A continuing series spotlighting new films that expand the possibilities of the medium and provide a vision for its future.

An ongoing series presenting rare films from the ICA Archive, screening on original 35mm and 16mm prints.

A continuing series of in-depth retrospectives exploring the work of cinema's great artists, both past and present.

The endlessly blurred and tangled lines of reality and fiction, cinema and theatre, and art and life form the heart of Jacques Rivette’s cinema. Throughout his extensive body of work the French filmmaker continually eschews and reformulates the traditional patterns of narrative cinema and instead embraces mystery, conspiracy, and the inexplicable.

Assembled from footage shot over a span of more than twenty years, Jia Zhangke crafts a boundless story of enduring but fragile love, anchored by the eternally captivating presence of Zhao Tao.

January 2020. A film crew reunites near Wuhan to resume the shooting of a film halted ten years earlier, only to share the unexpected challenges as cities are placed under lockdown.

An insight into the private estate of Leni Riefenstahl, who became world-famous with her Nazi propaganda film Triumph of the Will, but continually denied any closer ties to the regime.

A special programme of eight films celebrating the work of award-winning Iranian film and theatre actress Fatemeh Motamed-Arya.

The ill-prepared crew of an American documentary production stumble into a rural town in Argentina in pursuit of their next viral story, and things spiral into from bathos into trendy mayhem.

A poetic exploration of Eileen Gray’s life and visionary design, unveiling the story behind her iconic modernist house, a record of art and resilience by the sea.

In the remote mountains of rural Taiwan, Oom, an undocumented Thai migrant works as a caregiver to the elderly and disabled in the face of enduring hardship and exploitation. 

Benicio del Toro is Zsa-zsa Korda, one of the richest men in Europe, in Wes Anderson's latest, a story of a family and a family business. 

Yeong-gyeong and Su-hwan meet at a wedding party. He carries her home after she passes out drunk. Kang Mi-ja's Spring Night is a stark and graceful depiction of a doomed kinship. 

The light breaks on a long summer’s day in Iceland. From one sunset to another, Una, a young art student encounters love, friendship, sorrow and beauty.

A man's solitary life in a Scottish highland forest is portrayed through the changing seasons, with occasional encounters disrupting his otherwise isolated existence in Ben Rivers follow-up to Two Years at Sea.

An Italian traveler finds himself drawn into the world of a travelling circus after a chance encounter on a mountain roadside. Jacques Rivette's swan song is a deceptively slight return to one of his most beloved obsessions — the interplay between life and performance.

Inspired by a true story, this touching film follows Shokoo as she brings her ailing ex-husband into her home, confronting love, memory, and forgiveness alongside her current husband, Reza.

A urgent documentary chronicling the Columbia University Gaza Solidarity Encampments that began in April 2024. 

Through an intimate reconstruction of an important phone call, Iva Radivojević’s evocative film investigates dislocation and the nature of remembering. 

Cinema-ye Azad, or Free Cinema, was an underground movement of filmmakers in Iran that began in 1969, with the explicit aim of creating a fully independent cinema. This programme brings together two films which represent the range of sensibilities and approaches encompassed within Cinema-ye Azad.

A woman seeks her own brand of justice when her sister’s sexual harassment case is smothered by acts of foul play. Screening on a 16mm print from the ICA archive.

Genesis P-Orridge lived their art to the extreme. A pioneering musician, avant-garde artist, spiritual explorer and gender revolutionary, Genesis has been featured in films and videos, but never the full story… never this intimate... until now.

A collage of archival segments from the 1993-1994 years of Dyke TV that still speak powerfully to lesbians today — stories that make us laugh, flirt, rage, and organise. 

A soul-searching story about three friends, Wolf, Alan and Sophie, who have different conditions of deafness.

Three Portuguese queer short films brought together in a program that charts an alternative path through converging universes, forming a new constellation of desires, fears, and struggles.

The fifth instalment in the Late Tapes series, an exploration of fetishistic desire hand-picked by Harlan and Helena Whittingham a.k.a Content Warning in collaboration with the Bishopsgate Institute’s UK Fetish Archive.

SAFAR Film Festival, the UK’s leading platform for independent Arab cinema, returns from 11-28 June 2025 for its landmark 10th edition. 

In director Anas Zawahri’s first feature length documentary, he crafts a visual elegy of Homs, Syria; a city suspended between the echoes of its past and the silence of its present. 

In Cairo’s crowded streets, 30-year-old Hassan (Essam Omar) faces eviction alongside his mother (Samaa Ibrahim) and loyal dog, Rambo. When a violent altercation forces Rambo to defend him, Hassan must navigate a hostile city in search of safety and confront his deepest fears along the way.

Celina Escher’s documentary follows Teodora and The Seventeen – a group of women accused of murder because of having a miscarriage in El Salvador - in their struggle to regain their freedom from prison.

Commissioned to create a documentary about Argentine art collective Mondongo, filmmaker
Mariano Llinás crafts an experimental portrait of friendship, failure and self-destruction.

Inspired by true events, Lotfi Achour's powerful debut feature is a poetic and unflinching descent into the fractured psyche of a child grappling with unspeakable violence—and the quiet, resilient strength it takes to survive.

Six women return to the now abandoned Holloway Prison to take part in a women’s circle. Sharing some of the most intimate experiences of their lives, they each unravel what led them to prison, building an eye-opening portrait of failing systems and trauma, while discovering their extraordinary capacity to heal through sisterhood.

Genesis P-Orridge lived their art to the extreme. A pioneering musician, avant-garde artist, spiritual explorer and gender revolutionary, Genesis has been featured in films and videos, but never the full story… never this intimate... until now.

From Lebanon’s mountain forests to its arid plains, Rooted Resistance brings together four powerful short films that bear witness to the deep ties between nature, memory, and survival across the Arab region. 

Martin Creed presents the first rough cut of a new film. There will be the chance to engage with Martin during the discussion following the screening.

A man's solitary life in a Scottish highland forest is portrayed through the changing seasons, with occasional encounters disrupting his otherwise isolated existence in Ben Rivers follow-up to Two Years at Sea. Followed by a Q&A with Ben Rivers

SAFAR Film Festival is proud to be presenting the newly restored Watch Out for Zouzou (1972), by Hassan Al-Imam, a beloved 1970s Egyptian musical brimming with wit, romance, and cultural tension

At 40 years old, Saify Muhammed is a washed-up confidence trickster who owes money to everyone, including his ex-wife. Now he finds himself trying his hand at blackmail.

Inspired by an incredible true story set against the backdrop of a country torn by conflict, From Hilde, with Love is a powerful tale of love and resistance.

In a ghost-haunted Cairo, a grieving doctor and his friend—cursed with mint sprouting from his scalp—wander through decaying ruins in search of refuge from the memories that refuse to die.

Spanning the years from the Sudanese revolution of 2019, to the outbreak of the grievous civil war in 2023, this immensely moving documentary captures a collective portrait of Sudanese youth, dreaming of a new, democratic Sudan.

In a Cairo once alive with the promise of change, now haunted by memory, a heartbroken doctor and his troubled friend drift through the city’s decaying streets and abandoned homes.

Spanning the years from the Sudanese revolution of 2019, to the outbreak of the grievous civil war in 2023, this immensely moving documentary captures a collective portrait of Sudanese youth, dreaming of a new, democratic Sudan.