Warfare
NOW SHOWING
Playing out in real time like extended found footage Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s WARFARE pulls no punches in its frank and visceral depiction of a surveillance mission gone wrong. Iraq 2006. An American unit with two Iraqi scouts moves into a residential area of Ramadi province, and sets up a sniper-surveillance position from which to give cover for a ground-troop operation… “War is hell, and...
Sinners
NOW SHOWING
Vampire thriller meets serious intent in Ryan Coogler’s weighty and soulful SINNERS featuring Michael B. Jordan in a dual role. “You keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home.” Mississippi 1932. Trying to leave their troubled lives behind gangster twin brothers Smoke and Stack return home after a stint in Chicago working with Al Capone, with plans to open a juke joint – dri...
The Ugly Stepsister
NOW SHOWING
A delightfully twisted, darkly comedic fairy-tale facelift as THE UGLY STEPSISTER drags Cinderella through the mud, blood, and surgical steel in Norwegian director Emilie Blichfeldt's jaw-clenching debut, although the real horror isn't the transformation - it's the world that demands it. Elvira is the so-called "ugly" stepsister with the gold-digger mother who demands an excruciating makeover in ...
Carers & Babies Show: Sinners
Showing from Mon 28 Apr
Vampire thriller meets serious intent in Ryan Coogler?s weighty and soulful SINNERS featuring Michael B. Jordan in a dual role. ?You keep dancing with the devil, one day he?s gonna follow you home.? Mississippi 1932. Trying to leave their troubled lives behind gangster twin brothers Smoke and Stack return home after a stint in Chicago working with Al Capone, with plans to open a juke joint ? dri...
KURDISH FILM FESTIVAL: Drifting + Shorts + Q&A
Showing from Mon 28 Apr
Covered in dust, a city loses its identity and memories while drifting apart from its sea and sky. The notable daytime “silhouettes” on construction sites become real characters at night with their longing for home, anxieties for an unclear future and their young burned-out bodies. While watching the dramatic changes in urban texture, we meet two young Kurdish cousins working in constructions, j...
KURDISH FILM FESTIVAL: Hope + shorts
Showing from Tue 29 Apr
The story of nine-year-old deaf and dumb boy Zeyno who is living with his father Mustafa and elder brother Çeto in their house far from the village. Zeyno spends all his time playing with his cute sheep. Çeto helps an animal dealer called Emin who he met in the town, and starts earning his own money. Zeyno becomes worried about his sheep after his dad starts selling live stock with Emin. Also s...
Picnic at Hanging Rock
Showing from Wed 30 Apr
Pink Palace presents one of the most etherial and beautiful pieces of cinema ever... Picnic at Hanging Rock. This is a film that stays with you, a haunting dreamy mystery that gradually becomes a tense thriller, and borderline psychological horror film, as the tightly wound repressed Victorian girls school, bubbling with unrequited lesbian passions and crushes, rapidly becomes unravelled following...
KURDISH FILM FESTIVAL: Short Fiction and Documentary films
Showing from Thu 1 May
A programme of fiction and documentary short films from Kurdish, Turkish and Iranian filmmakers. THE PLAIN SINGS Iran/14mins Writer/Director: Gita Feizi Zhina, a 13-year-old girl, lives in the village with her traditional family. she loves to sing and whenever she takes the sheep to pasture, she uses this opportunity to sing, but her father figured out and he can put her in trouble, it's dep...
Granny Ludski's Wild Gardening
Showing from Thu 1 May
The Rio Cinema founder Granny Ludski presents a night of art films, live music and queer performance, to celebrate Spring’s renewing desires and disasters, get some tips from the ecosex manifesto, and listen in the deep of our awakening bodies. Selected films will show the connection between queer plants and queer people, pushing the boundaries of sexuality and love to incorporate the natural worl...
KURDISH FILM FESTIVAL: Threads of A Revolution + short + Q&A
Showing from Fri 2 May
When Janet Biehl edited her late partner Murray Bookchin’s approach to participatory politics in the 1970s, she could never have imagined that this work would one day take her half-way across the globe. In THREADS OF A REVOLUTION, Janet explores how Murray’s political theories were adapted to ignite a women-led revolution and bring about remarkable societal transformations in North East Syria. ...
Cloud
Showing from Fri 2 May
From internationally acclaimed and visionary filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa, renowned for turning the mundane into the menacing, comes a chilling blend of psychological tension, social commentary, and edge-of-your-seat suspense. Tokyo factory worker Ryosuke Yoshii makes extra money reselling goods online under a pseudonym. Business booms but his success turns sour as digital anonymity fuels real-worl...
Queer East Festival: Floating in Ecosystems
Showing from Sat 3 May
Bringing together the work of queer East and Southeast Asian artists based in Scotland, FLOATING IN ECOSYSTEMS showcases a bold exploration of identity, transformation, and community in a programme curated by Indigo Korres of the Scottish Queer International Film Festival (SQIFF) The films in this programme experiment with dynamic visual narratives that challenge cultural and bodily boundaries,...
Queer East Festival: 1 Girl Infinite
Showing from Sat 3 May
Lilly Hu both directs and stars in this vivid portrait of girlhood, teenage love, and frustrated desire set in Changsha, China. Yin Jia and Tong Tong have carved out a life together: shoplifting for food, joyously pelting oranges at cars, and sharing a bed. Within the walls of their small apartment, they are tied together by an intensely physical, intimate bond; but in front of other people, To...
Blue Road: The Edna O' Brien Story
Showing from Sat 3 May
BLUE ROAD is a candid portrait of one of modern literature�s greatest and most charismatic writers, Edna O�Brien In 1960, her debut novel, The Country Girls, caused uproar, resulting in the �sexually frank� novel to be burned and banned in her native Ireland. Edna O�Brien thus became a literary sensation delivering provocative interviews, and authoring screenplays. Her home in London became sthe...
KURDISH FILM FESTIVAL: Touching Freedom + Closing Ceremony
Showing from Sat 3 May
Two friends journey into a war that unites them for life and film what no one else has filmed. In 2014 the two Kurdish students Jenkidar and Hussein start a journey with an unexpected amount of life changing twists and turns. It takes them from a careless student life in Beirut to their beloved hometown of Kobani. Here they pick up video cameras for the first time in their lives and document th...
Queer East Festival: My Sunshine
Showing from Sun 4 May
The UK Premiere of award winning director Hiroshi Okuyama’s subtle critique of the social expectations surrounding gender and sexuality that poetically evokes the joy of childhood emotions and the struggle for acceptance. On a small Japanese island, life revolves around the changing seasons. Winter is time for ice hockey at school, but the young Takuya isn’t too thrilled about it. His real inte...
Queer East Festival: Silent Sparks
Showing from Mon 5 May
Director Chu Ping’s exquisitely textured drama of a young Taiwanese gangster seeking to reconnect with his beloved former cellmate explores different facets of masculine identity. Fresh out of prison, Pua is drawn back into the underworld, compelled not only by financial necessity, but also by the desire to reconnect with the person he longs for, his former cellmate Mi-ji. Pua navigates the cri...
Borrowed Time: Lennon's Last Decade + Q&A
Showing from Wed 7 May
BORROWED TIME: LENNON'S LAST DECADE is an immersive documentary journey that offers an unprecedented look into the final years of one of the most iconic figures in music history—John Lennon. "Come to think of it, it's what we're all doing, even though most of us don't like to face it." With exclusive access to rare and stunning archival footage, including never-before-seen interviews, Alan G...
Tall Tales
Showing from Thu 8 May
Fabled record producer Mark Pritchard, luminary songwriter Thom Yorke and groundbreaking visual artist Jonathan Zawada come together for TALL TALES – a visual and audio cinema experience a decade in the making. Presented by WARP RECORDS, special event screenings of TALL TALES are being scheduled across the globe the day before the release of the new album - only in cinemas. TALL TALES is a f...
The Wedding Banquet
Showing from Fri 9 May
More than just a remake of a 1993 hit movie , THE WEDDING BANQUET is a joyfully loving and fresh reimagining of a classic comedy of errors about a family navigating cultural identity, queerness, and family expectations as they live, love, fight and make up again. Frustrated with his commitment-phobic boyfriend Chris and running out of time, Min makes a proposal: a green-card marriage with their...
Queer East Festival: Things and Tingling
Showing from Fri 9 May
A real fetishist leaves no stones unturned... A programme of short films curated by Bart Seng Wen Long featuring a live performance by Shibari artist Hua Hua and DroneLarvae. Laura Three showgirls playfully mock the audience for attending a projection of an art film. Dir. Terayama Shuji | Japan | 1974 | 9min Emergencies A Singaporean man recounts two memories — one of a colonial-era film ...
Queer East Festival: We Are Here +Q&A
Showing from Sat 10 May
A documentary from LGBT activists Zhao Jing and Shi Tou revisiting the landmark 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, which was held in Beijing. The conference was attended by 300 lesbian women from around the world, whose organisers sought to facilitate queer participation, visibility, and recognition in the context of broader discussions around women's rights. The first-ever l...
Re-Viewing Blue Velvet
Showing from Sun 11 May
Revisiting a landmark 1987 Rio event with a screening and discussion that not only pays tribute to the visionary work of David Lynch, but also celebrates the enduring importance of protest, dialogue, and critical engagement. The death of David Lynch offers us the special opportunity to revisit a landmark screening of BLUE VELVET, held at the cinema on Thursday 25 July 1987. Promoted by the contro...
Classic Mat: Importance of Being Earnest
Showing from Mon 12 May
This May, enjoy the wit and charm of THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST, the definitive 1952 adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s beloved comedy of manners. Featuring dazzling performances from Michael Redgrave, Edith Evans, and Joan Greenwood, this delightful film brims with sharp satire, mistaken identities, and sparkling dialogue. A timeless tale of love, deception, and cucumber sandwiches, THE IMPORTANCE...
Backlash: The Murder of George Floyd + Q&A
Showing from Tue 13 May
Following the screening of BACKLASH, we are delighted to welcome director Kwabena Oppong for a live-on-stage Q&A. Five years on from the murder of George Floyd – the police killing that set America on fire with rage and sparked a wave of protests around the world, director Kwabena Oppong's film explores one of the most important and defining events in modern history. BACKLASH is the story of Geo...
BLUES RUN THE GAME: THE STRANGE TALE OF JACKSON C. FRANK + Q&A
Showing from Sun 18 May
This Doc 'n Roll presentation is followed by a Q&A via Zoom with director Damien Aime Dupont . In the mid-60s, Jackson C. Frank released a masterpiece of folk music in Britain. This young American songwriter was then close to Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel and subsequently became a musical influence for so many, like Bert Jansch, Nick Drake, Counting Crows, Graham Coxon, John Mayer and Laura Marlin...
The Phoenician Scheme
Showing from Fri 23 May
Visionary filmmaker Wes Anderson continues his gloriously subversive path of cinematic mainstream destruction with a poignant tale of love and regret, espionage and intrigue, and the power of second chances. Zsa-zsa Korda, one of the richest men in Europe has survived six plane crashes and fathered nine sons and one daughter – a nun- whom he appoints as the sole heir to his estate. As Korda embar...
Hackney History Fest: Save our Heritage + Hands Off
Showing from Sat 24 May
Hackney History Festival presents SAVE OUR HERITAGE and HANDS OFF Followed by a Q & A with Winstan Whitter director of SAVE OUR HERITAGE and HANDS OFF and Bill Parry-Davies solicitor activist with a bias against social and environmental injustice. SAVE OUR HERITAGE: In anticipation of London’s Olympic bid, a new tube line for Hackney and urban regeneration efforts were planned. The site of the ol...
Hackney History Festival: How To Get On With Everybody + Q&A
Showing from Sun 25 May
Hackney History Festival: presents a new documentary followed by a Q&A with with directors Winstan Whitter, Elin Moe and the star of the film Rabbi Herschel Gluck. HOW TO GET ON WITH EVERYBODY is an intimate portrait of one of life’s loveable optimists, London Rabbi Herschel Gluck. Following his life and works, building bridges between people from all walks of life. Not an easy feat in a polari...
Fashion in Film: Grounded: Animated Shorts
Showing from Sat 31 May
Fashion in Film Festival 2025 presents GROUNDED: Fashion’s Entanglements with Nature, a major UK-wide season exploring the relationship between fashion and nature through the lens of cinema in an era marked by escalating ecological crises Spanning the late 19th century to present day, GROUNDED examines fashion’s role as simultaneously a barrier and a connecting tissue between humans and the nat...
Fashion in Film Festival: Grounded: Donkey Skin (Peau d’Âne) + Intro
Showing from Sun 1 Jun
Fashion in Film Festival 2025 presents GROUNDED: Fashion’s Entanglements with Nature, a major UK-wide season exploring the relationship between fashion and nature through the lens of cinema in an era marked by escalating ecological crises. Spanning the late 19th century to present day, GROUNDED examines fashion’s role as simultaneously a barrier and a connecting tissue between humans and the natur...
Unycorn + Q&A
Showing from Sat 7 Jun
43AD Films presents the premiere screening of UNYCORN, the latest film by Conrad Armstrong in collaboration with legendary New York club performance artist Rose Wood. Through their collusion Armstrong and Wood form a search party to explore the mythical hunting ground of Manhattan. Documenting the rich tapestry that threads along Broadway; from the indigenous forest of Inwood to the relics of the...
Rio Staff Selects: Agnes Varda's Vagabond + Intro
Showing from Sun 8 Jun
To celebrate its 40th anniversary and the work of its director, a special screening of Agnes Varda’s VAGABOND (Sans Toit Ni Loi) with an introduction by the Rio’s own Bells Kennedy-Compston, film programmer and producer. With an unforgettable performance from Sandrine Bonnaire, VAGABOND premiered at the 42nd Venice International Film Festival and won Varda the Golden Lion. In the dead of win...
Classic Matinee: To Wong Foo, Thanks...
Showing from Mon 16 Jun
This June, join us for 1985's TO WONG FOO, THANKS FOR EVERYTHING! JULIE NEWMAR, a vibrant and heartfelt road-trip comedy that celebrates friendship, self-expression, and the power of kindness. Starring Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo as three fabulous drag queens on an unforgettable journey across small-town America, this cult classic is bursting with charm, humour, and iconic p...
Classic Matinee: Rye Lane
Showing from Mon 14 Jul
This July, fall in love with 2023's RYE LANE, a fresh and vibrant romantic comedy that captures the energy and charm of South London. Following two strangers, both reeling from bad breakups, as they embark on a spontaneous day of adventure, this film is bursting with humour, heart, and dazzling visuals. A modern love story with a sharp, playful edge, RYE LANE is a joyous celebration of connection...
