Press room

Upcoming this June, Barbican Cinemas hosts a vibrant programme of ScreenTalks and live events, featuring among others the Kinds of Kindness director Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things) and actor Jesse Plemons (awarded Best Actor at Cannes Film Festival 2024) for a discussion following this special 35mm preview screening on Tue 25 June.

As part of this years’ Refugee Week, Syrian director Waad al-Kateab (For Sama) and producer Ornella Mutoni discuss their latest documentary We Dare To Dream (19 June), chronicling the hopes and desires of the Refugee Olympic Team.

Barbican Cinemas also host a series of compelling ScreenTalks for SAFAR, the largest festival in the UK dedicated to cinema from the Arab world, featuring: director Mats Ground discussing his beautifully animated film The Tower (21 June); director Lina Soualem for a Q&A following the exclusive preview of Bye Bye Tiberias (21 June); directors Sonia Ben Slama and Hussein Ibrahim in conversation about the Manity/Machtat (28 June) double bill; curator Talal Afifi and researcher, lecturer and curator Erica Carter talk about the Sudanese films in A Visit to Vanguard Cinema (29 June); and a Q&A with Inshallah A Boy’s (29 June) lead actor Mouna Hawa.

For Queer 80s: Cinema on the Brink of Global Change, a programme part of Barbican’s wider Pride season, British writer Tony Rayns introduces Beautiful Mystery (6 June); film critic Daniel Theophanous introduces Beyond Gravity and other Gay Shorts from New Zealand (8 June); creative producer Mekella Broomberg introduces The Farewell (9 June); QueerGarden introduces Radical Defiance: Queer Brazilian Super-8 Shorts 1982-3(12 June); Rikki Beadle-Blair introduces Tongues Untied (13 June) Michael Brooke introduces Ashik Kerib (18 June); actor Rebecca Root introduces Law of Desire (20 June); Tara Brown introduces Quest for Love (22 June); and actor Dirk Kummer is in conversation with by Timothy Phillips following Coming Out (26 June).

For Family Film Club, Barbican Cinema’s receive a special guests Maxine Clare and her dog Walter from the charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People who visit to highlight the important work Hearing Dogs do, following Robot Dreams (29 June).

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Listings

Refugee Week 2024

We Dare to Dream + ScreenTalk with director Waad al-Kateab and Ornella Mutoni
UK 2023, Dir Waad al-Kateab, 98min
Wed 19 June, 6.15pm
Cinema 2

Screening just before the Paris Olympics launch in July, We Dare To Dream follows the Refugee Olympic Team as they prepare to compete in Tokyo and chronicles their hopes and desires as they fight for a better life, plus a ScreenTalk with the director. 

Spanning a breadth of backgrounds, stories and sports, We Dare To Dream reveals their lives and hopes as they train to compete on the world stage, showing the fire and the drive of young people forced to leave their families, homes and countries of birth to build new lives out of nothing. 

Culminating in their competition at the summer Olympics, their compatriots back home and their new communities in refugee camps watch as these determined young athletes fight for their place in the world.

SAFAR Film Festival 2024

On Dreams, Hopes and Realities

Fri 21—Sun 30 Jun 2024

The SAFAR Film Festival is the largest festival in the UK dedicated to cinema from the Arab world. This year’s theme aims to highlight a multitude of daily realities being faced across the Arab world and reflect on how small hopes and bigger dreams co-exist within such contexts.

For the latest information on the six events at Barbican Cinemas, please check our webpage.

Preview: Kinds of Kindness + ScreenTalk with director Yorgos Lanthimos & actor Jesse Plemons

Tue 25 June, 7.20pm

Cinema 1

Known for his off-kilter, darkly comedic masterpieces (Poor Things, The Favourite, The Lobster), Yorgos Lanthimos's latest project is an absurdist triptych set in contemporary America.

Collaborating again with his previous writing partner Efthymis Filippou, and starring Emma Stone, Jesse Plemons and Willem Dafoe, Kinds of Kindness paints a series of three darkly comic short films: a police officer and his wife, who supposedly drowns on a diving trip; a man on a mission to carve out a new path for himself; and a woman searching for a spiritual healer.

Following this special preview, Lanthimos and Plemons will be onstage to discuss this latest work.
 

Family Film Club

Robot Dreams (PG) + Free pre-film workshop and special post screening visit from Walter the Hearing Dog

2023 France/Spain, dir Pablo Berger, 102 min (little to no dialogue)

Sat 29 Jun, 11:00am

Cinema 2

A dog and a robot romp around New York in the 1980s in this animated comedy. Following the film, Maxine Clare, with her dog Walter from the charity Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, discuss what important work Hearing Dogs do.

Queer 80s: Cinema on the Brink of Global Change

Wed 5 – Wed 26 Jun

Presenting ground-breaking movies from across the globe, as part of the Barbican’s Pride season this summer, Queer 80s: Cinema on the Brink of Global Change invites audiences to time travel back to a decade when LGBTQ+ representation and creativity on screen thrived. 

For Queer 80s full listings information, check the press release online or the season webpage.

Barbican Cinema’s New Release ScreenTalks web page is updated with the latest announced ScreenTalks with important voices in the cinema industry and beyond, as well as recordings of previous ScreenTalks.