Press room

Festivals, Seasons and Special Events:

• Noah Davis Film Programme: Delusions of Grandeur: An Audio-visual response

– Thu 3 Apr

• Queer East – Wed 23 Apr-Sun 18 May
• Cinema Restored: Turang – Thu 24 Apr

• Chronic Youth Film Festival 2025 – Sat 26-Sun 27 Apr

   

Regular Programme strands:

• Family Film Club:

·       MUBI Notebook: Children's Cinema – Sat 5 Apr

·       Paddington in Peru – Sat 12 Apr

·       London International Animation Festival: Amazing Animations – Sat 19 Apr

·       Spirited Away + Pre-film Origami – Sat 26 Apr

• Senior Community Screenings:

·       Kneecap – Mon 14 Apr

·       Conclave – Mon 28 Apr

• Relaxed Screenings:

·       Far From Home – Mon 14 Apr

• Pay What You Can Screenings – Every Fri

   

Event Cinema:

• Royal Ballet & Opera Live: Turandot – Sun 6 Apr
• SIX the Musical Live! – Sun 6 Apr + Tue 8 Apr

The Barbican Young Film Programmers kick off April with Chronic Youth Film Festival 2025, having curated a dynamic programme of world cinema that champions emerging and unrepresented filmmakers and celebrates the power of collective agency across communities in different parts of the world.

Now in its tenth year, and working around the theme of Against All Odds, the line-up includes the UK premiere of José María Cabral’s Tiger, two previews Happyend and Seeking Mavis Beacon, an archive screening of Sarah Malador’s Dessert for Constance, as well as documentaries and a shorts programme. The festival also includes Q&As, workshops, a live music experience and a scavenger hunt relating to all the films in the festival, some of which will take place in the Barbican Conservatory for the first time.

Emerging and unrepresented voices are relevant themes found in Queer East, a cross-arts festival showcasing boundary-pushing LGBTQ+ films and moving image work from East and Southeast Asia, and its diaspora communities, now in its sixth year.

Further April highlights include Delusions of Grandeur: An Audio-visual response, the final part of the Noah Davis Film Programme, this is three specially curated films that accompany the Noah Davis exhibition, currently in the Barbican Art Gallery (Thu 6 Feb–Sun 11 May). This series of shorts explore the everyday, confronting memory, community and identity with intimacy, and takes inspiration from the Noah Davis panting Delusions of Grandeur.

Cinema Restored offers audiences the rare chance to rediscover the beautifully restored film Turang (1958), a landmark of Indonesian cinema. This is a powerful story about solidarity and survival and is a vital part of the country’s film heritage.

This month Family Film Club is pleased to collaborate with MUBI on The Notebook: Children’s Cinema, a programme of curated experimental short films tailored for younger audiences. Further screenings include Paddington in Peru, the best shorts from the London International Animation and the 2001 Oscar winning Spirited Away, which is complemented by a pre-film Origami activity led by the artist Toshiko Kurata.

Senior Community Screenings in April include the Oscar contending papal drama Conclave, and the BAFTA-winning hip-hop biopic Kneecap. Relaxed screenings include the Iranian/ German film Far From Home, which explores the precarious lives of Turkish ‘guest workers’ living in Germany.

Festivals, Seasons and Special Events

Noah Davis Film Programme: Delusions of Grandeur: An Audio-visual response to
Noah Davis (15*)
Dir various
Thu 3 Apr, 6.30pm
Cinema 3
This presentation of short films, from the 1960s to the present day draw inspiration from Noah Davis’s Delusions of Grandeur, a painting that captures a small child staring up at an impossibly large staircase—a poignant metaphor for ambition, creativity, and the leap of faith required to navigate life’s uncertainties.

Just as Delusions of Grandeur elevates a child’s contemplation to a universal reflection on ambition and creativity, these films reveal the extraordinary in the seemingly ordinary, each a step toward understanding the monumental layers of human experience.

Queer East
Wed 23 April-Sun 18 May

Full programme to be announced Wed 19 Mar.

Cinema Restored: Turang (12*)
Indonesia 1958, Dir Bachtiar Siagian, 87min
Thu 24 Apr, 6.30pm
Cinema 2

A chance for audiences to rediscover a landmark of Indonesian cinema with Turang (1958). Directed by Bachtiar Siagian, this neorealist gem captures the turbulence and resilience of a community caught in the fight for independence. The story follows Rusli, a wounded freedom fighter who finds sanctuary in a remote, Dutch-occupied village. As he heals under the care of Tipi and her father, the village chief, bonds of loyalty, love, and courage emerge amidst the unrest.

A powerful reflection on solidarity and survival, Turang offers a rare cinematic insight into the spirit of a nation striving for liberation.

CHRONIC YOUTH FILM FESTIVAL 2025: Against All Odds: Resilience, Community, and Memory on screen
Sat 26 + Sun 27 April
Cinema 2 + 3  

Festival Programme & Events:

Tiger (15*) (UK Prem) + free Creative Writing Workshop 
Dominican Republic, 2024, Dir José María Cabral, 84 min
Sat 26 Apr, 1.45pm
Cinema 2

In this UK premiere, 14-year-old Pablo is pushed to become a ‘real’ man at his father’s brutal ‘Tigueres’ boot camp. As the group are violently pitted against each other, Pablo defies the masculine ideal. This explores resistance and friendship in the face of societal expectations. 

Apostles of Cinema + Talking About Trees (PG*)
Sat 26 Apr, 3.45pm
Cinema 2 
Overall run time: 111 min

Earnest and spirited, Apostles of Cinema and Talking About Trees put the spotlight on two passionate groups of East African film workers bringing cinema back to the community.

Talking about Trees
Sudan/Chad/France/Germany/Qatar, 2019, Dir Suhaib Gasmelbari, documentary, 94 min

In this heartfelt documentary, the Sudanese Film Group embarks on a mission to rebuild Khartoum’s ‘Revolution Cinema’. Their long-standing friendships and passion for film stand as a beacon of hope against repression.

Apostles of Cinema
Tanzania, 2023, Co-Dirs Darragh Amelia, Cece Mlay, Jesse Gerard Mpango, and Gertrude Malizana, documentary, 17 min

Moving from bustling city streets to ‘film libraries’ and informal cinemas, a group of film workers shine a light on a cinema culture that is all about community. Following the dynamic DJ Black, who contextualises films for working-class cinephiles, this short celebrates the importance of cinematic legacy and access.

Happyend (12A*) (Preview) + recorded Q&A with director Neo Sora
Japan/US, 2024, Dir Neo Sora, 113 min
Sat 26 Apr, 6.05pm
Cinema 1
Neo Sora’s breathtaking fiction feature debut explores a dystopian near-future Tokyo through the eyes of a group of teenagers rebelling against societal expectations. Driven by the natural chemistry of the film’s first-time actors, the narrative offers a light-touch and hopeful approach to futurism that reverberates with the pulse of its techno soundtrack.

Dessert for Constance (U*)
France, 1980, Dir Sarah Maldoror, 61 min
Sun 27 Apr, 1.30pm
Cinema 3 
Exploring themes of male friendship, this archival film centres on two Senegalese street sweepers who stumble into the world of French cuisine - raising questions of migration and belonging in 70s Paris. Satirical and sweet, this is a charming and tongue-in-cheek portrayal of anti-colonial resistance.

Not Here, But Everywhere (15*) + Q&A
Sun 27 Apr, 3.45pm
Cinema 3
Overall run time 73 min + live Q&A
A collection of shorts exploring how absence lingers—through rest, censorship, loss, miscommunication, and erasure–followed by a Q&A with some of the filmmakers.

The Ban
United Kingdom, 2024, Dir Roisin Agnew, 25 min
A blip in Thatcher’s censorship era saw actors hired to dub the voices of IRA members for broadcast media during the conflict in Northern Ireland.

Creekmouth
United Kingdom, 2024, Dir Yasmine Djédjé-Fisher-Azoumé, 4min
The 1953 North Sea flood, is remembered, retold, and reanimated. The everyday stories of those who were displaced from Creekmouth village come to life in this beautiful illustration of oral histories.

Receiver 
Ireland, 2019, Dir Jenny Brady, 14min
An assemblage of deaf history that considers how we speak and listen, revealing communication to be a violent and fragile operation.

Resistance Meditation 
Canada, 2024, Dir Sara Wylie, 4min
Bending space and temporality, Sara Wylie envisions a world where time is reimagined outside of capitalism’s agenda of productivity and non-disabled norms. 

The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing
Palestine, 2024, Dir Theo Panagopoulos, 17min
Through early 1930s archival footage, Scottish missionaries unknowingly captured the enduring spirit of Palestine. Here, beauty and resistance intertwine in a landscape both occupied and beloved.

Deadlock
Algeria, France, 2025, Dirs. Lucien Beucher and Mahdi Boucif, 9min
Childhood friends Sifou and Mahrez are left with the shadows of their brothers who fled from Algiers to Europe. The hazy uncertainty of what lies ahead leaves them wondering: Can they escape the cycle or are they doomed to follow the same deadlock? 

Seeking Mavis Beacon (15*) (Preview) + Panel Discussion
US, 2024, Dir Jazmin Jones, 102 mins
Sun 27 Apr, 6pm
Cinema 1
Jazmin Jones’ debut feature follows two chronically online investigators as they search for the Black woman behind the iconic 80s typing game.

More in tune with a group chat than a documentary, this vivid journey takes us through a digital wormhole to adventurously confront the intersections of big tech, identity, artificial intelligence, and community. This preview screening will be followed by a panel talk about cyberfeminism, online communities, and resistance. 

Festival Workshops & Events programme
All workshops and events across the festival are free, please book a free ticket to confirm your spot. Minimum age 14.

Sat 26 Apr, 12-5.30pm
Barbican Conservatory

The Conservatory and Cinema 2 & 3 foyer will become a living hub for film, music and discovery with events that explore the themes of the festival.

Scavenger Hunt
12-4pm, Barbican Conservatory

Navigate this one-of-a-kind scavenger hunt through the Conservatory to uncover hidden items inspired by the films in this year’s Festival. Where is Mavis Beacon? What is that noise coming from the trees? Track down the Dessert for Constance cookbook in time to save a friend, and avoid the tigers lurking around the concrete corners.

Tiger Writing Workshop 
12.15-1.15pm, Barbican Conservatory

Taking place before the screening of José María Cabral‘s Tiger, this creative writing workshop encourages participants to explore ideas of masculinity. Open to everyone, regardless of writing experience.

Happyend Live Music Experience
4.30-5.30pm, Barbican Conservatory

Echoing the soundscape of Neo Sora’s Happyend, be transported to a world of hypnotic techno futurism in the Barbican's concrete garden.

Collage Corner & Community Cookbook
Sat 26 Apr 2025, 2-6pm & Sun 27 Apr 2025, 12-6pm
Cinema 2 & 3 Café

Food, film, and art bring us together in ways words cannot. Make a visual collage or share a cherished recipe at The Collage & Cookbook Corner.

Regular Programme Strands

Family Film Club
Every Sat, 11am

MUBI The Notebook: Children’s Cinema (U*)
Runtime: 45min approx.
Sat 5 April 11am
Cinema 3

Family Film Club’s first collaboration with Notebook - a magazine devoted to the art and culture of cinema, created, prepared and published by MUBI.

Taking inspiration from the article The Notebook Children’s Cinema in MUBI’s print publication and issue 6 of Notebook, where a group of parents selected experimental films for children, creating a programme for the families to watch – this screening will feature a selection of carefully curated experimental films designed to connect young audiences with varied images, music, rhythms and moods. 

Full film programme to be announced late March.
Age suggestion: 4+

Paddington in Peru (PG)
UK 2024, Dir Dougal Wilson, 106min
Sat 12 April 11am
Cinema 2

Paddington Bear (voiced with gentle charm by Ben Whishaw) is back for this third instalment that sees him leave rainy England for a heart-warming family adventure in his homeland.
Age suggestion: 6+

London International Animation Festival: Amazing Animations (U*)
Dir various, 65min approx
Sat 19 Apr, 11am
Cinema 2

Carefully chosen for young audiences, this programme features a selection of the best shorts from the London International Animation Festival’s extensive catalogue. There’ll be talking animals, seriously fun adventures and wondrous tales to spark little imaginations.
Age suggestion: 5+

Spirited Away (PG) + Pre-film Origami in Cinema Café (9.30-11am)
Japan 2001, Dir. Hayao Miyazaki, 125min
Sat 26 April, 11am
Cinema 2

An instant classic from filmmaking legend Hayao MIyazaki, the film explores the life of a young girl Chihiro who wanders into a supernatural world where witches rule and those who disobey are turned into animals.
Age suggestion: 6+

Before the film, between 9.30-11am, FFC is delighted to welcome Toshiko Kurata, Origami artist and teacher, who will demonstrate how to make Kaonashi ‘No Face’ origami. This takes place in the Cinema Café.

Senior Community Screenings:
Welcoming 60+ cinema goers to watch the latest new releases every other Monday morning:

Free Screening: Kneecap (18)
Ireland/ UK, Dir Rich Peppiatt, 105min
Mon 14 Apr, 11am
Cinema 2

This amusing comedy drama follows two young Irish speaking rappers in Belfast, as they link up with an Irish language teacher and form the titular hip-hop trio, beginning their rise to fame.

This is a remarkable feature debut from Rich Peppiatt – winner for this year’s BAFTA for best debut director – is a fictionalised retelling of the story of the real-life trio of the same name. 

Conclave
UK/ US 2024, Dir Edward Berger, 120min
Mon 28 Apr, 11am
Cinema 2 

Director Edward Berger's (All Quiet on the Western Front) thriller follows one of the world's most secretive events - selecting the new Pope, tasked to Cardinal Lawrence. This taught Oscar nominated thriller is expertly written and directed, full of twists and turns.

Relaxed Screenings
Relaxed screenings take place in an environment that is specially tailored for a neurodiverse audience, as well as those who find a more informal setting beneficial:

Far From Home (15) 
1975 Iran/Germany, Dir Sohrab Shahid Saless, 91min
Mon 14 Apr, 6pm
Cinema 3

Recently screened in Barbican Cinema’s February sell-out season Masterpieces of the Iranian New Wave, this is a compelling look at social isolation and stillness and offers a glimpse into a few days in the life of Husseyin, a Turkish 'guest worker' in West Berlin. Few films depict the painful repetitiveness of an immigrant's life with such candid detail.

Event Cinema

Royal Ballet & Opera Live: Turandot (12A)
Sun 6 Apr, 2pm
Cinema 3

Puccini’s captivating opera of a cold-hearted princess and her mysterious suitor. Featuring the ever-popular ‘Nessun dorma’, this opera of love and revenge is brought to life in this dazzling production.

SIX the Musical Live!
Sun 6 Apr, 8.15pm + Tue 8 Apr, 6pm
Cinema 2

The long-awaited filmed performance featuring the six original West End queens of the award-winning musical is finally on the big screen for a one-off, cinematic experience! The six long misunderstood wives of Henry VIII strut out of the shadow from their infamous husband to reclaim their narrative and finally tell their stories in their own words.