The In Focus programme has long been a cornerstone of the ICA Cinema, providing an entry point to larger bodies of work or simply serving as a spotlight on a filmmaker or actor of note. However, these programmes have in the past remained largely ad hoc and reactive, constructed as a means to capitalise on the release of a new film or to honour the passing of a great artist.
The establishment of In Focus as a core strand of the programme marks a commitment to a more considered and expansive approach to the possibilities that a focused exploration of an artist's work can offer.
Where our Long Takes series offers an opportunity to explore a single artist's body of work, in depth and at length, In Focus provides a more flexible and concise counterpoint. From a distinctive period in a filmmaker or actor’s career to the varied cinematographic interpretations of a great novelist's work, the In Focus series offers an opportunity to draw connections across mediums and to narrow in on the details.
10 Nov – 17 Dec 2026
Between the Lines: Films by Nicolás Pereda
“It’s not a question of the actor becoming the character, but the character becoming you,” the fictional director in Lázaro at Night says during an audition. The line crystallises a central preoccupation in the prolific Mexican director Nicolás Pereda’s cinema, which repeatedly unsettles conventional divisions between fiction and documentary to forge a singular narrative form. Expanding familiar modes of dramaturgy, Pereda’s films are sly and granular explorations of power, revealing how thoroughly everyday reality is itself shaped by the contours of performance. The ICA is delighted to present the first retrospective of Nicolás Pereda's work in the UK.
Past Programme
1 Aug – 1 Sep 2026
Cinema and State: Films by Nagisa Ōshima
Nagisa Ōshima's body of work is one of the most vital, challenging and admired in cinema history. This programme brings together nine of his films with a particular focus on the work he made through his own production company in the 1960s and early 70s, illuminating the anti-establishment spirit and formal radicalism running through his cinema.
1 – 30 Jul 2026
Time to Play: Films by Jacques Rozier
One of the most original, self-assured, yet undersung voices of the French New Wave, Jacques Rozier crafted, across a career spanning five decades, a cinema attuned to the beauty and heartbreak of chance encounters, improvised days and spontaneous play.
