Press room

Festivals, Seasons and Special Events:

• Doc’n Roll Film Festival – Sat 1 Nov
• Olivia Laing: The Silver Book – Tue 4 Nov – Tue 11 Nov
• Land Cinema – Wed 5 Nov – Wed 26 Nov
• Noah Baumbach: A Retrospective – Sat 8 Nov – Thu 13 Nov
• Jarman Award 2025 / Film London: Flesh, Wax & Glass pt. I & II by George Finlay Ramsay – Mon 10 Nov
• London Palestine Film Festival 2025 – Fri 14 Nov – Tue 25 Nov
• EFG London Jazz Festival – Jazz on Screen – Thu 13 Nov – Sun 16 Nov
• London International Animation Festival – Fri 28 Nov – Sun 7 Dec

Regular Programme strands:

• Family Film Club:
   
• Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo + amulet making in the café – Sat 8 Nov
• My Neighbour Totoro – Sat 15 Nov
• The Iron Giant + introduction from Michael Leader – Sat 22 Nov
• Spider-man: Across the Spiderverse – Sat 29 Nov
   
• Senior Community Screenings: 
   
• Late Shift – Mon 10 Nov
• Hidden Master – Mon 24 Nov
   
• Relaxed Screenings:
   
• Safe + extended introduction– Mon 10 Nov
• One Battle After Another – Sun 16 Nov + Fri 28 Nov
• Experiments in Film: The Cinema of Peter Hutton + introduction by Daniel Owusu – Sun 30 Nov

Event Cinema: 

• Royal Ballet & Opera Live: La Fille Mal Gardee – Wed 5 Nov
• MET Opera Live in HD: La Bohème – Sat 8 Nov
• MET Opera Live in HD: Arabella – Sat 22 Nov
• NT Live: The Fifth Step – Thu 27 Nov
• Royal Ballet & Opera Live: Cinderella – Sun 30 Nov

November offers a rich and varied cinema programme at the Barbican, with two returning partner Festivals, the London Palestine Film Festival and the London International Animation Festival, now in its 22nd year. 

Forming part of the Barbican’s cross-arts focus on sustainability and the natural world this autumn, Land Cinema is a season of rare films that have helped sow the seeds for climate justice today. From Japan to Brazil, Boston to Orkney, these reveal how land shapes all of our lives.

Music fans will also be able to enjoy the EFG London Jazz Festival: Jazz on Screen season, which brings together a trio of rare and powerful cinematic works that explore the creative and cultural forces of jazz in cinema.

Ahead of the release of Noah Baumbach’s latest film Jay Kelly (which will be screening in the new release programme), Barbican Cinema is pleased to present a mini retrospective of his work, including the films The Squid and the Whale, Frances Ha and Marriage Story. 

To coincide with the launch of The Silver Book, author Olivia Laing will join critic Charlie Porter to discuss their latest novel, accompanied by screenings of Fellini's Casanova and Pasolini’s Salò.

Further November highlights include a Jarman Award 2025 / Film Londonpresentation of Flesh, Wax & Glass pt. I & II, by George Finlay Ramsay, who is nominated for this award. These are two powerful short films documenting a family’s journey through mourning, faith and devotion in the 21st century; and Experiments in Film, which showcases the work of acclaimed experimental filmmaker Peter Hutton, with three of his most poetic works.

Family Film Club includes the best in children’s cinema, with a screening of everyone’s favourite tree spirit in My Neighbour Totoro, and a chance to revisit the nail-biting animation Spider-man: Across the Spiderverse, before the sequel comes out early next year.
 

Festivals, Seasons and Special Events

Doc'n Roll Film Festival 2025
Monk in Pieces + ScreenTalk with director Billy Shebar (15*)
Sat 1 Nov, 6.15pm
Cinema 2 

Meredith Monk – composer, performer, and interdisciplinary artist – is one of the great artistic pioneers of our time, yet her profound cultural influence is largely unrecognized. Monk in Pieces is a mosaic that mirrors the structure of Monk’s own work and illuminates her wildly original vocabulary of sound and imagery.

Olivia Laing in conversation with Charlie Porter
Tue 4 Nov, 7pm 
Cinema 1 

This event celebrates the launch of The Silver Book by Olivia Laing, the acclaimed author who will be in conversation with novelist and fashion critic Charlie Porter. Laing introduces their new novel: a fictionalised tale of art, politics and obsession set during the making of Fellini’s Casanova and Pasolini’s Salò. This event is part of a wider programme featuring film screenings of Fellini's Casanova and Salò.

Fellini's Casanova (15)
Italy 1976, Dir Federico Fellini, 124min
Sun 9 Nov, 2pm 
Cinema 3 

A visually opulent telling of the life and times of the notorious libertine, from the legendary director of La Dolce Vita.

Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom (18)
Italy/ France 1975, Dir Pier Paolo Pasolini, 117min
Tue 11 Nov. 8.45pm 
Cinema 3 

Fifty years on Pasolini’s final masterpiece endures, shock value intact. The film transposes the Marquis de Sade’s notorious 1785 novel about the depravity of the French ruling class to the Italian city Salò in 1944.

Land Cinema 
Wed 5 Nov – Wed 26 Nov 2025 
Cinema 3 

Curated by Becca Voelcker, author of the new book Land Cinema in an Age of Extraction (University of California Press), this season of archive and contemporary documentary shorts and experimental features from Japan, Boston, Orkney, Colombia’s Cauca region and Brasília spans over 60 years and introduces an urgent genre for our time. 

Garden Films (PG*) + ScreenTalk with Becca Voelcker and writer Lucy Jones on land cinema, women and gardens.
Wed 5 Nov 7pm
Cinema 3 

Explore the garden as a place of personal healing and political growth in this programme of four experimental films and animations.

Red Persimmons (Manzan benigaki) (U*) + Intro by season curator Becca Voelcker
Japan 2001, Dirs Ogawa Productions and Peng Xiaolian, 90 min 
Wed 12 Nov 6.45pm
Cinema 3 

Carefully chronicling the growing, drying, peeling and packaging of persimmons, this unusual documentary is an ode to rural Japan.

Our Voice of the Earth, Memory and the Future (Nuestra voz de tierra, memoria y futuro) (12A*) + Intro by season curator Becca Voelcker
Colombia 1981, Dirs Marta Rodríguez and Jorge Silva, 107 min 
Wed 19 Nov, 6.30pm
Cinema 3 

Haunting and expressive, this experimental documentary from Colombia portrays a landscape haunted by centuries of colonialism and reanimated by Indigenous resistance.

Ana Vaz (PG*) + ScreenTalk (online) with curator Becca Voelcker and director Ana Vaz
It Is Night in America (É Noite na América)
France 2022, Dir. Ana Vaz, 66 min

Ha Terra! 
Brazil/France 2016, Dir. Ana Vaz 13 min
Wed 26 Nov, 6.30pm
Cinema 3 

Two experimental films by the contemporary Brazilian director Ana Vaz explore land as a site of encounter between different species, peoples, and ways of seeing the world.

To view the full season press release: 

www.barbican.org.uk/our-story/press-room/land-cinema-at-the-barbican-rare-films-rooted-in-the-global-environmentalist 

Noah Baumbach: A Retrospective
Sat 8 Nov – Thu 13 Nov
Cinema 3 

Noah Baumbach is a unique voice in American cinema, with his self-aware, dialogue heavy dramas about daily life in his home city of New York. He has been nominated twice at the Academy Awards in the best original screenplay category, for both The Squid and the Whale and Marriage Story. 

The Squid and the Whale (15)
US 2006, Dir Noah Baumbach, 81min
Sat 8 Nov, 6pm
Cinema 3

A pair of brothers living in Brooklyn are caught in the middle of, and deeply affected by, the divorce of their erudite parents, Bernard (Jeff Daniels) and Joan Berkman (Laura Linney).

Frances Ha (15)
US 2012, Dir Noah Baumbach, 86min
Sun 9 Nov, 5pm 
Cinema 3 

Aspiring dancer Frances Ha meanders through the thrills and difficulties of her late twenties, living in New York city with her best friend Sophie. 

Marriage Story (15) 
US/UK 2019, Dir Noah Baumbach, 137min
Thu 13 Nov, 6pm 
Cinema 3 

Baumbach's incisive and compassionate look at a marriage breaking up and a family staying together.

Jarman Award 2025 / Film London:
Flesh, Wax & Glass pt. I & II
UK 2025, Dir George Finlay Ramsay
Mon 10 Nov, 6.30pm 
Cinema 2 

Part I, The Age of the Father, follows Saturno, a Calabrian lorry driver undertaking his 33rd Vattienti procession, where men hit their legs with glass-embedded disks known as a cardo (thistle). Shot on 16mm, the film presents a tender portrait of ritual, interweaving the Holy Week with imagery of the Stromboli volcano and pelicans, a medieval symbol for Christ. 

Part II, The Age of the Son, revisits the rite through Saturno’s son Francesco, focusing on the hugely emotional moment where he undertakes the ritual without his father for the first time. 

EFG London Jazz Festival 2025:
Jazz on Screen
Thu 13 – Sun 16 Nov
Cinema 1, 2 + 3 

The Diaspora Suite by Ephraim Asili (15)
US 2017, Dir Ephraim Asili, 77min 
Thu 13 Nov, 6.30pm 
Cinema 2 

A film series created over the course of seven years exploring Black culture and the African diaspora through jazz and shared histories, using music to shape its rhythm, energy and visual language.

So Watt: Derek Bailey's On the Edge – Improvisation in Music (PG)
Dir various 
Sat 15 Nov, 2pm 
Cinema 3 

So Watt is an annual event within the London Jazz Festival which unearths rarities from the television archives. This year's event is extended to mark the twentieth anniversary of Derek Bailey's death.

Jazz In Exile – Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe + Cecil Taylor à Paris 
+ Intro by Ehsan Khoshbakht
Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe (Netherlands 1967, Dir Johan van der Keuken, 33min)
Cecil Taylor à Paris (France 1968, Dir Gérard Patris, 45min)
Sun 16 Nov, 2pm 
Cinema 1 

Big Ben: Ben Webster in Europe (1967) offers an offstage portrait of a legendary saxophonist in Amsterdam; and Cecil Taylor à Paris (1968) is a fierce, fast-cut portrait of an avant-garde pianist in Paris, rejecting the European canon and rooting his explosive sound in the Black American experience. 

London Palestine Film Festival 2025
Fri 14 Nov – Tue 25 Nov 
Cinema 1+2 

The London Palestine Film Festival (LPFF) returns this November with a powerful line-up of films offering rich insights into Palestinian life, culture and resistance. Staying true to its mission of amplifying Palestinian voices, LPFF 2025 shines a spotlight on urgent and compelling narratives from Gaza and beyond.

Opening Night: The Voice of Hind Rajab (18*) + ScreenTalk with Amer Hlehel 
and Motaz Malhees
Tunisia/ France 2025, Dir Kaouther Ben Hania, 89min
Fri 14 Nov, 8.30pm 
Cinema 1 

Acclaimed on the international festival circuit and winner of multiple awards, this tells the harrowing final moments of six-year-old Hind Rajab during the Gaza bombardment. Followed by a conversation with cast members Amer Hlehel and Motaz Malhees.
 

Thank You for Banking with Us! (15*) 
Palestine/Germany/Saudi Arabia/Qatar/Egypt 2024, Dir Laila Abbas, 92min
Mon 17 Nov, 8.45pm
Cinema 1

When their father dies, two sisters must get their hands on the inheritance before their estranged brother – who is legally entitled to half the inheritance under Islamic law – finds out and claims half of the money. 

Once Upon a Time in Gaza (15*)
Palestine/France/Germany/Jordan/Portugal/Qatar/UAE/UK 2025, Dir Tarzan Nasser, 
Arab Nasser, 90min
Thu 20 Nov, 8.45pm
Cinema 1 

A young student befriends a charismatic restaurant owner. Together they peddle drugs while delivering falafel sandwiches, but they are soon forced to grapple with a corrupt cop and his oversized ego.

Passing Dreams (PG*)
Palestine/France/Sweden 2024, Dir Rashid Masharawi, 69min
Tue 25 Nov, 8.45pm 
Cinema 1 

A 12-year-old boy embarks on a journey across Palestine with his uncle and cousin to find his lost pigeon, navigating checkpoints and memories in a tender story of hope, resilience and discovery.

London International Animation Festival (LIAF 2025) 
Fri 28 Nov – Sun 7 Dec
Cinema 1 & 2 

The UK’s largest animation festival returns for its 22nd celebratory year with a feast of forums, ScreenTalks and hundreds of the best animated shorts from all around the world. 

For further information: liaf.org.uk

Opening Night tribute to Emma Calder
Fri 28 Nov, 6.20pm
Cinema 1
Approx 125min 

LIAF 2025’s opening night is dedicated to the late Emma Calder, a trailblazing force in independent animation. The programme features a retrospective of Emma’s work since 1981, with films that channel a punk spirit and redefined the possibilities of animation. 

British Showcase (15*) + filmmaker introduction
Fri 28 Nov, 9pm
Cinema 1
Approx 105min

Independent British animated films have carved out a unique niche in the cinematic landscape, characterised by their distinct artistic styles and innovative storytelling. These films frequently explore themes of identity, culture, and social issues, reflecting the diverse experiences of contemporary Britain. 

Figures in Focus 2025 – Skin Shows (15*) + Screentalk
Sat 29 Nov, 6.20pm
Cinema 2
Approx 112min 

With this edition of Figures in Focus, the title ‘Skin Shows’ is a nod to Jack Halberstam’s book of the same name; a work that explores gothic horror, monstrousness and otherness. This will be followed with a discussion with a few of the featured filmmakers, including May Kindred Boothby, Lizzie Watts, and Dr Laura-Beth Cowley.

Marvellous Animations for 8-15 year-olds (PG*)
Sunday 30 Nov, 1pm
Cinema 2
Approx 82min

These 9 films from 7 different countries have been chosen for children aged 8 and upwards and include themes such as friendship, resilience, and self-discovery. 

Regular Programme Strands

Family Film Club 

Dounia and the Princess of Aleppo + amulet making in the café (PG*)
Canada 2022, Dir André Kadi and Marya Zarif, 72min
Sat 8 Nov, 11am 
Cinema 2 

Family Film Club is delighted to be partnering with Marsm Festival to present this family animation; which tells the story of the migratory journey of a little girl and her grandparents, who leave the war, and with it, their city of Aleppo in Syria.  

My Neighbour Totoro
Japan 1988, Dir Hayao Miyazaki, 86min
Sat 15 Nov, 11am 
Cinema 2 

This joyful and thoroughly charming story from the team at Studio Ghibli, gently explores the connection between humans and nature, celebrating the harmony that can be reached between ancient environmental cycles and the humans who live alongside. 

The Iron Giant + Introduction from Michael Leader (PG*)
US 1999, Dir Brad Bird, 87min
Sat 22 Nov, 11am
Cinema 2 

This animation explores the relationship between humans and technology and how true connections can be formed, even in times of uncertainty. Presented as part of Animation at War.

Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse (PG)
US 2023, Dir Dirs. Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers & Justin K. Thompson, 140min
Sat 29 Nov, 11am 
Cinema 2 

Brooklyn's full-time, friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man is catapulted across the Multiverse, where he encounters a team of Spider-People charged with protecting its very existence. 

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

Late Shift (12A)
Switzerland 2025, Dir Petra Volpe, 92min
Mon 10 Nov, 11am
Cinema 2

With intensity and empathy, director Petra Volpe brings this high-octane feature to shine light on the challenges that nurses face in the contemporary healthcare system.

Hidden Master: The Legacy of George Platt Lynes (18)
US 2023, Dir Sam Shahid, 96min
Mon 24 Nov, 11am 
Cinema 2 

This stunning documentary uncovers the lesser known life of George Platt Lynes, one of the first openly gay American artists as visionary director Sam Shahid celebrates his legacy.

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:

Safe (15*) + extended intro
UK/ US 1995, Dir Todd Haynes, 119min
Mon 10 Nov, 6.10pm 
Cinema 3 

On its 30th anniversary, Todd Haynes’ drama invites reflection on the portrayal of disabled women in melodrama. This screening will have an extended introduction by Crip Melodrama curator, Emily Simmons, founder of Crip Cinema Archive.

One Battle After Another (15)
US 2025, Dir Paul Thomas Anderson, 161min
Sun 16 Nov, 12pm and Fri 28 Nov, 12pm
Cinema 3

Leonardo DiCaprio joins forces with master filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson in a much-anticipated action thriller that confronts the world’s polarities.

Experiments in Film:
The Cinema of Peter Hutton + introduction by Daniel Owusu (15*)
Sun 30 Nov, 3pm 
Cinema 3 

Traveller, sea merchant and avid sailor, Peter Hutton made silent films grounded in the fleeting movement of rivers, clouds, mist, smoke and sunlight, inspired by the river painters from the Hudson river school (1829–1908). This programme presents three silent film portraits and record of the Hudson river (1987 – 2000), alongside Hata (2025) by Daniel Owusu, a project and film cycle which consists of surveys and studies within meteorological work.

Event Cinema 

Royal Ballet & Opera Live: La Fille Mal Gardee
Wed 5 Nov, 7.15pm 
Cinema 2 

MET Opera Live: La Bohème
Sat 8 Nov, 6pm 
Cinema 2 

MET Opera Live: Arabella
Sat 22 Nov, 6pm 
Cinema 3 

NT Live: The Fifth Step
Thu 27 Nov, 6.20pm 
Cinema 2

Royal Ballet & Opera Live: Cinderella
Sun 30 Nov, 2pm 
Cinema 2