Press room

Seasons, Festivals and Special Events:

• Queer East Festival 2026 – Fri 1 May – Wed 20 May
• The Old Ways – Sat 9 May – Sat 16 May
• Preschool Pics: Amazing Animations + Music with Tara Franks – Wed 20 May
• Experiments in Film: A Focus on Gabriel Abrantes: Diamantino + Ratzo Presents... – Sat 30 May + Sun 31 May 

Regular Programmes:

• Family Film Club:
•  Finding Dory – Sat 2 May
• James and the Giant Peach – Sat 23 May
• Arco – Sat 30 May
• Senior Community Screenings:
• The Old Ways: Pattern Testing + Knit-along – Mon 11 May
• Sentimental Value – Mon 25 May
• Relaxed Screenings:
• My Father’s Shadow – Sun 3 May

Event Cinema:  

• MET Opera Live: Eugene Onegin – Sat 2 May
• Power To the People: John & Yoko Live in NYC – Sun 3 May
• NT Live: The Playboy of the Western World – Thu 28 May
• MET Opera Live: El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego – Sat 30 May

May brings a bold and diverse cinema programme to the Barbican, beginning with the Queer East Festival 2026, a cross-disciplinary festival that showcases boundary-pushing queer cinema and moving image work from East and Southeast Asia, and its diaspora communities.
Also in May Barbican Cinema launches Pre-School Pics, a brand-new, year round film programme for toddlers aged 12 months to 4 years, to discover the joy of the big screen, in a fun and relaxed environment. Each screening will include perfectly made films for fledgling film fans and their grown-ups, alongside live performances and creative activities. 

The Old Ways, a three-month season of films celebrating artists and artisans and all-things handmade, continues in its final month, partnering with London Craft Week, with four screenings and offering opportunities for audiences to make, repair, stich and knit. 
Further highlights this month include Experiments in Film, which presents A Focus on Gabriel Abrantes: Ratzo Presents, two special films by the Lisbon-based artist and filmmaker Gabriel Abrantes that reveal his creativity and sharp sense of humour. 

Festivals, Seasons and Special Events

Queer East Festival 2026
1 May – 20 May 
Cinema 1 + 2 

The Outsiders
Tawain 1986, Dir Yu Kan-Ping, 104min
Fri 1 May 6.30pm 
Cinema 1 
Now restored in 4K, The Outsiders tells the story of A-Qing, a high school student who heads to Taipei’s cruising ground after being thrown out of his family home. Stunningly shot, this stylistically dazzling adaptation of Pai Hsien-Yung's novel Crystal Boys can now be appreciated in its full glory.

Queer as Punk
Malaysia/ Indonesia 2025, Dir Yihwen Chen, 88min
Tue 5 May, 6.20pm 
Cinema 2 
Faris is the transman lead singer of an openly queer punk band in Malaysia, who uses music to fight for LGBTQ+ rights in a country where human rights are curtailed. This assured documentary is an enthusiastic testament to the band’s determination to be themselves.

Mari Terashima: Exquisite Tastes + Introduction (18*)

Japan, Dir Mari Terashima
Wed 6 May, 6.15pm 
Cinema 2 
Violent tendencies and good table manners intertwine in the films of Mari Terashima. 

A key cinematic voice from Japan’s subcultural underground, Terashima explores our postmodern appetites and the fine lines between propriety and the vulgar.

3670
South Korea 2025, Dir Joonho Park, 124min
Thu 7 May, 8.25pm 
Cinema 1 
Cheol-jun is a young North Korean defector who has recently arrived in Seoul. Despite having two close friends among his fellow defectors, he has always felt compelled to hide his gay identity. Authentically examining the conflicts, complexities, and behavioural codes of Seoul’s gay scene, 3670 is a milestone in South Korean queer cinema.

Girlfriends + ScreenTalk with director Tracy Choi

Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan 2025, Dir Tracy Choi, 101min
Tue 12 May, 6.10pm 
Cinema 1 
Lok, a 34-year-old filmmaker, revisits different moments in her past. In this coming-of-age drama, director Tracy Choi asks what it means to be true to oneself. Set in Macau, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, Girlfriends is a romantic, intelligent reflection on queer identity.
 

A Useful Ghost

Thailand/France/Singapore/Germany 2025, Dir Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, 130min
Wed 20 May, 8.30pm 
Cinema 3 
In this extraordinary feature the son of a prominent manufacturing family discovers that his deceased wife has returned as a vacuum cleaner. This wildly camp attack on the Thai establishment, cultural hypocrisy, and political violence is plentiful with queer pleasures.

The Old Ways

Cinema 1 + 3
Family Film Club x The Old Ways: Woolly Animations + Pre-Screening Activity (U*)

Dir various 
Sat 9 May, 11am 
Cinema 2 
A programme of charming short animations for younger cinemagoers and crafters. Featuring a cast of needle-felt characters, dancing balls of wool and knitting sheep. Prior to the screening there will be a textile/ wool themed workshop led by the artist Clara Petersen. Part of London Craft Week.

In the Making (U*)
Dir various

Wed 13 May, 6.20pm 
Cinema 1 
Here is a hand-picked selection of films, taking the viewer to glassblowing and candle-making factories, and small home workshops, and opening out into all sorts of conversations about love, identity, and resilience. Part of London Craft Week. 

Family Film Club x The Old Ways: The Songbird's Secret (U*)

France 2025, Dir Antoine Lanciaux, 77min

Sat 16 May,11am 
Cinema 2 

Cut paper animation has a long history but has become rarer with the preponderance of computer-aided animation; this enchanting feature-length animation is the first such film in more than 30 years. Part of London Craft Week.

Yarn Stories + Textile Repair Café (PG*)
Sat 16 May, 4pm and 6.05pm 
Cinema 3  
A collection of short-form documentaries connected to yarn – from dyeing, weaving, quilting, lacemaking to embroidery. Part of London Craft Week.

Preschool Pics  

Wed 20 May, 10.30am  
Cinema 2 

Taking place on midweek mornings at the Barbican’s Beech Street Cinema Café everything is catered for - highchairs, plenty of toilets and baby-change facilities, plus books, bricks and colouring out in the foyer, before and after the screenings.

The thoughtfully curated programme - which takes place in May, June and September and December as well as February and March next year, will include a mix of international gems, classics, recent film releases and animations ranging in visual styles and themes. All films will be dialogue free or in the English language.

Amazing Animations (U*) + Music with Tara Franks  

Wed 20 May 10.30am 

Cinema 2  
A joy-filled music and play session with a selection of short films, curated with the youngest audience members in mind. Musical director Tara Franks, the creative force behind Tots Tunes, will lead the way with the music she’s selected from all over the world to get everyone dancing and shaking to the beat!  

This is followed by a toddler friendly mix of international short films, perfect for young audience members in the early stages of their big screen journey. 

Full programme info: here 
Approx event runtime: 55min 

Experiments in Film

A Focus on Gabriel Abrantes

Diamantino (15*)

Portugal, France, Brazil 2018, Dir Gabriel Abrantes & Daniel Schmidt, 92min 

Sat 30 May, 2pm 
Cinema 3
A delirious blend of political satire, fantasy spectacle and pop absurdity, Diamantino follows the world’s most beloved football star as his seemingly perfect life begins to unravel. 

Directed by Gabriel Abrantes and Daniel Schmidt, this Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize winner gleefully skewers celebrity culture, European politics and the mythology of sporting heroism. What begins as a parody of the cult of Cristiano Ronaldo spirals into an outrageous and unexpectedly tender exploration of identity, vulnerability and belonging.

Ratzo Presents... (15)

Portugal 2026, Dir Gabriel Abrantes, 94min
Sun 31 May, 4pm 
Cinema 3
An unruly collection of cinematic oddities and satirical sketches hosted by Ratzo – a mischievous virtual rat and alter ego of filmmaker Gabriel Abrantes.

Serving as master of ceremonies, commentator and occasional saboteur, Ratzo guides audiences through a selection of deadpan absurdities, musical interludes and gleefully inappropriate comic turns. A night of delirium, delusion and gloriously problematic humour – hosted by the internet’s most charismatic rodent.

Regular Programme Strands

Family Film Club 
Every Sat, 11 am 

Finding Dory
US 2016, Dir Andrew Stanton, 97min

Sat 2 May, 11am
Cinema 2

The sequel to Finding Nemo, now celebrating its 10th anniversary, Pixar’s heartwarming story of friendship and family and broke box office records on its release.  
 

James and the Giant Peach (U)
UK/US 1996, Dir Henry Selick, 79min
Sat 23 May, 11am 
Cinema 2 
Roald Dahl's beloved, wacky tale of a young boy and his unusual group of friends, celebrating its 20th anniversary on the big screen.

Arco 
France/ US/ UK, Dir Ugo Bienvenu, 89min 
Sat 31 May, 11am 
Cinema 2 
This is a dazzling animated adventure full of hope and magic as a ten-year-old boy from a peaceful, distant future accidentally travels back to the year 2075 and discovers a world in peril.

 

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

Pattern Testing + Knit-along (12A*)

Senior Community Cinema x The Old Ways

Mon 11 May, 11am 
Cinema 2 
Knitters, crocheters and needleworkers of all skill levels are welcome at this bespoke-curated programme, screened with lights dimmed so that audience members can both enjoy the films and carry on crafting without difficulty.  Part of London Craft Week.

Sentimental Value

Norway 2025, Dir Joachim Trier, 103min
Mon 25 May, 12pm 
Cinema 2 

A captivating and complex family drama from Joachim Trier, where a film-director reunites with his estranged daughter. 

Relaxed Screenings

My Father's Shadow (12A)
UK/ Nigeria, Dir Akinola Davies Jr, 94min
Sun 3 May, 12pm 
Cinema 3 
An intimate portrait of a family navigating the political turbulence of 1993 Lagos Nigeria, makes for a profound debut from the British Nigerian director Akinola Davies Jr. 

Event Cinema 

MET Opera Live: Eugene Onegin

Sat 2 May, 6pm 
Cinema 3 
The Met’s evocative production, directed by Tony Award–winner Deborah Warner, “offers a beautifully detailed reading of Tchaikovsky’s lyrical romance” (The Telegraph)

Power to the People: John & Yoko Live in NYC (U)

UK 2026, Dir Simon Hilton, 81min 
Sun 3 May, 2pm 
Cinema 3 
The newly restored live shows by John Lennon & Yoko Ono at Madison Square Garden in 1972 is a witness of the couple as political radicals in New York City.

NT Live: The Playboy of the Western World

Thu 28 May, 6pm 
Cinema 2 
This riveting story of youth and self-discovery turns Pegeen Flaherty's life upside down after a man walks into her pub claiming he's killed his father.

MET Opera Live: El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego

Sat 30 May, 6pm 
Cinema 1 
A live transmission of American composer Gabriela Lena Frank’s first opera – a magical-realist portrait of Mexico’s painterly power couple Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera – with libretto by Nilo Cruz.