Press room

Festivals, Seasons and Special Events:

• New East Cinema: Visions of Ukraine: Queer Shorts from Ukraine: What Will You Do When the War Continues? – Thu 2 Oct
• All Kaiju Attack: Earth SOS! – Godzilla vs Biollante – Tue 7 Oct + Son of Godzilla + intro by Toshiko Kurata – Sat 25 Oct
• Dance Umbrella Festival 2025: Sunday Shorts – Sun 12 Oct
• Animation at War: Heroic Times + intro – Wed 22 Oct
• Doc’n Roll Film Festival – Thu 23 Oct – Mon 1 Nov
• Family Film Week – Sat 25 Oct – Sun 2 Nov
• Oska Bright Film Festival: Wild Women – Mon 27 Oct
• Imitation of Life + introduction by Ellen E Jones – Mon 27 Oct 

Regular Programme strands:

• Family Film Club:
• SAILFest & Family Film Club – Sat 4 Oct
• Song of the Sea – Sat 11 Oct
• The Wizard of Oz – Sat 18 Oct
• Senior Community Screenings:
• The Tale of Daye’s Family – Mon 13 Oct
• Mirai – Mon 27 Oct
• Silent Film & Live Music: The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari – Sun 26 Oct
• Experiments in Film: Both Sides Now 10 – Thu 30 Oct

Event Cinema: 

• Royal Ballet & Opera Live: Tosca – Wed 1 Oct
• MET Opera Live in HD: La Sonnambula – Sat 18 Oct
• NT Live: Mrs Warren's Profession – Thu 23 Oct 

Younger audiences are in for a treat this October with Barbican Cinema’s Family Film Week, which returns with an international programme to inspire the next generation of film fans, taking place over half-term. There’s also the regular Family Film Club, with screenings every Saturday morning, which include the animation Song of the Sea and the classic family favourite The Wizard of Oz. 

The Barbican is also pleased to welcome back the twelfth edition of Doc’n Roll Film Fest, the UK-wide premier Music Documentary Festival, with a lineup of five feature-length documentaries that delve deep into the world of alternative music and trailblazing artists.

All Kaiju Attack: Earth SOS! is a season of Japanese monster movies which began in September and continues with the titles Godzilla vs Biollante and Son of Godzilla. The Barbican season Animation at War also continues with a screening of  Heroic Times, a masterpiece of Hungarian animation which brings to life a brutal period of Central European medieval history, and is being shown in the UK for the first time.

New East Cinema presents the final programme in the Visions of Ukraine season, with Queer Shorts from Ukraine: What Will You Do When the War Continues? - a unique selection of Ukrainian LGBTQ+ films which highlight the plethora of challenges the community is facing as a direct result of the Russian invasion. 

Further highlights include a screening of Douglas Sirk’s 1959 masterpiece Imitation of Life, which has been programmed to celebrate the recipient of the 2025 Kraszna-Krausz Moving Image Book Award, Screen Deep: How film and TV can solve racism and save the world, written by the journalist and broadcaster Ellen E Jones.

Also in October, the long-term Barbican collaborators Dance Umbrella present Sunday Shorts, an afternoon of short films around the theme of movement; and Experiments in Film screens Both Sides Now 10, a dynamic compilation of artists’ film and video works from the UK and Hong Kong.

The ever popular Silent Film & Live Musicstrand is back this month with a special screening of the 1920 landmark horror The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, which remains as terrifying over a hundred years after it was originally released. This will be presented with a new electronic score performed live by Spanish electronica musician Caliza.

Oska Bright Film Festival also returns in October with Wild Women, a programme of shorts made by disabled women. Expect the unexpected in this whacky, joyful, programme.

Festivals, Seasons and Special Events

New East Cinema: 
Visions of Ukraine: Queer Shorts from Ukraine: What Will You Do When the War Continues? (15*)
Thu 2 Oct, 6.30pm
Cinema 2 

Simeiz
Ukraine 2022, Dir Anton Shebetko, 18min

In the Soviet era, an underground gay resort arose in the Crimean village of Simeiz. It would became a significant meeting point for members of the LGBTQ+ community from Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia until Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Before Curfew
Ukraine 2023, Dir Angelika Ustymenko, 23min

Two queer people meet on the train and, reimagining Richard Linklater’s Before Sunrise, spontaneously decide to get out in Kyiv and spend the day together. It is romance framed by war, in which intimate conversations and moments of tenderness are interrupted by the sounds of explosions – contrasts too familiar to many Ukrainians today.
 

What Will You Do When the War Continues?
Ukraine 2025, Dir Vladyslav Plisetskiy, 38min

Using his own biography, performances, and recordings of phone calls with his father, Vladyslav Plisetskiy explores the deep connection between the personal and the political, as the director’s own search for identity becomes intertwined with the context of war, and the army’s denial of queer soldiers’ existence.

All Kaiju Attack: Earth SOS!

Godzilla vs Biollante + introduction by kaiju expert Steven Sloss (12A*)
Japan 1989, Dir Kazuki Ōmori, 104min
Tue 7 Oct, 6.20pm 
Cinema 1 

Godzilla vs Biollante is a high point for the Godzilla film series, with a fantastical vision of a kaiju antagonist engineered from the cells of a rose, the dead daughter of a scientist and Godzilla’s own DNA. Continuing the upsurge in quality heralded by The Return of Godzilla (1984), the final Godzilla film of the 1980s boasts great special effects and some of the best suitmation and miniatures in the series.

Son of Godzilla + introduction by Toshiko Kurata (PG)
Japan 1967, Dir Jun Fukuda, 85min
Sat 25 Oct, 4.15pm 
Cinema 3

Once again, humanity’s meddling with nature leads to disaster, as scientists seeking to control the weather unleash a dangerous horde of giant insects. Son of Godzilla introduces a number of new kaiju to the franchise: mutated mantis creatures (Kamacuras), a predatory monster spider (Humonga) and, less horrifyingly, Minilla, Godzilla’s child.

To view the full season press release: 
www.barbican.org.uk/our-story/press-room/all-kaiju-attack-earth-sos 

Dance Umbrella Festival 2025:
Sunday Shorts 
Sun 12 Oct, 3.30pm 
Cinema 3

Presented as a feast of short works, the programme has a particular focus on filmmakers from Taiwan whose work has movement at its heart, whether through directorial choices, editing processes or presence of the physical body on screen.

bulabulay mun?
Taiwan 2022, Dir Tjimur Dance Theatre, 12min

This film originates from the wounds of war and colonial history, looking beyond collective or national memory — it digs into the deep cracks that still echo inside the body.

Somewhere Beyond Right and Wrong, There is a Garden. I Will Meet You There
Taiwan 2023, Dir Yin-Ju Chen, 16min

Drifting between worlds seen and unseen, this quietly powerful film by Yin-Ju Chen weaves mysticism, collective memory, and the echoes of trauma into a meditation on the fragile bond between the self and the cosmos.

Si So Mi
Taiwan 2017, Dir Zhang Xu Zhan, 5min

A stop-motion animation by Taiwanese artist-filmmaker Zhang Xu Zhan, which transforms traditional funeral imagery into a surreal, celebratory ritual.

The Silence of Sirens
Taiwan 2023, Dir Tzu-An Wu, 6min

A meditation on cinema as a dance of light, emotion, illusion, and an embryology of images.

Spinning
Japan 2023, Dir Ai Ozaki, 11min

This visual diary draws on daily footage captured across the seasons to reveal both the shifting landscape around the filmmaker and her own inner transformation.

S/Z Rye Green Berry
Taiwan 2025, Dir Cherlyn Hsing-Hsin Liu, 20min

Dancing across boundaries in both content and form, this short explores cross-dressing in various traditional Asian operas.

The films will be followed by a ScreenTalk with curator Emily Shin-Jie Lee and guests.

Animation at War:

Heroic Times + Introduction 
Hungary 1984, Dir József Gémes, 79min
Wed 22 Oct, 6.20pm 
Cinema 3 

Based on the epic poem cycle The Toldi Trilogy, we follow the rise and fall of a young man blessed with superhuman strength, who aspires to the ideals of chivalry and pledges his sword to the crown, only to discover the harsh realities of violence, greed and hunger for power.

Director József Gémes and the team at Hungary’s Pannónia Filmstúdió spent several years creating thousands of oil paintings that drew inspiration from the romanticism of 19th century Hungarian art. The result is a uniquely powerful and rich study of the pageantry, mythology and ideology of war – and an animated film like no other.

Recently restored by the National Film Institute of Hungary, this screening is an opportunity to discover this glorious landmark in animation history, shown for the first time in a British cinema.

Doc’n Roll Film Festival
Thu 23 Oct – Mon 1 Nov
Cinema 1 + 2

Doc’n Roll Film Festival is back in the Barbican Cinemas for its 12th edition from 23 October with a line-up that rocks, grooves and moves. From punk to folk, Latin to jazz, these music stories bring the noise, the struggle and the soul to the big screen. This year’s line-up champions voices that shaped genres and influenced generations, from underground rebels to global icons. 

Each screening comes with a chance to hear directly from the filmmakers and artists who lived it. Running through to Mon 1 November, it’s a front-row seat to music history in the making.

Doc’n Roll Film Festival will be announcing their programme on Tue 23 Sep. 

Family Film Week 2025
Sat 25 Oct – Sun 2 Nov 
Cinema 2 & 3 

The Barbican’s Family Film Week returns for another edition, featuring the best children’s films from around the world, with new releases, special previews, activities, introductions and special events.

The full programme will be announced on Wed 17 Sep. 

Oska Bright: Wild Women (15)
Dir various, 70mins
Mon 27 Oct, 6.30pm

This programme of shorts will send you on a wild ride; it will be crazy, joyful and unexpected. 

Oska Bright proudly uses the F-rating, which is designed to support and promote women and redress the imbalance in the film industry.

With less than 5% of disabled people working in the UK film industry, Oska Bright Film Festival is driven to make change happen. Working internationally with industry partners and funded by the BFI, our team produces the BAFTA and BIFA qualifying Oska Bright Film Festival, promotes accessible screenings, runs training for venues and develops skills for aspiring filmmakers.

Imitation of Life (12) plus introduction by Ellen E Jones
US 1959, Dir Douglas Sirk, 125min
Mon 27 Oct, 7pm
Cinema 1 

Douglas Sirk’s 1959 masterpiece Imitation of Life centres on the relationship between two women – Lana Turner and Juanita Moore (who received an Oscar nomination) – whose lives become deeply intertwined after a chance encounter. Through their intersecting lives, Sirk explores themes of race, class, and gender, using the framework of melodrama to present a poignant counterpoint to the ideals of 1950s suburban America.

Ellen E. Jones is a British journalist, broadcaster, and author specializing in film and television. She is known for co-hosting the BBC's flagship film and TV program Screenshot, and writes for The Guardian and Empire magazine. Her book Screen Deep: How film and TV can solve racism and save the world explores the potential of screen storytelling to address social issues.

Regular Programme Strands

Family Film Club 

SAILFest & Family Film Club
Sat 4 Oct, 11am 
Cinema 2 

FFC is delighted to be partnering with SAILFest, the UK's first festival dedicated to celebrating the best in South Asian illustration and literature. Families will get the chance to meet, watch and create with some of the most talented South Asian authors and illustrators in the UK.

Further details to be announced shortly. 

www.sailfest.org.uk

Song of the Sea (PG)
Ireland, France, Denmark, Luxembourg 2014, Dir. Tomm Moore, 94min
Sat 11 Oct, 11am
Cinema 2 

A gorgeous folk-tale inspired story from the creatives at Cartoon Saloon. A young boy called Ben, finds his 4-year-old mute sister, Saoirse, is a mythical creature called a Selkie and the pair set off on an adventure to discover the magical secrets of their family.

The Wizard of Oz (U)
US 1939 Dir Victor Flemming 102min
Sat 18 Oct, 11am 
Cinema 2 

Come along with Dorothy for an evergreen adventure, in one of the most sumptuous Technicolour musicals ever committed to film. In Kansas, Dorothy (Judy Garland) and her loyal dog Toto are bracing themselves for a tornado...and wake up in a colourful world of witches, flying monkeys and the yellow brick road. 
 

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

The Tale of Daye's Family
Egypt 2024, Dir Karim El Shenawy, 104min 
Mon 13 Oct, 11am 
Cinema 2 

Marsm presents a screening of Karim El Shenawy's uplifting journey of hope, music and belonging, screening as part of A Season of Arabic Culture. Daye, a 14-year-old Nubian with albinism is gifted with a hauntingly beautiful voice, and embarks on a journey from Aswan to Cairo to audition for the Egyptian version of The Voice. 

Mirai (PG)
Japan 2018, Dir Mamoru Hosoda, 98min
Mon 27 Oct, 11am
Cinema 2

Animator Mamoru Hosoda (Summer Wars, Wolf Children) returns with a fantastical comedy of love passed down through generations. 
 

Silent Film & Live Music: The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (U)
Germany 1920, Dir Robert Wiene, 75min 
Sun 26 Oct, 3pm 
Cinema 1 

A screening of this landmark German horror, presented with a new electronic score performed live by Spanish electronica musician Caliza. 

In the small German town of Holstenwall murders have been occurring. When Francis’ friend Jane goes missing his suspicions fall on a local fairground impresario and hypnotist Caligari (Werner Krauss) and the somnambulist Cesare (Conrad Veidt) under his control. 

The Cabinet of Dr Caligari is famous above all for its contorted, non-naturalistic sets that aim to express inner states of being. But it is hugely innovative and influential in other ways too – pioneering the twist ending and giving us the movies’ first mad psychiatrist. 
 

Experiments in Film:

Both Sides Now 10 (15*)
Thu 30 Oct, 7pm
Cinema 2 

This milestone tenth edition reflects on a decade of creative and cultural exchange, showcasing works that explore identity, heritage, queerness, speculative futures, and digital storytelling.

With bold aesthetics and experimental approaches, the programme captures the diversity and complexity of our times, while remaining accessible, thought-provoking, and visually compelling. 

Event Cinema

Royal Ballet & Opera Live: Tosca 
Wed 1 Oct, 6.45pm 
Cinema 2 

A romance, a tragedy and a thriller – travel to 19th century Rome with Puccini’s passionate, political opera.

MET Opera Live: La Sonnambula
Sat 18 Oct, 6pm 
Cinema 1 

Nadine Sierra stars in Rolando Villazón's adaptation set in the Swiss Alps, about a a lover, her fiancé, and their rivals.

NT Live: Mrs Warren's Profession

Thu 23 Oct, 6pm 
Cinema 1 

Bernard Shaw's incendiary moral classic explores the clash between morality and independence, traditions and progress, all through the lens of a mother and daughter.