When the ICA Cinema opened on The Mall in 1968, it did not open to the public. Instead, under the guise ‘Club Deluxe’ it operated as a film club screening new works evolving outside the mainstream, for ICA Members only. This conception was a sign of the times, both in tune with the unabashed enthusiasm for a medium in the midst of revolution and in opposition to a rampant censorship that meant new revelatory works like Jean-Luc Godard’s Weekend were deemed un-rateable and thus illegal to show to the general public.

Cinema in 2025 finds itself in a very different position than it did in 1968. Amidst a rampant corporatisation and generally insipid and risk-averse spirit, it is easy to become despondent about the future of cinema today, to wonder if we are in that ‘ignominious, irreversible decline’ that Susan Sontag wrote about more than two decades ago. In a time of artistic uniformity, of remarkably style-less house styles, the need for spaces dedicated to truly independent and original voices is as desperate in 2025 as it was in 1968. The obstacles may have changed but the necessity of overcoming them has not.

As the spaces dedicated to showcasing work outside the commercial sphere continue to shrink, the life cycle for a film beyond its festival run remains uncertain. In the same spirit with which Club Deluxe was founded, Off-Circuit aims to provide a platform to new films that have yet to receive a proper spotlight in the UK, facilitating a continuous connection between these profoundly rich works and audiences on the lookout for something new and different.

Off-Circuit offers audiences a chance to encounter this generation's landmark films on screen for the very first time, carving out a much-needed theatrical space for this generation's seminal and medium-redefining artists.

Programme



Until 23 December
UK PREMIERE
Fiume o morte!
Igor Bezinović weaves archive and interview to recount poet and military officer Gabriele D’Annunzio’s radical 1919 occupation of Fiume (Rijeka, Croatia), revealing the stirrings of European fascism in the wake of World War I.



Until 23 December
UK PREMIERE
I Only Rest in the Storm
Sergio, an environmental engineer from Portugal, travels to Guinea-Bissau for an impact report. There, lonely in the heat, he encounters Diara and Guilermhe and begins to approach the post-colonial and capitalist forces shaping their lives.



Friday 16 January, 6.30pm
UK PREMIERE
Escape + online Q&A
A former member of the East Asian Anti-Japanese Armed Front’s 'Scorpion Cell,; Kirishima Satoshi spent decades underground, living quietly under an alias as a wanted fugitive. As he confronts terminal illness in 2024, his years on the run resurface. Adachi Masao portrays Kirishima’s anguish and determination in his new film.

More screenings from 17 January.



Friday 5 February, 6.30pm
UK PREMIERE
Do You Love Me + Q&A
Lana Daher’s archival essay film is a personal journey through Lebanon’s audiovisual memory that spans 70 years of film, television, home movies and photography.

More screenings from 6 February.



Friday 20 February, 6.30pm
UK PREMIERE
Gangsterism + Q&A
Isiah Medina strikingly reimagines the gangster picture in this profound and ironic examination of both depiction, endorsement, and the morality of making and consuming cinema.

More screenings from 21 February.



Friday 6 March, 6.30pm
UK PREMIERE
MACDO + Q&A
Drawing on telenovelas and home movies, the debut feature from Mexican filmmaker Racornelia incisively unravels the shifting power dynamics underlying a young family’s Christmas dinner in Mexico City.

More screenings from 7 March.



Friday 20 March, 6.30pm
UK PREMIERE
Bouchra + Q&A
In Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani’s debut feature, a queer Moroccan coyote navigates distance and family in a genre-blurring animated journey through New York’s emotional landscapes.

More screenings from 21 March.

Past Programme

#41

Fantaisie

dir. Isabel Pagliai

#40

Levers

dir. Rhayne Vermette

#39

Invention

dir. Courtney Stephens

#38
Afternoons of Solitude
dir. Albert Serra

#37
Measures for a Funeral
dir. Sofia Bohdanowicz

#36
Việt and Nam
dir. Trương Minh Quý

#35
What Does That Nature Say to You
dir. Hong Sangsoo

#34
The Tree of Authenticity
dir. Sammy Baloji

#33
The Triptych of Mondongo
dir. Mariano Llinás

#32
When the Phone Rang
dir. Iva Radivojević

#31
Spring Night
dir. Kang Mi-ja

#30
Bury Us in a Lone Desert
dir. Nguyễn Lê Hoàng Phúc

#29
Caught by the Tides
dir. Jia Zhangke

#28
DIRECT ACTION
dirs. Guillaume Cailleau & Ben Russell

#27
Jimmy
dir. Yashaddai Owens

#26
bluish
dirs. Lilith Kraxner & Milena Czernovsky

#25
By the Stream
dir. Hong Sangsoo

#24
Favoriten
dir. Ruth Beckermann

#23
C'est pas moi
dir. Leos Carax

#22
True Chronicles of the Blida Joinville Psychiatric Hospital in the Last Century, when Dr Frantz Fanon Was Head of the Fifth Ward between 1953 and 1956
dir. Abdenour Zahzah

#21
Matt and Mara
dir. Kazik Radwanski

#20
I'm Not Everything I Want to Be
dir. Klára Tasovská

#19
Last Things + Memories of an Unborn Sun
dir. Deborah Stratman
dir. Marcel Mrejen

#18
Our Body
dir. Claire Simon

#16
Outside Noise
dir. Ted Fendt

#15
A Prince
dir. Pierre Creton

#14
Foremost by Night
dir. Victor Iriarte

#13
You Burn Me
dir. Matías Piñeiro

#12
Regardless of Us
dir. Yoo Heong-jun

#11
Mambar Pierrette
dir. Rosine Mbakam

#10
Grace
dir. Ilya Povolotsky

#9
The Human Surge 3
dir. Eduardo Williams

#8
Music
dir. Angela Schanelec

#7
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell
dir. Phạm Thiên An

#6
Unrest
dir. Cyril Schäublin

#5
A Woman Escapes in 3D
dirs. Sofia Bohdanowicz, Burak Çevik, Blake Williams

#4
Mal Viver
dir. João Canijo

#4
Viver Mal
dir. João Canijo

#3
Pictures of Ghosts
dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho

#2
Human Flowers of Flesh
dir. Helena Wittmann

#1
Man in Black
dir. Wang Bing