul regular collaborator Sayombhu Mukdeeprom.

Whether audiences have the patience for Lee’s self-destructive antics, or the film’s later digressions into fantasy will, as with Burroughs’ work itself, be highly subjective. Like the notorious author, Guadagnino continues to plough his own furrow, and Queer is, if anything else, an idiosyncratic work.

Our screening on Thursday 21 November will be introduced by Mark Searby, the author of Al Pacino: The Movies Behind The Man.

Frank (Al Pacino in an Oscar winning performance) is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the US army. He's blind and impossible to get along with. Charlie is at school and is looking forward to going to college. To help pay for a trip home for Christmas, he agrees to look after Frank over Thanksgiving. Frank's niece says this will be easy money, but she didn't reckon on Frank spending his Thanksgiving in New York.

The screening on Sunday 8 December will be introduced by writer, editor and founder of Girlhood Studies Claire Marie Healy, who will also join us for an informal post-film discussion in The Garden Cinema Bar.

This digital restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Sundance Grand Jury Prize winning film features a breakout performance from Laura Dern as Connie, the fifteen-year-old familial black sheep whose summertime idyll of beach trips, mall hangouts and innocent flirtations is shattered by an encounter with a mysterious stranger. Adapted from a short story by Joyce Carol Oates, Chopra fills the gaps of Oates’ sparse story with a dream-like visual palette that evokes Connie’s increasingly nightmarish passage from girl to woman.

Timings:

15:00  Introduction (Claire Marie Healy)

15:15  Screening

16:50  Comfort break

17:00  Discussion (Garden Bar)

18:00  Expected finish

Claire Marie Healy’s writing and curated projects explore film, art, fashion, and the internet. Formerly the editor of Dazed, she has since edited books on roller discos, dancefloors and SFX makeup for places like IDEA and A24. Her ongoing research project, Girlhood Studies, explores how visual culture shapes the experiences of young women, and has encompassed a column, film screenings and an essay-book with the Tate.

Tibetan auteur Pema Tseden’s final completed feature, Snow Leopard, is set amongst vast and stunning Tibetan terrain, and uses the fabled creature to pose and probe the universal question of tradition versus modernity. An unexpected incident causes a snow leopard to break into the sheep pen of a local herder and kill nine rams not only causing a generational row in the family and attracting a TV crew into the village, but also triggering a heated debate on whether to honour or abandon traditional values in modern day Tibet.

The Garden Cinema View:

Pema Tseden’s premature passing, just weeks before the premiere of Snow Leopard, is a keenly felt loss for cinema. Over the course of his career, Tseden established himself as the figurehead for Tibetan language cinema. Snow Leopard might not reach the level of his masterpieces, Balloon and Tharlo, but is still a vital document of plateau-life. In fact, this may be an appropriate entry point for those new to Tseden’s work, as it returns to his themes of tradition and myth versus modernity, the balance of nature and technology, and linguistic and political tensions and clashes within this vast region. Snow Leopard captures the elemental grandeur of the mountains with almost incidental ease, and central dreamlike sequences showing the relationship between the titular creature and a monk are some of the most spellbinding moments in Tseden’s filmography.    

One evening, somewhere in our hemisphere, a strange series of illogical events take place: a clerk is made redundant in a degrading manner; a lost immigrant is violently attacked in a busy street; a magician makes an error in his act. In the midst of this mayhem, one person stands out: Karl. While the new millennium is casting its web and creating a vast mental breakdown, Karl gradually becomes conscious of the absurdity of the world and realizes just how difficult it is to be human...

Set on the eve of a new millennium, Kathryn Bigelow’s cyberpunk sci-fi imagines a near-future Los Angeles equally marked by the 1992 Rodney King riots and its history as point of origin for the noir genre. The film follows Lenny Nero (Ralph Fiennes), an ex-cop turned entrepreneur who illegally sells virtual-reality recordings of first-person memories, accessed directly via the cerebral cortex. Angela Bassett stars as his far more capable limousine driver, Mace. After the murder of hip-hop activist Jeriko One (Glenn Plummer), Lenny and Mace have to figure out who is using the technology to terrorise innocent civilians (making them watch their own murders from the killer’s perspective.

This film was suggested by our member Ryan Gilbey, who will also introduce 'Christmas in bright, discombobulating LA sunshine' on Wednesday 18 December.

Sean Baker’s (Anora) critically acclaimed Sundance smash hit Tangerine charts a Christmas Eve in the life of Sin-Dee and her best friend Alexandra, two trans women.

After hearing that Sin-Dee’s boyfriend/pimp cheated on her while she was in jail they set out on a rampage through Tinseltown to find him and teach him and his new lover a lesson. Famously shot on iPhones with prototype anamorphic lenses, this decidedly modern holiday tale bursts off the screen with energy and style, defying expectations at every turn.

Please note, the screening on Wednesday 18 December is our Free Members' Screening, and booking for this will open on Thursday 12 December at 13:00. The screening on Monday 23 December is a general public screening, and booking for this is open now.

Following the popular and critical success of his gender-bending farce Some Like It Hot (1959), Wilder reteamed with screenwriter I. A. L. Diamond for this darker comedy set in the world of nine-to-five corporate New York. Jack Lemmon was again on hand, this time as lonely office bottom-runger C.C. Baxter, who goes after promotion by allowing his seniors the use of his apartment for their extramarital liaisons. Meanwhile, he hopes to catch the eye of the sassy elevator girl, Fran Kubelik (Shirley Maclaine).

Deliriously funny, The Apartment is also shot through with Wilder’s customary wit and cynicism, creating a bleak vision of estrangement in the modern working city. Celebrated art director Alexander Trauner designed the cavernous open-plan office. The film won five Academy Awards, including best picture and best director.

The Apartment has been proposed by several members over the past few years:

Barbara: 'This 64 year old, gorgeous, sweet , funny, romantic, often dark, though beautifully acted Christmas film deservedly won 5 oscars - including best picture. It would be such a treat to watch this festive masterpiece on the big screen in December, in which ultimately love triumphs over loneliness and sadness – and fills human hearts with hope and joy. This is a truly great film.'

Jacqueline: 'The Apartment is a brilliantly written, melancholy film set at Christmas time with the two lead actors at the top of their game. I never tire of watching it and this is the perfect time of year to do so.

Giselle: 'The Apartment with Jack Lemon and Shirley MacLaine. Was surprised to see it’s set at Christmas time, I’d love to see it again, it’s been such an age. And what better place than at the Garden Cinema!'

The Bibi Files is an urgent journalistic exposé based on unseen leaked footage of police interrogations of the politician as well as his wife Sara and son Yair. The film explores the corruption cases that resulted in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's indictment on breach of trust, bribery, and fraud in 2019. Many Israelis believe that Netanyahu's attempts to delay his trial are key to understanding his current policies regarding war and the return of Israeli hostages.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The screening on 14 December will be introduced by film historian and Coppola expert Jon Lewis, author of the BFI Film Classics on The Godfather and The Godfather, Part II.

Sequels had not yet become the Hollywood norm when Francis Ford Coppola signed up for a continuation to his hugely successful 1972 adaptation of Mario Puzo’s novel The Godfather, but this second film set a high standard for follow-ups in the way that it enriches and deepens the Corleone family narrative.

Ranging over multiple locations, Coppola’s film ambitiously intertwines two time periods: the story of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) becoming increasingly consumed and isolated by his new power as head of the family, and flashbacks to his father Vito Corleone’s (Robert De Niro) arrival as an immigrant in New York, and his gradual ascent to power.

The project’s ambition did not go unrecognised: like the first film, it won best picture at the 1974 Academy Awards.

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

The Holdovers was suggested by our members Honor Wilson-Fletcher, Ann Jones, and Melanie Shaw.

After seeking the expertise of former Big Tobacco executive Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe), seasoned TV producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) suspects a story lies behind Wigand's reluctance to speak. As Bergman persuades Wigand to share his knowledge of industry secrets, the two must contend with the courts and the corporations that stand between them and exposing the truth. All the while, Wigand must struggle to maintain his family life amidst lawsuits and death threats.

The Muppets perform the classic Dickens holiday tale, with Kermit the Frog playing Bob Cratchit, the put-upon clerk of stingy Ebenezer Scrooge (Michael Caine). Other Muppets -- Miss Piggy, Gonzo, Fozzie Bear and Sam the Eagle -- weave in and out of the story, while Scrooge receives visits from spirits of three Christmases -- past, present and future. They show him the error of his self-serving ways. Michael Caine makes a wonderful Scrooge, delightfully rediscovering the meaning of life alongisde fantastic creations from Jim Henson's Creature Shop (developed specially for this film).

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

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

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

Henry Selick delivers a delightful stop-motion vision of Tim Burton’s Halloween-meets-Christmas tale.

Enter an extraordinary world filled with magic and wonder, where every holiday has its own special land. This is the heartfelt tale of Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King of Halloween Town. Bored with the same old tricks and treats, he yearns for something more, and soon stumbles upon the glorious magic of Christmas Town. He enters into the world of Christmas, and is so overwhelmed by the fun and goodwill that he decides to embark on a plan to kidnap Santa and do Christmas himself, Halloween Town style!

Into Film recommended age: 7+

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

All Aboard! To celebrate it's 20th anniversay, join us for a festive screening of The Polar Express.

Late on Christmas Eve, a boy sits in bed doubting the existence of Santa Claus and waiting to hear the sound of sleigh bells. Instead, a magical steam engine roars outside his window and he begins an extraordinary journey towards the North Pole and beyond his imagination.

Tom Hanks takes on various roles as he teams up with his Forrest Gump and Cast Away director Robert Zemeckis, who employs state-of-the art motion capture to create what was, on the film’s first release, a radical new kind of animation.

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

Miles Cullen, an eccentric bank teller played by Elliott Gould, notices something strange about a man dressed as Santa in the building where he works. Correctly predicting he is planning a robbery, Miles devises a scheme to keep part of the loot for himself. Things quickly get out of hand when the perp (a genuinely frightening Christopher Plummer) realises who has the cash.

The Silent Partner was suggested for our Christmas season by our member Adrian Zak.

In modern-day Tokyo, three homeless people's lives are changed forever when they discover a baby girl at a garbage dump on Christmas Eve. As the New Year fast approaches these three forgotten members of society band together to solve the mystery of the abandoned child and the fate of her parents. Along the way, encounters with the seemingly unrelated events and people force them to confront their own haunted pasts, as they learn to face their future, together.

Heartbreaking, hilarious and highly original, Tokyo Godfathers is a humanist masterpiece from legendary director Satoshi Kon (Paprika, Perfect Blue) and a tale of hope and redemption in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds.

Tokyo Godfathers was suggested by our members Matt Davies - 'one of the most underrated Christmas films ever from one of the all-time greats' - and Adam Vrijland (supported by Ella Hassett) - 'I absolutely love this film and would relish seeing it on the big screen.'

He runs it down the flagpole... AND UP THE ESTABLISHMENT!

On 28 November, Video Bazaar presents Robert Downey Sr's freewheeling cult classic satire, Putney Swope. A fearless critique of the media cycle and consumerism, the razor sharp wit of Downey Sr's greatest achievement was at the time, and in many ways still is, a groundbreaking polemic on corporate America.

Released in 1969, the film follows Putney Swope, the only Black executive on the board of a New York ad agency, who unexpectedly rises to power after the sudden death of the company's chairman. Overnight, Swope transforms the agency into 'Truth and Soul Inc' and begins creating provocative and wildly unorthodox campaigns that take aim at social norms, capitalism, and the absurdities of hyper consumerism. Putney Swope was among the first films to openly address issues of race representation in American media, with its no holds barred approach and Downey Sr's blend of surrealism and social critique still having relevance today.

Downey’s work often critiques American culture and politics, with a unique voice that’s unapologetically subversive. In addition to Putney Swope, Downey Sr.’s filmography includes titles like Greaser’s Palace and Pound, which showcase his offbeat humour and approach to storytelling. Over his career, he gained a loyal cult following and influenced many filmmakers, from Paul Thomas Anderson to Jim Jarmusch.

Beyond his films, Robert Downey Sr. is also known for being the father of actor Robert Downey Jr., but he’s remembered in his own right as one of cinema’s true mavericks, a who used humour to hold a mirror to society, revealing the hypocrisy lurking beneath.

This screening is presented by the cult film collective, Video Bazaar, who are proud to show this rarely screened film and are dedicated to bringing the weird and the obscure to London audiences at The Garden Cinema. Please note this event will feature an intro and carefully curated pre-show material.

This Christmas, Video Bazaar is proud to present the most terrifying stocking filler imaginable from the depths of 52nd Street, Andy Milligan's festive family get-together from hell, Seeds.

Set during a volatile family reunion, Seeds captures Milligan’s unflinching vision of human cruelty, blending horror with melodrama as family grudges become unwrapped over Christmas. Known for its low-budget grit, claustrophobic energy, and Milligan's misanthropic look at family dynamics, Seeds is a bitter exploration of isolation, anger, and family conflict.

At the heart of this reunion is the family matriarch, Claris, a domineering and cruel woman whose influence has left her children emotionally scarred. The children, each struggling with their own secrets, grudges, and traumas, are coerced into joining the holiday gathering, setting the stage for Milligan's spiteful polemic on family pathology.

Milligan, a polarizing figure in 1960s and 70s cinema, is celebrated for his unorthodox and DIY approach to filmmaking. Often shooting on 16mm with minimal resources, he used raw performances and visceral subject matter to inflict his bitter world view onto audiences. Despised and revered in equal measure, Milligan’s films often confront taboos, with Seeds standing as one of his most intense works, a Christmas cult classic for those fascinated by the darker side of the festive period.

This screening is presented by the cult film collective, Video Bazaar, who are proud to show this rarely screened film and are dedicated to bringing the weird and the obscure to London audiences at The Garden Cinema. Please note this event will feature an intro and carefully curated pre-show material.

In the lead-up to Christmas, join us on Saturday 14 December for a brand new members' wine tasting, followed by an atypical festive film.

Our friend Maxwell Delaney from Moreno Wines will take us through the carefully curated winter wine selection, giving you a chance to try the new wines that will be added to our bar offerings soon - including those that are normally only available by the full bottle. He'll also introduce us to a surprise wine, which may or may not be added to our menu, pending your review!

We're also partnering up with local favourite Soho Dairy again, whose stall can be found over on Berwick Street Market (W1F 0PH). They are not only fiercely independent and community-orientated, but operate by hand, foot and cargo bike, making them virtually zero carbon. Alongside the wines, you will be able to try some of their excellent assortment of prize-winning cheeses, straight from independent UK dairy producers - just in time for your Christmas shopping!

After the tasting, we'll head into the screen for an unconventional Christmas feature, which was proposed by cinema members Joel and Ela: In Bruges. As Joel writes: 'I’d love to feel good about being bad this Christmas'!

The tasting will last approx. 2 hours and will include 6 servings of wine, as well as some delectable cheeses and other nibbles. If you have any dietary restrictions, please notify us by emailing membership@thegardencinema.co.uk at least 72 hours in advance, so we can take them into account.

Tickets for the wine & cheese tasting automatically include access to the screening, and are available for £35 each. They are restricted to 2 per member, making it the perfect opportunity to introduce a friend to the cinema. There's no need to book a separate ticket for the film - we will reserve a seat for all ticketholders of the tasting.

Timings:

19:00  Wine & cheese tasting

21:00  Screening of In Bruges

23:00  Expected finish

About the film:

When hitmen Ray and Ken (Farrell and Gleeson) are ordered to murder a priest in London, and the job goes wrong, they are told by their boss Harry (Fiennes) to lay low for a couple of weeks in the quaint city of Bruges, Belgium. However, Ray finds himself very much outside his comfort zone and his contrary ways lead him into increasingly dangerous situations with locals, tourists and a film crew. While Ken does his best to reign in Ray's behaviour, word reaches Harry that they have not been keeping their heads down as instructed and he decides to travel to Bruges himself to deal with the wayward pair.

If you'd like to see the film without attending the wine & cheese tasting, you can book a separate ticket for this here.

The screening on Sunday 1 December will be followed by a panel discussion with writer and programmer Rōgan Graham, Yaya Azariah Clarke and film scholar Giulia Rho, which will be chaired by writer and editor Laura Staab.

A revolutionary film movement that emerged from the UCLA Film School in the early 1970s, the so-called ‘L.A. Rebellion’ was a powerful and transformative chapter in the history of American cinema. A significant cultural and artistic response to the turbulent sociopolitical climate of the time, the films challenged prevailing norms of Black representation, forging a new African American cinematic language.

Often remembered for the pioneering work of male directors like Charles Burnett, this programme of shorts brings together short films by three ‘insurgent sisters’ of the LA Rebellion, featuring an early short by Julie Dash (who would go on to make the acclaimed feature Daughters of the Dust). Offering a specifically ‘womanist’ sensibility, Illusions, Cycles and A Different Image resist the images of Black womenhood produced by Hollywood and independent film of the time, reclaiming Black female subjectivity through poetic and playful cinematic reconstructions of time, space and the body.  

Timings:

15:00  Welcome (Alice Pember)

15:10  Shorts Programme

16:55  Comfort break

17:05  Panel discussion

18:00  Expected finish

A Different Image

Alile Sharon Larkin, 1982, USA, 52m.

An poetic portrait of a beautiful young African American attempting to escape her position as object and discover her true heritage. Through a sensitive and humorous story about her relationship with a man, the film makes provocative connections between racism and sexual stereotyping, showcasing the intersectional cinematic language pioneered by women of the LA Rebellion.

Illusions

Julie Dash, 1982, USA, 34m.

Set in Hollywood during WWII, Illusions tells the story of Mignon Duprée, a studio executive passing for white, and Ester Jeeter, an African American singer hired to dub the voice of a white movie star. The film is a gripping critique of the power of the movies to shape perception, exploring the multiple illusions created by Hollywood and the very illusion of racial identity. An early short by Julie Dash (who would go on to make the critically acclaimed Daughters of the Dust), the film conveys Dash’s sincere love of Hollywood cinema whilst presenting a radical, damning critique of the industry's racism.

Cycles

Zeinabu irene Davis, 1989, USA, 17m.

One of the first films made Zeinabu Irene Davis, an award winning director and producer who is still active today, Cycles (1989) is a playful, experimental film which focuses on an woman anxiously awaiting her overdue period. Combining beautifully intimate still and moving images of the woman’s body and home space with playful stop-motion sequences, the film presents a provocative exploration of African American experience as a collective unconscious and offers a rare on-screen engagement with the topic of periods.

Rōgan Graham is a writer and programmer from South London. Working broadly in film exhibition, her areas of interest are works by Women and Black filmmakers. In 2021 she edited the Clio Award winning FYC book for Barry Jenkins' The Underground Railroad. The founder of Divas Do Film, when she isn’t writing reviews, hosting Q&As or appearing on podcasts, she can be found on a soapbox talking about Mariah Carey.

Dr Giulia Rho has recently completed her PhD in Film Studies. Her research covers experimental women filmmakers and queer artists, especially those operating within the New York Avant Garde and LA Rebellion. Her work deals with post-structuralist feminist philosophy as well as theories of queer time and questions of archival memory and justice. Her writing has appeared in Frames Film Journal and Film-Philosophy.

Dr Laura Staab works as an Assistant Editor at MUBI. She holds a doctorate in film studies from King’s College London and writes regularly on art cinema and experimental film for Another Gaze, Notebook, and Sight & Sound.

Yaya Azariah Clarke is a British-born Jamaican writer and cultural producer specialising in Black visual and communal cultures. Their research spans contemporary Black short film across the diaspora, as well as the cultural output of Afro-Caribbean communities in Britain. Yaya has previously worked as a staff writer and programmer for It’s Nice That, and community researcher for Dulwich Picture Gallery. They are now a contributor at Creative Review and WePresent.

Based on the extraordinary character at the center of Roald Dahl’s 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory', Wonka tells the wondrous story of how the world’s greatest inventor, magician and chocolate-maker became the beloved Willy Wonka we know today.

From Paul King, writer/director of the Paddington films, and David Heyman, producer of Harry Potter, comes an intoxicating mix of magic and music. Starring Timothée Chalamet in the title role, this irresistible big screen spectacle will introduce audiences to a young Willy Wonka, chock-full of ideas and determined to change the world one delectable bite at a time—proving that the best things in life begin with a dream, and if you’re lucky enough to meet Willy Wonka, anything is possible.

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

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

In the Swedish city of Lethe, people from different walks of life take part in a series of short, deadpan vignettes that rush past. Some are just seconds long, none longer than a couple of minutes. A young woman (Jessica Lundberg) remembers a fantasy honeymoon with a rock guitarist. A man awakes from a dream about bomber planes. A businessman boasts about success while being robbed by a pickpocket and so on. The absurdist collection is accompanied by Dixieland jazz and similar music.