Rio Cinema | LSFF: WTF?!

Films For Workers: Bread and Roses + Panel

Showing from Sun 25 Jan

Join us for the second screening in our FILMS FOR WORKERS season, presented in collaboration with International Workers of Great Britain (IWGB). In BREAD AND ROSES (Ken Loach, 2000) Maya and Rosa work as cleaners in a downtown office block in Los Angeles. Pay is low and bullying is commonplace. A fated meeting with Sam, a union organiser, leads to an unorthodox and imaginative campaign against th...

Films For Workers: Bread and Roses + Panel

LSFF: Lo-Budget Mayhem

Showing from Mon 26 Jan

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...

Die My Love with SCRT® & Mubi

Showing from Tue 27 Jan

Join us for an exclusive screening of DIE MY LOVE hosted by MUBI, with a drink and SCRT sticker pack included with your ticket . A blistering and ferociously uncompromising psychological drama set in rural America, DIE MY LOVE is a portrait of a woman engulfed by love and madness, and the latest triumph from Lynne Ramsay. Grace, a writer and young mother, is slowly slipping into madness. Locked ...

LSFF: Uncanny Sally

Showing from Wed 28 Jan

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...

LSFF: Palestine Looks Back

Showing from Thu 29 Jan

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...

LSFF: Midnight Movies

Showing from Fri 30 Jan

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...

LSFF: WTF?!

Showing from Sat 31 Jan

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...

R.E.M x Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr.

Showing from Thu 5 Feb

Buster Keaton’s 1924 comedy masterpiece is coupled with two of R.E.M.'s alt-rock masterpieces Monster and New Adventures in Hi-Fi in this latest presentation from Silents Synced which pairs classic silent movies with classic rock albums to create a unique cinema experience. In the sublime SHERLOCK JUNIOR, teetering between reality and illusion, Buster Keaton stars as a film projectionist who ...

Underscore Cinema 2026: A Working-Class Film Festival

Showing from Sat 7 Feb

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...

Underscore Cinema 2026: A Working-Class Film Festival

Films For Workers: Behind the Rent Strike + Panel

Showing from Wed 11 Feb

Part of the Rio Cinema's FILMS FOR WORKERS season, presented in collaboration with London Renters' Union. BEHIND THE RENT STRIKE (1974) deals with the rent strike undertaken by 3000 tenants in Kirkby New Town, shortly before Christmas 1973, as a protest against the Housing Finance Bill. FILMS FOR WORKERS is a season of low-cost cinema for trade union members running at the Rio Cinema from Januar...

Films For Workers: Behind the Rent Strike + Panel

TV PARTY, TONIGHT!: Anarchism and Misrule in Cinema

Showing from Wed 11 Feb

Join us for the launch night of TV PARTY, TONIGHT! where we will be celebrating disruption and bad behavior with the outlaws and troublemakers of film. A season of obscure and radical oddities resurrected from the depths of film and television history. Short form and far-out. Single, Double and Triple bills. Bootlegs, VHS, Laserdisc, DVD Extras, Bonus Features. The intention is to delve deeply in...

TV PARTY, TONIGHT!: Anarchism and Misrule in Cinema

Queer Horror Nights: THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW with Shadow Cast

Showing from Sat 14 Feb

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...

Queer Horror Nights: THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW with Shadow Cast

NEUROSPICY! + Q&A

Showing from Sun 15 Feb

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.

Dyke TV: the early naughties + discussion

Showing from Wed 18 Feb

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 ...

Dyke TV: the early naughties + discussion

TV PARTY, TONIGHT!: An Education in Blood and Guts Filmmaking

Showing from Wed 18 Feb

Featurette Film Club Special Good Taste Made Bad Taste – The Making of Peter Jackson’s BAD TASTE dir. Tony Hiles ‧ 1988 ‧ Documentary/Film ‧ 25 mins ‧ From original VHS One of the most inspiring making-of-docs, giving us fascinating insights into the ingenuity of the 25 year old Peter Jackson as he brings a group of friends together to make of his first feature — the aliens-amok-in-Makara splatt...

TV PARTY, TONIGHT!: An Education in Blood and Guts Filmmaking

NEVER WATCHING MOVIES: Spike Lee’s SCHOOL DAZE

Showing from Thu 19 Feb

Dap (Laurence Fishburne) and Julian, Big Brother Almighty (Giancarlo Esposito) conflict over their opposing political views in Spike Lee’s second joint, SCHOOL DAZE, one of the first feature length theatrical films focused on presenting the Black American college experience. At historically black Mission College, the activist-minded Dap immerses himself in a world of political rhetoric and soci...

NEVER WATCHING MOVIES: Spike Lee’s SCHOOL DAZE

Peaking – Euphoric Psychedelia in our Digital Imaginations

Showing from Thu 19 Feb

Welcome to the second screening of Dream Emulator’s very own LSD Season, a season of screenings + rave celebrating Osamu Sato’s cult classic (not)game, LSD: Dream Emulator, alongside the many pieces of art/film/video games that it inspired directly and indirectly as part of its lasting legacy in our digital imaginations. After an introduction to 90s Digital psychedelia through Osamu Sato, Peaking...

Peaking – Euphoric Psychedelia in our Digital Imaginations

Pink Palace: One Queer Day In Hackney

Showing from Sun 22 Feb

All tickets free We made a film! Back in September we challenged the queer community in Hackney to film themselves and send those clips in, the aim was to record one ordinary day in the queer lives of Hackney residents, to show queer folks at play, at work, at rest. More than ever LGBTQI+ lives are under pressure and threat from the media and society, queer venues are disappearing, queer ...

SÜRREAL SİNEMA: VANILLA IS A TURKISH WORD

Showing from Tue 24 Feb

Sürreal Sinema presents their first ever film programme VANILLA IS A TURKISH WORD; a selection of shorts, many never shown before in the UK, that shine a light on the bizarrity and beauty of everyday life in Türkiye. As London's go-to film club for films from Türkiye, Sürreal Sinema is dedicated to showcasing and celebrating a side of the region that you don't see in the news. This event is Sürr...

SÜRREAL SİNEMA: VANILLA IS A TURKISH WORD

Films For Workers: Dessert For Constance

Showing from Wed 25 Feb

In DESSERT FOR CONSTANCE (1981), Bokolo and Mamadou are sweepers in the city of Paris, looking for a way to pay for the return home of one of their sick comrades. FILMS FOR WORKERS is a season of low-cost cinema for trade union members running at the Rio Cinema from January to February 2026, celebrating worker solidarity and empowerment and exploring labour conditions on screen, as well as creati...

Films For Workers: Dessert For Constance

TV PARTY, TONIGHT!: Photographers on Film

Showing from Wed 25 Feb

Martin Parr’s Moving Pictures dir. Martin Parr ‧ 1998 ‧ Documentary/Art ‧ 49 mins ‧ From original VHS Celebrate the late, great photographer Martin Parr’s travels around England during the summer of 1998, armed with a DV camera and a mission to define ‘Englishness’ through the nation’s own subjects. Shown as part of the BBC’s Modern Times series. Think of England shows Parr talking to the many pe...

TV PARTY, TONIGHT!: Photographers on Film

Iris LGBTQ+ Film Festival On the Move: Best Bits + Q&A

Showing from Wed 11 Mar

Award winners, audience favourites from the opening night – all unforgettable stories from the 2025 Iris Prize LGBTQ+ Film Festival, held annually in Cardiff and followed by Iris on the Move, a touring showcase bringing outstanding short films to venues across the UK. From a haunted tollhouse to a high-rise reckoning, from quiet self-discovery to a love song by the sea, these films capture the ...

Iris LGBTQ+ Film Festival On the Move: Best Bits + Q&A

TV PARTY, TONIGHT!: A Pink Palace Collaboration

Showing from Wed 11 Mar

Party Monster: A Shockumentary dir. Fenton Bailey, Randy Barbato ‧ 1996 ‧ Documentary ‧ 57 mins ‧ From original DVD Tells the story of the rise and fall of Michael Alig, a kid from Middle America who aspired to take the place of Andy Warhol. Michael quickly rose to become the biggest party promoter in New York and King of the so-called Club Kids. But after spiralling into drug addiction, Michael ...

TV PARTY, TONIGHT!: A Pink Palace Collaboration

Women’s History Month Special: My Dear Theo

Showing from Sun 15 Mar

A Rio Feminist Film Programming Group x Women’s History Month East London 2026 special! In a series of letters to her young son, a mother, soldier and filmmaker documents her thoughts from the Ukrainian frontline. A deeply moving and existential film of unimaginable courage. Alisa Kovalenko is a mother, soldier and filmmaker. When Russia invades Ukraine in the spring of 2022, she enlists as a so...

Women’s History Month Special: My Dear Theo

Bad Trip – Horror Psychedelia and Nightmarescapes in the Digital Sphere

Showing from Thu 19 Mar

Welcome to the 3rd and final screening of Dream Emulator’s very own LSD Season, a season of screenings + rave celebrating Osamu Sato’s cult classic (not)game, LSD: Dream Emulator, alongside the many pieces of art/film/video games that it inspired directly and indirectly as part of its lasting legacy in our digital imaginations. You’ve been riding high, but unfortunately, things are taking a turn ...

Bad Trip – Horror Psychedelia and Nightmarescapes in the Digital Sphere

Murcof (Live AV)

Showing from Sat 21 Mar

Murcof is performing at the historic Art Deco Rio Cinema in Dalston, making full use of the cinema screen with a live AV performance of Twin Color. Murcof Mexican-born musician Fernando Corona primarily records and performs under the name Murcof, creating ghostly compositions that fuse elements of classical music, minimal techno, ambient drone, and free improvisation, among other genres. His firs...

London Boys + Q&A

Showing from Wed 25 Mar

With a loving lens on East London, this exploration of masculinity and Islamophobia is poignantly told by men facing an identity crisis at the intersection of the generational racism they’ve endured. Behind the loud and intimidating motorcycles of the "Bangladeshi Bad Boys" is a group of second-generation Bangladeshi men who find in their bikes a sense of identity and a way to overcome racism. ...

Doc 'N Roll: RAVE CULTURE: A NEW ERA + Q&A

Showing from Fri 27 Mar

When Society Collapsed, Music Took Over. Late 80s. In an England suffocated by unemployment and Margaret Thatcher’s policies, a generation found refuge and a voice in music. In abandoned factories and secret fields, underground raves were born—explosions of light and sound where thousands of young people escaped social oppression to the rhythm of a new musical genre: breakbeat. Fusing the ra...

Doc 'N Roll: RAVE CULTURE: A NEW ERA + Q&A

Ego Death: An LSD Dream Emulator Rave

Showing from Sat 25 Apr

To Top off our LSD Season offering, we invite you join us for a rave inspired by the cult classic game LSD: Dream Emulator, from which we get our name. This will be a party powered by the Dream Emulator Soundsystem, with visuals from LSD: Dream Emulator (1998), and some of the myriad experiences it inspired which you’ll have seen throughout the rest of LSD Season. Such an original game experience...

Classic Matinee: Guess Who's Coming To Dinner

Showing from Mon 9 Feb

For our February Classic Matinee, celebrate Valentine’s Day with GUESS WHO’S COMING TO DINNER , Stanley Kramer’s groundbreaking romantic drama starring Katharine Hepburn, Spencer Tracy and Sidney Poitier. When a young couple bring their relationship home to meet their parents, an evening intended as a polite family dinner becomes a heartfelt and provocative conversation about love, race and soci...

Classic Matinee: Guess Who's Coming To Dinner

Classic Matinee: Sunset Boulevard

Showing from Mon 16 Mar

For our March Classic Matinee, marking Women’s History Month and celebrating it's 75th anniversary, revisit SUNSET BOULEVARD , Billy Wilder’s darkly glamorous Hollywood noir masterpiece. Gloria Swanson delivers an unforgettable performance as Norma Desmond, a former silent-film star clinging to dreams of past fame as the industry moves on without her. Stylish, unsettling and razor-sharp, SUNSET ...

Classic Matinee: Sister Act

Showing from Mon 13 Apr

No Other Choice

Now Playing

A delightfully wicked, razor-sharp, thriller from Park Chan-wook, the ever incisive teller of such chillingly incisive, darkly comic tales as DECISION TO LEAVE, THE HANDMAIDEN and OLDBOY. Model employee Man-soo’s life unravels when he’s abruptly laid off after 25 years. Facing mounting debts and a vanishing sense of dignity, he sets his sights on a coveted job at a rival company, only to discov...

Hamnet

Now Playing

The multi award-winning director of NOMADLAND, Chloé Zhao, is back with a raw and honest, lyrical and passionate, portrait of love, grief and the power of storytelling that features truly captivating performances from Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley. England 1580. Impoverished Latin tutor William Shakespeare meets free-spirited Agnes, and the pair, strike up a torrid affair that leads to marriag...

Pink Palace: King Baby + Q&A

Showing from Wed 28 Jan

Pink Palace presents by popular request a screening of the delightfully surreal queer-coded King Baby. A modern fairytale plays out in a crumbling kingdom populated only by a King and a Servant. The arrival of a mannequin Queen throws their carefully constructed world into a whirlwind of isolation, madness, and murderous megalomania. A ‘King’ and a ‘Servant’ live, completely isolated, in the cru...

Pink Palace: Arthur J Bressan Double Bill – Passing Strangers & Forbidden Letters

Showing from Thu 29 Jan

Pink Palace presents two newly restored classics from one of the pioneers of early gay experimental cinema, Arthur J. Bressan Jr worked across multiple genres to critical acclaim and controversy, his best known film, Buddies screened at Pink Palace last year, now we revisit his early work with a newly restored double bill of erotic gay dramas. Passing Strangers A closeted young man finds love, co...

Pink Palace: Arthur J Bressan Double Bill – Passing Strangers & Forbidden Letters

Pink Palace: Kaboom

Showing from Thu 5 Feb

Pink Palace presents an iconic film from cult queer director Gregg Araki, celebrating frank portrayals of teen alienation, sexuality and punk aesthetic. Kaboom, the inaugural winner of the Queer Palm at Cannes in 2010, mixes cult sci-fi themes, b-movie vibes, sex comedy pastiche, set to an indie/electro-clash/punk soundtrack, and starring a ridiculously hot cast who navigate the daily pressures o...

Pink Palace: Ask Any Buddy + Intro

Showing from Thu 12 Feb

With a recorded intro from director Elizabeth Purchell. Long before Hollywood films like CALL ME BY YOUR NAME and LOVE, SIMON became common fare at the multiplex, the only place gay men could see their lives and lusts depicted on screen with any degree of honesty was at their local all-male adult cinema. From coming-out stories to romances, horror to camp comedy, the hundreds of features churned ...

Pink Palace: Dildo Heaven + Intro Talk

Showing from Thu 19 Feb

With a recorded intro by director Elizabeth Purchell and a talk by Molly Miles. “ Wild, wicked, and wanton!” Roommates Lisa, Beth, and Tess are three young women who each share the same goal of hooking up with their respective male bosses. While their attempts at seduction get off to a rough start, their peeping tom neighbour Billy spends his days spying through keyholes and trying to get a ...

TV PARTY, TONIGHT!: A Pink Palace Collaboration

Showing from Wed 11 Mar

Saturday Morning Picture Club: The Princess and The Frog

Showing from Sat 21 Feb

Join us from 10.15am for craft activities, before the film screening at 11am! The Rio’s beloved and historic Saturday Morning Picture Club continues with a vibrant, feel-good Disney favourite! This February we’re screening THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG , a lively, song-filled fairy tale set in the heart of New Orleans. Before the screening, we will have arts and crafts activities in the lobby led ...

Saturday Morning Picture Club: The Princess and The Frog

Hamnet

Now Playing

No Other Choice

Now Playing

Sentimental Value

Now Playing

A seasonally appropriate look at family relationships, the internationally acclaimed SENTIMENTAL VALUE is an insightful, captivating, often unexpectedly funny, triumph for director Joachim Trier. After years apart, Nora and Agnes are reunited with their father, Gustav, a once-renowned film director with a new project with his actress daughter Nora in the lead role that he’s convinced will reviv...

The History of Sound

Now Playing

Topped by the captivating pairing of Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor as star-crossed lovers, THE HISTORY OF SOUND is an emotional roller-coaster ride of love and longing. Boston 1917. Music student Lionel meets David and they bond over a deep love of music. Years later, an unexpected reunion, a backwoods journey and a love affair will shape the course of Lionel’s life far beyond his own awareness...

LSFF: WTF?!

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Hamnet

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No Other Choice

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Sentimental Value

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The History of Sound

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Films For Workers: Bread and Roses + Panel

Showing from Sun 25 Jan

The Voice of Hind Rajab

Showing from Sun 25 Jan

NOUVELLE VAGUE

Showing from Fri 30 Jan

THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER

Showing from Fri 6 Feb

WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Showing from Fri 13 Feb

Films For Workers: Bread and Roses + Panel

Showing from Sun 25 Jan

LSFF: Lo-Budget Mayhem

Showing from Mon 26 Jan

Die My Love with SCRT® & Mubi

Showing from Tue 27 Jan

LSFF: Uncanny Sally

Showing from Wed 28 Jan

LSFF: Palestine Looks Back

Showing from Thu 29 Jan

LSFF: Midnight Movies

Showing from Fri 30 Jan

LSFF: WTF?!

Showing from Sat 31 Jan

R.E.M x Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr.

Showing from Thu 5 Feb

Underscore Cinema 2026: A Working-Class Film Festival

Showing from Sat 7 Feb

Films For Workers: Behind the Rent Strike + Panel

Showing from Wed 11 Feb

TV PARTY, TONIGHT!: Anarchism and Misrule in Cinema

Showing from Wed 11 Feb

Queer Horror Nights: THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW with Shadow Cast

Showing from Sat 14 Feb

NEUROSPICY! + Q&A

Showing from Sun 15 Feb

Dyke TV: the early naughties + discussion

Showing from Wed 18 Feb

TV PARTY, TONIGHT!: An Education in Blood and Guts Filmmaking

Showing from Wed 18 Feb

NEVER WATCHING MOVIES: Spike Lee’s SCHOOL DAZE

Showing from Thu 19 Feb

Peaking – Euphoric Psychedelia in our Digital Imaginations

Showing from Thu 19 Feb

Pink Palace: One Queer Day In Hackney

Showing from Sun 22 Feb

SÜRREAL SİNEMA: VANILLA IS A TURKISH WORD

Showing from Tue 24 Feb

Films For Workers: Dessert For Constance

Showing from Wed 25 Feb

TV PARTY, TONIGHT!: Photographers on Film

Showing from Wed 25 Feb

Iris LGBTQ+ Film Festival On the Move: Best Bits + Q&A

Showing from Wed 11 Mar

TV PARTY, TONIGHT!: A Pink Palace Collaboration

Showing from Wed 11 Mar

Women’s History Month Special: My Dear Theo

Showing from Sun 15 Mar

Bad Trip – Horror Psychedelia and Nightmarescapes in the Digital Sphere

Showing from Thu 19 Mar

Murcof (Live AV)

Showing from Sat 21 Mar

London Boys + Q&A

Showing from Wed 25 Mar

Doc 'N Roll: RAVE CULTURE: A NEW ERA + Q&A

Showing from Fri 27 Mar

Ego Death: An LSD Dream Emulator Rave