London film events
The best film festivals, seasons, Q&As, special events, film clubs and classic screenings in London
Every week, we round up the best film events happening outside London’s multiplexes, from major international film festivals to classic seasons at the BFI, from double bills and all-nighters to one-off screenings and in person Q&As with stars, filmmakers or experts. London also has a thriving DIY film club scene in pubs, restaurants, galleries and pop-up venues, and in the summer months you’ll find a wealth of outdoor screenings in parks and gardens across the city.
Pick of the week
Open City Docs Fest
Open City Docs Fest is the capital’s most intensive celebration of the documentary form and it returns this week with four days of screenings, discussions and workshops.
Highlights include opening film ‘12 O’Clock Boys’, which explores the wild Baltimore tradition of urban dirt-bike riding; ‘I Am Breathing’, about a father struggling with motor neurone disease; breathtaking genocide study ‘The Act of Killing’; and a look at population growth in ‘The Human Scale’.
With more than 100 films and a jury chaired by Jeremy Irons, this is a festival to reckon with.
- UCL
- Thu Jun 20 to Sun Jun 23
Festivals and seasons
A Grammar of Subversion
More from this anarchic avant-garde film season, including the Marx Brothers’s irreverent ‘Horse Feathers’ (1932) and a talk with critic-turned-filmmaker Chris Petit.
- Barbican Centre
- Until Thu Jun 20
- BFI Southbank
- Until Sun Jun 30
Seasons in the Sun: The Heyday of Nikkatsu Studios
Even the titles of these Japanese crime flicks scream ultra-cool: check out ‘Branded to Kill’ (1967), ‘A Colt is My Passport’ (1967) or ‘Retaliation’ (1968).
- BFI Southbank
- Until Sun Jun 30
Werner Herzog season
The German maverick hypnotised his entire cast for the eerie, unforgettable drama ‘Heart of Glass’ (1976).
- BFI Southbank
- Until Tue Jul 30
The LAB Film Festival
A celebration of new cinema, with screenings of shorts and features plus discussions and training events.
- Various venues
- Fri Jun 21 to Sun Jun 30
British Animation Festival
We’re not sure a one-day event is really a festival, but this is a promising showcase of new animated shorts.
- Rich Mix
- Sun Jun 23
One-off screenings
At Five in the Afternoon
This 2003 film takes a look at the plight of women in post-Taliban Afghanistan, and the result is bold, visually striking and uneven.
- Stratford East Picturehouse
- Wed Jun 19, 6pm - £5
Fortress
A look at a little-known, unrecognised region in Moldova which has its own laws and government.
- Frontline Club
- Wed Jun 19, 7pm - £10
Beatrice Mtetwa and The Rule Of Law
Doc-maker Dorie Conway introduces her film about a crusading Zimbabwean lawyer.
- Lexi Cinema
- Wed Jun 19, 8.30pm - £7, £5 concs.
- Bea’s of Bloomsbury
- Wed Jun 19, 7.30pm - £5
Midnight In Paris
The Lumière’s new season ‘Paris As Seen By...’ presents films shot in the French capital, such as this 2001 Woody Allen favourite.
- Ciné Lumière
- Thu Jun 20, 8.40pm - £8
Simurg
The Refugee Workers Cultural Association present this timely new doc about a notorious hunger strike in Turkey.
- Rio
- Thu Jun 20, 6pm - £10
There’s No Place Like Home
- Free
Experimental films by a trio of young artists.
- Tate Modern
- Thu Jun 20
Medea
Pasolini’s bizarre 1974 exploration of Freudian themes through Marxist eyes: a retelling of Medea’s story (elopement, marriage, desertion, revenge).
- Phoenix Cinema
- Thu Jun 20, 11am - £6
The Blueblack Hussar
Filmmaker Jack Bond introduces his new doc about Adam Ant, the original dandy highwayman.
- Riverside Studios
- Mon Jun 24, 7.30pm - £9.50, £8.50 concs.
The Holy Mountain
Alejandro Jodorowsky’s psychedelic 1973 odyssey is one of the most brilliantly far out movies ever made.
- Prince Charles Cinema
- Mon Jun 24, 8.30pm - £7.50, £5 concs.
Film clubs
FilmBar 70: ‘Venus in Furs’
The FilmBar crew present a tribute to Italian bad taste maestro Jess Franco.
- Roxy Bar & Screen
- Thu Jun 20, 7pm - £4
- Dulwich Picture Gallery
- Thu Jun 20, 8pm - £7
Classic Cinema Club: ‘Closely Observed Trains’
This 1966 coming-of-age comedy is a classic of the Czech new wave.
- Ealing Town Hall
- Fri Jun 21, 7.30pm - £6, £5 concs.
The Alibi: ‘Dracula’
- Free
The original 1958 Hammer fang-banger, with Christopher Lee at his most ravishingly murderous.
- The Alibi
- Mon Jun 24, 8pm
Outdoor cinema
Rooftop Film Club
The Rooftop crew’s new Peckham screen has ‘Dazed and Confused’ (1993), ‘Wayne’s World’ (1992) and others, or you can catch the usual hits at the usual venues.
- Various venues
- Until Mon Sep 30
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