Adventures in world cinema: 24th CINECITY Brighton Film Festival 6-15 Nov 2026
Brighton’s annual celebration of cinema and the big screen experience features the very best in international cinema with a diverse programme of premieres and previews, a showcase of locally made films, archive treasures, screendance, filmmaker Q&As and special events. The festival gives audiences first sight of highly anticipated titles ahead of their UK release and showcases many others brought to Brighton from around the world for one-off screenings. Tickets go on sale on Fri 9 Oct when the full programme is announced. CINECITY is presented with the support of the BFI Film Audience Network.
CINECITY is the region’s biggest celebration of cinema. Patrons include Nick Cave and Ben Wheatley. The main cinema venues are the iconic Duke of York’s Picturehouse and Depot, Lewes with further screenings and events at Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, Duke’s at Komedia, Fabrica and The Dance Space.
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
CINECITY opens and closes with previews of two eagerly awaited films. The festival opens on Fri 6 Nov (Duke of York’s) with I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, the latest film by acclaimed British director Clio Barnard (Ali & Ava, Dark River, The Selfish Giant). It is a bittersweet drama about a group of young friends in Birmingham and has garnered great reviews wherever it has screened.
The festival closes on Sun 15 Nov (Duke of York’s) with Elsinore starring Andrew Scott, a moving biopic depicting the tumultuous final months of a renowned British actor’s life. Best known for his performance in Chariots of Fire, Ian Charleson is invited to play Hamlet in a prestigious 1989 National Theatre production, following the sudden withdrawal of Daniel Day-Lewis. It’s a momentous decision. Unknown to most people, Charleson is dying of AIDS. This film captures the magnitude of his achievement, and Scott (All of Us Strangers) is totally compelling in the central role.
ADVENTURES IN WORLD CINEMA
CINECITY presents a host of award-winning titles, all playing in the region for the very first time in special one-off screenings ahead of release. There are feature films from around the world including Canada, Japan, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Belgium, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and New Zealand. Some of the highlights include:
Club Kid
Club Kid one of the standouts at this year’s Cannes, an electrifying and exuberant debut feature from writer-director Jordan Firstman who also stars as a jaded New York club promoter who finds his lifestyle upended by the discovery that he has a 10-year-old son. This heartfelt comedy has also been described as a ‘love letter to queer nightlife’.
Minotaur, directed by Russian exile Andrey Zvyagintsev, his first feature film in almost a decade, winner of the Grand Prix and the Soundtrack Award at this year’s Cannes.
Josephine (Dir: Beth de Araújo) winner of the Grand Jury Dramatic Prize at Sundance Festival.
Rose, an engrossing drama starring Sandra Hüller (Project Hail Mary, The Zone of Interest, Anatomy of a Fall) – winner of the Silver Bear award at this year’s Berlin Film Festival – as a mysterious female soldier disguised as a man who arrives at a village in 17th century Germany.
Mike Leigh’s Tender Loving Care, said to probably be the legendary director’s final film is another gentle little gem, full of heart and compassion. It recently won the Best Film at San Sebastian Film Festival.
Coward
Paper Tiger (Dir: James Gray) starring Adam Driver, Miles Teller and Scarlett Johansson in a thriller set in 1980s New York.
Big Girls Don’t Cry. Set in New Zealand during the summer of 2006, this queer coming-of-age drama vividly captures what it’s like to be a teenager trying to work out your place in the world. The screening will be followed by an in-person Q&A with New Zealand director Paloma Schneideman and actor Noah Taylor.
Mouse (Dirs: Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson) ‘a rich, emotionally satisfying and superbly acted bittersweet drama’ (Screen Daily) features Sophie Okonedo, who also has a starring role (praised by The Guardian as ’mesmeric’) in Clarissa (Dirs: Arie and Chuko Erisi), a sun-soaked reimagining of Virginia Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway set in contemporary Lagos.
Ben’Imana Director Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s powerful debut won both the Caméra d’Or for best first feature and the FIPRESCI Prize at this year’s Cannes. Featuring excellent performances by a mainly non-professional cast, it is a compelling story of female experience, fortitude and the possibility of hope as a Rwandan community takes faltering steps towards reconciliation after the conflict between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes.
Big Girls Don’t Cry
GREEN SCREEN
An extinct flightless bird, Polar Bears and a magnificent 200-year-old ginkgo tree…
Nuisance Bear. Every year, eco-tourists flock to the town of Churchill, Canada (dubbed the ‘Polar Bear Capital of the World’) but the Inuit community know that every bear that reaches town is the result of a shrinking natural habitat. Gabriela Osio Vanden and Jack Weisman’s feature debut transcends the traditional nature documentary and won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. Followed by Q&A with co-director Jack Weisman and producer Teddy Leifer (Depot, Lewes Sat 14 Nov).
King Auk from Brighton-based director Brian McClave. Created in collaboration with the Natural History Museum, the film journeys across islands and centuries to excavate the fractured legend of the flightless bird that was Britain’s last Great Auk.
Followed by Q&A with director Brian McClave and Dr Joanne Cooper of the Natural History Museum. (Depot, Lewes Sun 8 Nov)
In a screening to mark Lewes becoming the first town in England to grant rights to trees – including the right to life, to flourish, to be restored and to complete natural life cycles – Silent Friend (Dir: Ildikó Enyedi) features Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Léa Seydoux. Set in a botanical garden where a majestic ginkgo tree bears witness to three generations of people who are quietly transformed by the mysterious power of nature, Silent Friend is a visually stunning, century-spanning meditation on the hidden bonds between humans and nature. The screening will be introduced by Dr Joanna Smallwood, who leads the Environmental Justice Law Clinic at the University of Sussex and helped guide the new charter adopted by Lewes Town Council. (Depot, Lewes Sun 15 Nov).
The Archivist
REEL LIVES
In addition to Nuisance Bear and King Auk, other documentary highlights with director Q&As include:
The award-winning Ultimate Thunder which follows a Leeds punk band comprised of musicians with learning disabilities, Down syndrome and autism as they chase their dream of performing for a festival crowd. Presented in partnership with Oska Bright and Carousel. Followed by Q&A with director Ben G. Brown and special guests (Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts Sat 14 Nov).
The Archivist follows David ‘Doc’ Rowe who has spent 60 years creating a massive audio-visual archive of British folk traditions, customs and songs. In a battle against time and technology, can ‘Britain’s greatest living folklorist’ find a permanent home for his one-of-a-kind collection? From directors Tim Plester and Rob Curry (Way of the Morris and The Ballad of Shirley Collins). (Depot, Lewes Sat 7 Nov).
Brighton-based producer Johnny Webb will introduce Tutu, a powerful portrait of Desmond Tutu, the rebel Archbishop who helped end apartheid, changing the soul of a nation and inspiring generations worldwide. (Dukes at Komedia Mon 9 Nov).
Clarissa
LIVE SOUNDTRACKS
Presented in partnership with Melting Vinyl.
The Phantom of the Opera (Dir: Rupert Julian. US 1925).
One of the greatest horror films of the silent era, this gothic tale is suitably operatic in scope, replete with extravagant sets, opulent costumes and hundreds of extras. Made a century ago and featuring a dazzling early use of Technicolour, it remains an extraordinary piece of cinema. It stars the legendary Lon Chaney – ‘The Man of a Thousand Faces’ – in one of his most celebrated performances. Accompanied by a brand-new live score from Scottish composers Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman who combine elements of opera, neoclassical, acoustic and electronic instruments to create a dramatic and haunting new soundtrack. (Fabrica Fri 13 Nov).
Elsinore (Closing)
CINECITY OPEN and NEW VOICES
The best local filmmaking talent also features as CINECITY presents a showcase of short films selected from open submissions to the festival in CINECITY Open. We also present New Voices showcasing local filmmakers aged 25 and under, supported by MetFilm School Brighton.
CINECITY welcomes back the BRIGHTON SCREENDANCE FESTIVAL for its latest edition presented by South East Dance at The Dance Space including experimental dance films curated by Claudia Kappenberg (Sat 14 Nov).
For full programme details: www.cine-city.co.uk
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