Main Features

Historically, the act of gleaning is the gathering of farm produce left after formal harvest. Join Agnès Varda as she explores the rural-urban reclamation of disposed food and objects in her 2000 documentary, voted by Sight and Sound critics as one of the best documentaries of all time. Our Varda Film Club is back with its fourth screening, this time screening the beloved ‘The Gleaners & I’, whic...

NEVER WATCHING MOVIES AND SCARY CLAIRE PRESENT: THE WIZ (1978). Motown classic THE WIZ is a dazzling transposition of the classic tale of the Wizard of Oz. Set in a fantastical New York City and adapted from the 1974 Broadway musical of the same title, THE WIZ features an all star, all African-American cast including Diana Ross, a 19 year old Michael Jackson in his feature film debut, Nipsey Russ...

The Second Mother is a comedy-drama which compellingly dissects class inequalities with humour and tenderness. Val (Regina Casé), a live-in housekeeper for a wealthy family in São Paulo, has not seen her daughter Jéssica (Camila Márdila) for years, having relocated in order to provide for her financially. When Jéssica plans a trip to stay with Val and her employers, tensions surface and subtle cl...

This joyful comedy from Juzo Itami, the director of Tampopo (1985) has everything from slapstick comedy to social critique. A small supermarket struggling to survive amongst chain stores is revitalised after the manager, Goro (Masahiko Tsugawa), bumps into an old classmate, Hanako (Nobuko Miyamoto), who has a whole host of creative ideas to improve the business. With an upbeat score and vibrant v...

Sensitively directed and with two fearless performances, 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. Clad in head-to-toe leather, tall and magn...

V London Festival of Queer Spanish Culture presents A FREE MAN (Un Hombre Libre) directed by Laura Hojman. Agustín Gómez Arcos was renowned as a playwright in 1950s Madrid, but the modernity and freedom of his work led to him being censored and forced into exile. In 1970s France he became a successful, critically acclaimed novelist, but remained largely unknown in Spain. His novels were transla...

This is a naturist film screening within a contained, safe space including the Ludski bar area adjacent to Screen 2. Please bring a towel to sit on and a bag to put your clothes in, the bag to be kept at your seat. The bustling streets of Brazil come to life with dizzying vibrancy, allure and danger as Brazilian director Marcelo Caetano captures São Paulo in all its grit and vibrancy as a place of...

HOW TO GET ON WITH EVERYBODY follows the remarkable life of Rabbi Gluck, a unique figure within the Haredi community who is crossing divides and building friendships in unlikely places. The screening is followed by a Q&A with Rabbi Gluck and filmmakers Winstan Whitter & Elin Moe, chaired by Mayor of Hackney, Caroline Woodley. The documentary closely follows his work with Shomrim, a Jewish neigh...

This is a rare screening of the uplifting yet moving comedy-drama REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES, featuring a short introduction from the season curator, Laura Hague. About to graduate high school, ambitious Ana (America Ferrera) has aspirations to go to college. Unable to afford it, she reluctantly starts working at the same garment factory as her mother and sister. Torn between independence and appeasi...

ANDTHEGIRLS Productions present a double-bill from filmmaker Saskia Leigh Martic for The Rio Cinema. One day, ten people - how do they all connect? FITTING ROOM is an experimental short film that plays with the coming-of-age genre. It aims to unify those watching through the memory of feeling, not the specificity of experience. Each character endures growing-up differently but Fitting Room highli...

Comedian and ground-breaking podcast host Marc Maron reluctantly pulls back the curtain on his life in Steven Feinartz’s ARE WE GOOD? - from the COVID-19 pandemic which halts his thriving standup career, yanking him into an unwelcome, caged existence to the sudden loss of his partner, filmmaker Lynn Shelton. As, with director Feinartz alongside, Maron grapples with a new reality, the ups and do...

Having tried and failed to make a true crime documentary, filmmaker Charlie Shackleton tells the story of what might have been. The winner of the Next Innovator Award, at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, ( There is no film like it’ — Jury head Elijah Wood), this screening of ZODIAC KILLER PROJECT will be followed by a live in-person Q&A with its director producer, and editor, Charlie Shackleton...

On the UN's International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People , a Preview of THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB which combines drama and documentary to tell the story of a six-year-old Palestinian girl. January 29, 2024. Workers at the Palestinian Red Crescent Society receive an emergency call. A terrified 6-year-old girl is trapped in a car under fire in Gaza, pleading for rescue. While trying ...

London Community Video Archive in association with Club des Femmes presents: Over Our Dead Bodies - World Aids Day Screening + Q&A with Sunil Gupta and Kell w Farshéa . LCVA in association with Club des Femmes celebrate World Aids Day with a afternoon of rarely screened works that explore how Britain’s gay community used video as a medium for visibility, protest, and survival during the height of...

Incorporating elements of magical realism and body horror, AISHA CAN'T FLY AWAY shows how a decent life may be rendered impossible by the conflict, coerced compliance, and exploitation experienced by women refugees in this ambitious and slow-burning feature. The film is followed by a live Q&A with guests to be announced. Aisha is a 26-year-old Sudanese caregiver living in a neighbourhood in the h...

Ukranian director Pavlo Ostrikov’s debut feature is a true wonder - a genre-bending journey into the soul, infinity… and beyond! Written and filmed during Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine, this response to existential sci-fi films like 2001, SOLARIS, DARK STAR, and MOON explores timeless themes: mortality, loneliness, longing, and a universal need for human connection and understanding duri...

Exploring Britain’s identity crisis through moments of emotion, humour, and the everyday, Jessi Gutch’s incisive and revealing documentary is an ode to participatory filmmaking and forging messy friendships in your own backyard. “BLUE HAS NO BORDERS means so much to me as there’s a significant chance it will be the only feature film I ever make. My ‘stamp on the world’. I am so proud that it will...

Shall We Dance | dir. Masayuki Suo | Japan, 1996 | 136 mins | PG Japanese Film Club returns to The Rio for the UK Premiere of a 4K Restoration of Masayuki Suo's 1996 smash hit, SHALL WE DANCE? Winner of 14 Japanese Academy Awards received universal acclaim from critics on it's release, prompting a North American remake in 2004 with Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez. "An implausibly charming comedy...

IRON LADIES is the story of the iron willed working-class women who, during the 1984–85 Miners’ Strike, found themselves at the forefront of a battle against the British state.as they fought for the future of their communities. From Scotland to Kent, women from the coalfields shed light on their experiences of the year long struggle, and how they became the backbone of the Strike. With many st...

Stronger Than Love: ¡Too MuchMexican Melodrama! Victims of Sin (Victimas del Pecado) Introduced by Camilla Baier, co-founder of the feminist film collective Invisible Women. A treasure of Mexico’s cinematic golden age, this deliriously plotted blend of gritty crime film, heart-tugging maternal melodrama, and mambo musical is a dazzling showcase for iconic star Ninón Sevilla. She brings fierc...

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...

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, LondonN16 captures the enduring power of family and community life in modern London. Children of Albion...

¡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...

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...

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...

Director Edgar Wright puts his own stamp on this high-octane, fast-paced dystopian thriller starring Glen Powell as he revisits the original Stephen King novel with a more faithful adaptation than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1987 version. In a near-future society, The Running Man is the top-rated show on television–a deadly competition wherein contestants must survive 30 days while being hunted by ...

From Yorgos Lanthimos, creator of such madcap and uncompromising delights as THE FAVOURITE and POOR THINGS, comes a darkly funny and satirical environmental comedy-thriller. On what they believe to be the eve of the Armageddon, a conspiracy obsessed young man and his easily led young cousin kidnap a hard-nosed pharmaceutical company executive whom they believe to be an alien. They have three days...

Director Edgar Wright puts his own stamp on this high-octane, fast-paced dystopian thriller starring Glen Powell as he revisits the original Stephen King novel with a more faithful adaptation than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1987 version. In a near-future society, The Running Man is the top-rated show on television–a deadly competition wherein contestants must survive 30 days while being hunted by ...

Pink Palace presents this rarely seen heart-warming gem starring the legendary Liza Minnelli. Junie Moon (Liza) is in the hospital, after her face has been disfigured by her deranged boyfriend. There she meets two other patients -- Arthur (Ken Howard), who has epilepsy but has been misdiagnosed as mentally ill, and Warren (Robert Moore), who is gay and in a wheelchair. The unlikely trio of outcas...

Screening as the second part of our Trans Awareness’ season, Pink Palace presents this eye opening doc. XY Chelsea tells the historic story of whistleblower Chelsea Manning, whose 35-year sentence in an all-male maximum security prison was commuted by President Obama in 2017. XY Chelsea is the journey of her fight for survival and dignity, and her transition from prisoner to a free woman. After ...

The Rio’s beloved and historic Saturday Morning Picture Club is back! Join us from 10.15am for craft activities, before the film screening at 11am! This month we’re screening the all-singing, all-dancing gangster caper from director Alan Parker: BUGSY MALONE... the pint-sized musical classic where kids run the mob and steal the show! Before the screening, we will have arts and crafts activities...

The Rio’s beloved and historic Saturday Morning Picture Club is back for a special December screening! Join us from 10.15am for craft activities, before the film screening at 11am! 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 Scro...

More than an historical drama, Palestinian filmmaker Annemarie Jacir’s PALESTINE 36 shows on a grand scale how events shaped Palestinian national identity and focuses on the background to the current situation. Palestine 1936. As villages rise against British colonial rule, Yusuf drifts between his rural home and the restless energy of Jerusalem, longing for a future beyond the growing unrest. ...

Lynne Ramsay’s psychosexual thriller is a bold, brave, blistering, and unflinching, but also darkly comic, portrait of a woman on the edge fired by two powerhouse performances from Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. Writer Grace and her partner Jackson leave New York for the country with their baby. But something has changed in her since the birth, which has unleashed primal urges and thre...

The latest provocatively wild ride from the director of RAW and TITANE, Julie Ducournau, ALPHA is a new genre-defying dream within a dream that delves deep into the raw complexities of family bonds. A 13-year-old girl returns home with a freshly branded tattoo on her arm, much to her mother’s dismay. But beyond parental worries lies a deeper threat: an unknown virus spreading through the popula...

Director Edgar Wright puts his own stamp on this high-octane, fast-paced dystopian thriller starring Glen Powell as he revisits the original Stephen King novel with a more faithful adaptation than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1987 version. In a near-future society, The Running Man is the top-rated show on television–a deadly competition wherein contestants must survive 30 days while being hunted by ...

Sensitively directed and with two fearless performances, 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. Clad in head-to-toe leather, tall and magn...

From Yorgos Lanthimos, creator of such madcap and uncompromising delights as THE FAVOURITE and POOR THINGS, comes a darkly funny and satirical environmental comedy-thriller. On what they believe to be the eve of the Armageddon, a conspiracy obsessed young man and his easily led young cousin kidnap a hard-nosed pharmaceutical company executive whom they believe to be an alien. They have three da...

From Yorgos Lanthimos, creator of such madcap and uncompromising delights as THE FAVOURITE and POOR THINGS, comes a darkly funny and satirical environmental comedy-thriller. On what they believe to be the eve of the Armageddon, a conspiracy obsessed young man and his easily led young cousin kidnap a hard-nosed pharmaceutical company executive whom they believe to be an alien. They have three days...

Daniel Craig returns as private detective Benoit Blanc in the third instalment of Rian Johnson’s sharply penned and devilishly fun KNIVES OUT reinventions of the classic whodunit. With nods to the dark, gothic elements of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue — a seemingly impossible locked-room scenario involving a corpse and a murder that presents itself as an impossible crime, Ben...

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....