What's On

At Category H we know there is nothing more festive than travelling, so why not settle into the holiday spirit with our final late night horror double bill of the year TRANSPORTATION: HIGHWAY HYPNOSIS X TURBULENCE 3: HEAVY METAL, with the short film MAN ON A TRAIN. Featuring the big three forms of transportation, this December 12th, 23:30, at Rio Cinema, take a trip you will never forget… We begi...

In her provocative US film debut, dyke feminist icon and Academy Award-winner Tilda Swinton is a revelation as a tightly armoured power dressed bi-sexual lawyer on the edge of professional breakthrough, personal breakdown and sexual awakening in this riveting and thought-provoking erotic psychological drama. Based on the 1991 feminist psychoanalytic text, ‘Female Perversions: The Temptations of Em...

Making it in the music business in Kingston, Jamaica, is hard, and nobody knows it better than regularly unemployed drummer Horsemouth (Leroy Wallace). Although talented, he earns precious little for his music and is obliged to try hustling vinyl records on the side. It's a lousy gig, but Horsemouth takes his lumps amiably, until some brash members of the local Mafia steal his motorbike. Determine...

The screening is followed by a live Q&A with Rick Bush (director), Nina Fidderman (co-star) and Tilly Wadsworth (screenwriter). Lana (Nina Fidderman) wanders into a quiet bookshop one rainy afternoon and unexpectedly bumps into an old friend, Tom (David Boan). What begins as a brief, awkward reunion takes an unexpected turn when the pair find themselves locked in overnight. As the hours unfold, o...

LONDISN16 A heartfelt portrait of a four-generation family whose corner shop has been a cornerstone of their North London community since 1979. As they embark on a new challenge, we follow matriarch Anju’s pursuit of a long-held dream. Through moments of humour, warmth, and intimate reflection, LondisN16 captures the enduring power of family and community life in modern London. Children of Albion...

The All Out of Bubblegum Film Club presents DIE HARD, the legendary 1988 Christmas Action classic. New York City police detective, John McClane (Bruce Willis) is visiting his estranged wife (Bonnie Bedelia) during an office Christmas Eve party but becomes hopelessly entangled in a deadly terrorist takeover that escalates into an epic battle of wits between the rugged working-class cop and the imm...

Celebrate an Alternative Christmas with a screening of PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE with a surrealist dream performance inspired by the film. Following the sold out success of last year’s performance and screening we’re back as big as ever! … DJs before and after the films - this is a screening and a party! Before The Rocky Horror Picture Show … after The Phantom of The Opera … around the time of Sla...

¡Too MuchMexican Melodrama! Stronger Than Love (Mas Fuerte que el Amor) An intoxicating melodrama starring Miroslava Stern as Barbara who defies social codes and patriarchal control. Carlos, a former factory worker of humble origins, has made millions—but the upper class refuses to accept him as one of its own. Meanwhile, Bárbara, the spoiled daughter of an industrialist, is to enter into a...

One of LSFF’s most popular annual programmes returns with a cracking collection of oddities, hand-crafted from the confines of our empty wallets and our mortal bodies. These filmmakers pull off everything from suspense dramas delving into the limits of friendship to road movies chronicling the mishaps of modern love. Here, a second-hand iPhone becomes a window into a stranger's unraveling, puppet...

Entranced by a midday haze, high-heeled footsteps echo through the seemingly empty department store. Insistent on just looking, a swift glance in the mirror reveals a masked figure intimately tracing your steps. From the perfume counter and back home, leaving our female protagonists to wonder “How do I meet the strangest men, they always seem to find me?” A collection of principally female-direct...

Framing Palestine not simply as a land or a subject of Western scrutiny but as an active gaze directed toward Europe and the West, these films illuminate diverse Palestinian perspectives. Spanning fiction, documentary, and experimental forms, they challenge the notion of Palestine as an “elsewhere,” revealing the deep entanglements of occupation and genocide within Europe. They ultimately pose a c...

Descend into cinematic depravity with Midnight Movies , a programme lovingly made for insomniacs, weirdos, gorehounds, and the gloriously unwell. The programme where the sickest, stickiest, most mind-melting shorts crawl out to play. Oozing with bodily fluids, pitch black humour, and vibes so “off” they loop back around to genius. Expect demonic ducks, anal ejaculation, threesomes with walking re...

WTF?! is back to melt minds, smash boundaries, shatter taboos, and test even the most unshakable sensibilities. Expect misogynoir served up by prawn-cocktail guzzling capitalists; a relationship fractured by a “wall udder”; intimate spatial memories of toilets; the evolution of a human-bird hybrid; and a secret society of anthropomorphic lemons wreaking havoc in perfect suburbia. In equal parts p...

Underscore Cinema returns for its second edition — a bold and proudly grassroots short film festival that champions working-class filmmakers across the UK. Presented by Underscore Studios and supported by the BFI. This a one-day event is a celebration of radical, heartfelt, and boundary-pushing cinema from working-class voices, featuring a Panel discussion with the creators themselves. Underscor...

Token Homo and Loose Willis invite you to a very special screening of THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (1975) with a live shadow cast of London’s finest drag kings, queens and things. Get dressed up, sing and dance-along as QUEER HORROR NIGHTS projects the ultimate movie musical. “THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW would have flopped if it wasn’t for audiences taking it to their hearts, devising callbac...

An exciting afternoon at Rio Cinema Dalston filled with amazing short films created by neurodivergent talent and a Q&A with some exciting industry guests. Get ready to be inspired, moved, and entertained by the unique perspectives showcased on screen. Don't miss out on this exciting gathering of innovative storytellers! Films are shown with captions.

Bold, raw, and highly dykey — Dyke TV shook up cable airwaves from 1993 to 2005, broadcasting weekly to over 6.5 million households and carving out space for lesbian voices, politics and culture. Co-founded by Ana María Simo, Linda Chapman and Mary Patierno (of the Lesbian Avengers), this DIY powerhouse amplified stories across art, health, activism and sex — always unapologetically queer, always ...

For our December Classic Matinee, step into the warmth of THE SHOP AROUND THE CORNER , Ernst Lubitsch’s timeless romantic comedy starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. Set in a charming Budapest gift shop at Christmastime, two co-workers bicker endlessly by day, unaware that they’ve fallen in love as anonymous pen pals by night. With sparkling wit, tenderness, and festive atmosphere, Lubi...

A masterclass in building ever more taut levels of tension and discomfort, writer/director Alex Russell’s psychodrama for the influencer age is amazingly entertaining, darkly funny, and endlessly rewarding. Los Angeles clothing store worker Matthew contrives his way into the entourage of up-and-coming musician Oliver. An oblivious Oliver thinks he’s stumbled upon a kindred spirit but as the li...

A masterclass in building ever more taut levels of tension and discomfort, writer/director Alex Russell’s psychodrama for the influencer age is amazingly entertaining, darkly funny, and endlessly rewarding. Los Angeles clothing store worker Matthew contrives his way into the entourage of up-and-coming musician Oliver. An oblivious Oliver thinks he’s stumbled upon a kindred spirit but as the li...

¡Too MuchMexican Melodrama! Stronger Than Love (Mas Fuerte que el Amor) An intoxicating melodrama starring Miroslava Stern as Barbara who defies social codes and patriarchal control. Carlos, a former factory worker of humble origins, has made millions—but the upper class refuses to accept him as one of its own. Meanwhile, Bárbara, the spoiled daughter of an industrialist, is to enter into a...

Pink Palace presents a seasonal festive treats, the heartwarming joy that is AUNTIE MAME, a dazzling comedy lifted from a hugely successful Broadway musical, crafted by a queer adjacent production crew, and packed with visual delights, stunning sets and costumes, show-stopping performances, and a script filled with a thousand quotable lines and put-downs, and as Bianca Del Rio describes it as a te...

Join us from 10.15am for craft activities, before the film screening at 11am! The Rio’s beloved and historic Saturday Morning Picture Club is back for a special December screening! This month we’re showing the laugh-out-loud festive favourite: THE MUPPET CHRISTMAS CAROL, a magical musical adventure where our favourite fuzzy puppet friends attempt bring Christmas cheer to even the grumpiest Scroo...

Much arrested, imprisoned, and banned Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s most daring film yet is an unforgettable edge-of-your-seat thriller that won this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes and has been nominated for four Golden Globes. Mechanic Vahid believes he has re-encountered by chance the government intelligence officer who had tortured him while under arrest. As he enlists the services of acquain...

Sensitively directed and with two fearless performances from Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård, PILLION is Harry Lighton’s, sexy, moving and surprisingly funny tale about a sadomasochistic relationship. Shy and unassuming Colin is a choir singing traffic warden who still lives with his parents and longs for a soulmate. Instead he finds Ray, his complete opposite - and the man of his dreams....

A masterclass in building ever more taut levels of tension and discomfort, writer/director Alex Russell’s psychodrama for the influencer age is amazingly entertaining, darkly funny, and endlessly rewarding. Los Angeles clothing store worker Matthew contrives his way into the entourage of up-and-coming musician Oliver. An oblivious Oliver thinks he’s stumbled upon a kindred spirit but as the li...

A masterclass in building ever more taut levels of tension and discomfort, writer/director Alex Russell’s psychodrama for the influencer age is amazingly entertaining, darkly funny, and endlessly rewarding. Los Angeles clothing store worker Matthew contrives his way into the entourage of up-and-coming musician Oliver. An oblivious Oliver thinks he’s stumbled upon a kindred spirit but as the li...

A seasonal return to Oz for the triumphant, epic, electrifying, emotional conclusion to the sensational WICKED as the lives of Elphaba and Glinda are forever changed by an unexpected arrival from Kansas… Elphaba - now better known as 'the Wicked Witch of the West - lives in exile, hidden within the Ozian forest while continuing her fight for the freedom of Oz’s silenced Animals and trying to ex...

Timothée Chalamet is the one to beat as he goes to hell and back in pursuit of greatness in this gripping, adrenaline-riddled solo debut from writer/director Josh Safdie. Marty Mauser, a talented and ambitious table tennis player is determined that the world knows his name, and is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve this. His barrelling momentum finds him crossing paths with a series of ...