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JANUARY 2025
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NEXT SCREENINGS

Halcyon Days: Radical Short Films of the 1990s

17th Jan 18:20
Curzon Soho

Funny Shit

17th Jan 21:00
Curzon Soho

Ruins Full of Futures

18th Jan 14:00
SET Peckham

The Gap in the Curtain

18th Jan 14:30
Rio Cinema

For The Nile Is My Genesis

18th Jan 15:00
ICA Cinema

Everywhere We Are Islands

18th Jan 17:30
Rich Mix

Pop: Contagion, Infection, Revolution!

18th Jan 18:00
ICA Cinema

Gothic

18th Jan 18:00
Curzon Soho

My Eye Is My Ear

18th Jan 18:20
BFI Southbank

Invitation to Love Presents: Carnival Of Souls Live Score

18th Jan 19:00
ICA Theatre

Documentary: Everything has a pulse

18th Jan 20:45
ICA Cinema

UK Competition: House Of Mirrors

18th Jan 20:45
BFI Southbank

Community Spirit: Cinema and Filmmaking in London's Edgelands

19th Jan 12:00
Central Barking and A House for Artists

Documentary: My Body Has Always Been Your First Cinema

19th Jan 13:30
ICA Cinema

Fighting Form: Women in Action

19th Jan 15:00
Rio Cinema

Waywaad Collective: Always Been Here

19th Jan 15:00
Ritzy Picturehouse

Fantastic Fictions

19th Jan 15:00
Curzon Soho

Documentary: All that lingers lasts forever

19th Jan 16:00
ICA Cinema

Holidays on Mars: The 16mm films of Harry Hill and David Leister

19th Jan 18:45
BFI Southbank

Alien Extravaganza

19th Jan 20:45
Rio Cinema

The Last Invention

20th Jan 6:20
Curzon Soho

Lo-Budget Mayhem

20th Jan 18:30
Rio Cinema

Men In Flux

20th Jan 20:30
Rich Mix

International Competition: The Melody Haunts My Reverie

20th Jan 20:45
BFI Southbank

Conjured Realities, Tainted Objects

21st Jan 18:00
ICA Cinema

Under the Pavement, the Sea

21st Jan 20:15
ICA Cinema

Animation Variety Show

21st Jan 20:30
Rich Mix

UK Competition: Panoramics

21st Jan 20:45
BFI Southbank

Helena Solberg Film Club: First Takes

22nd Jan 18:00
Espaço Hélio Oiticica and Auditório Alberto Cavalcanti

The Villainess

22nd Jan 18:00
Rio Cinema

Speaking in Symbols

22nd Jan 18:20
Curzon Soho

The Arts Foundation Futures Awards Shortlist with Q&A

22nd Jan 18:30
ICA Cinema

Sore Throat (+ Q&A)

22nd Jan 19:00
ICA Cinema

Deeper than Throat and Tongue

22nd Jan 20:30
Rich Mix

All We Have Of The House

22nd Jan 20:45
ICA Cinema

International Competition: Echoes of the Unseen

22nd Jan 20:45
BFI Southbank

LSFF x LCC: Oh, Holy

23rd Jan 16:00
Rich Mix

LSFF x LCC: Post Attitude

23rd Jan 18:00
Rich Mix

London Lives

23rd Jan 18:20
Curzon Soho

Documentary: Marching forward, looking back

23rd Jan 18:30
ICA Cinema

Dark Fantasies

23rd Jan 18:45
Rio Cinema

Can you tell me a poem?

23rd Jan 20:45
ICA Cinema

London Lives (Carers & Babies screening)

24th Jan 11:00
ActOne Cinema

LSFF x LCC: Films On The Spectrum

24th Jan 16:00
Rich Mix

LSFF x LCC: Love Bites

24th Jan 18:00
Rich Mix

British Lives

24th Jan 18:20
Curzon Soho

The Presence of an Absence

24th Jan 18:30
ICA Cinema

Intimacy is much more (and much less)

24th Jan 21:00
ICA Cinema

Midnight Movies

24th Jan 23:30
Rio Cinema

Ragga to Rocklands: The Sounds of Deptford and New Cross

25th Jan 11:00
Lewisham Arthouse

Auto-Mythologies

25th Jan 12:30
ICA Cinema

WTF!

25th Jan 14:30
Rio Cinema

Come on let's play!

25th Jan 15:00
Lexi Cinema

Housing Problems

25th Jan 15:30
ICA Cinema

I Film, Therefore I Am

25th Jan 18:20
Curzon Soho

How to Look For a Future That does not Exist: the films of Basim Magdy

25th Jan 18:30
ICA Cinema

everything is romantic

25th Jan 21:00
ICA Cinema

How To Make a Friend

26th Jan 13:20
Garden Cinema
Plan Your Visit
JANUARY 2025
Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa Su
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
  
RIO CINEMA
ICA CINEMA
RICH MIX
LEXI CINEMA
BFI SOUTHBANK
HOUSE FOR ARTISTS
RITZY PICTUREHOUSE
CURZON SOHO
GARDEN CINEMA
LEWISHAM ARTHOUSE
SET PECKHAM
ICA THEATRE
ICA THEATRE
CENTRAL BARKING AND A HOUSE FOR ARTISTS
ESPAÇO HÉLIO OITICICA AND AUDITÓRIO ALBERTO CAVALCANTI
ACTONE CINEMA
NEW SHORTS
SPECIAL EVENTS
COMPETITION
FAMILY FILMS
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FRIDAY 17TH JANUARY

Halcyon Days: Radical Short Films of the 1990s

What came before LSFF? This rich seam of underground filmmaking and basement screenings offered a snapshot of real life from across London.

Start Time:
17th Jan 18:20
Location:
Curzon Soho
Runtime:
79 min
Info Book

Funny Shit

The 22nd London Short Film Festival returns with the time-honoured tradition of our opening night comedy bonanza - Funny Shit - a proverbial pick n mix of 2025's funniest shorts.

Start Time:
17th Jan 21:00
Location:
Curzon Soho
Runtime:
96 min
Info Book

SATURDAY 18TH JANUARY

Ruins Full of Futures

Against a behemoth of myth and money, what is the future of spaces that nurture something beyond profit? Followed by an open discussion on the past, present and future of cultural and social commons.

Start Time:
18th Jan 14:00
Location:
SET Peckham
Runtime:
98 min
Info Book

The Gap in the Curtain

The esoteric and extraordinary begin to leak into the domestic sphere in this selection of three haunting shorts.

Start Time:
18th Jan 14:30
Location:
Rio Cinema
Runtime:
94 min
Info Book

For The Nile Is My Genesis

These films, which span a decade and a half, offers poignant stories of reflection, joy and resilience by six Sudanese filmmakers who examine the complexities of identity, society, and home.

Start Time:
18th Jan 15:00
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
96 min
Info Book

Everywhere We Are Islands

Through four short films, Everywhere We Are Islands explores with humour, nuance and innocence the relationship that young people across the Caribbean diaspora have to their identities and one another

Start Time:
18th Jan 17:30
Location:
Rich Mix
Runtime:
53 min
Info Book

Pop: Contagion, Infection, Revolution!

In the past 50 years, pop has travelled around like an infection, accompanying revolutions, coups and the steady trudge of modern history – a balm for a spiritually lost world.

Start Time:
18th Jan 18:00
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
112 min
Info Book

Gothic

From abstract eeriness to haunting dramas, our returning anthology of Gothic shorts calls you into the dark and surreal.

Start Time:
18th Jan 18:00
Location:
Curzon Soho
Runtime:
87 min
Info Book

My Eye Is My Ear

An annual highlight of LSFF for Deaf attendees, My Eye Is My Ear presents new short films exploring Deaf lives, culture and language.

Start Time:
18th Jan 18:20
Location:
BFI Southbank
Runtime:
54 min
Info Book

Invitation to Love Presents: Carnival Of Souls Live Score

Following their improvised score of Häxan last year, Invitation to Love (Laura Groves, Fran Lobo, Hopping Corpse and Auclair) present a live score of Herk Harvey’s Carnival Of Souls.

Start Time:
18th Jan 19:00
Location:
ICA Theatre
Runtime:
78 min
Info Book

Documentary: Everything has a pulse

All life produces, and is governed by, rhythm. A heartbeat, a pattern, a flow. How do we respond to the daily rhythms that shape our lives and resonate within us?

Start Time:
18th Jan 20:45
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
80 min
Info Book

UK Competition: House Of Mirrors

Enter a maze of self-reflection and distortions in this collection of UK Competition films, selected from across the LSFF programme. These films are all eligible to win the Best UK Short Award.

Start Time:
18th Jan 20:45
Location:
BFI Southbank
Runtime:
80 min
Info Book

SUNDAY 19TH JANUARY

Community Spirit: Cinema and Filmmaking in London's Edgelands

A walking tour and screening exploring the ways filmmaking can support local communities with participation allowing for poignant feelings surrounding home and identity to be made manifest on screen.

Start Time:
19th Jan 12:00
Location:
Central Barking and A House for Artists
Runtime:
75 min
Info Book

Documentary: My Body Has Always Been Your First Cinema

Turning back, we find women in their absences and unrecognised presence throughout cultural memory – these films excavate her image and place her at the forefront of the screen.

Start Time:
19th Jan 13:30
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
99 min
Info Book

Fighting Form: Women in Action

Formed by director, Jade Ang Jackman, and actor / stuntwoman, Ayesha Hussain, the programme seeks to celebrate the changing representations of gender within the action genre.

Start Time:
19th Jan 15:00
Location:
Rio Cinema
Runtime:
82 min
Info Book

Waywaad Collective: Always Been Here

A journey across London, across spaces that we and those who came before us have created. Part celebration, part rallying cry, these shorts demonstrate the creativity and talent of Black queer people.

Start Time:
19th Jan 15:00
Location:
Ritzy Picturehouse
Runtime:
60 min
Info Book

Fantastic Fictions

We say cinema is larger than life, that it is imbued with our fantasies, dreams, desires. Surreal, moody, edgy, this year’s Fantastic Fictions is bursting at the seams with urges and provocations.

Start Time:
19th Jan 15:00
Location:
Curzon Soho
Runtime:
104 min
Info Book

Documentary: All that lingers lasts forever

There exists a sisyphean struggle to erase certain truths from our lives in an effort to control the wild nature of existence. Amidst this erasure, what truths endure?

Start Time:
19th Jan 16:00
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
85 min
Info Book

Holidays on Mars: The 16mm films of Harry Hill and David Leister

We’re delighted to present the early 16mm films of comedy and TV icon Harry Hill, projected from original prints. Followed by Harry Hill and David Leister in conversation with curator Helen de Witt.

Start Time:
19th Jan 18:45
Location:
BFI Southbank
Runtime:
40 min
Info Book

Alien Extravaganza

This new collaborative programme between LSFF and Nelly Ben Hayoun Stépanian aims to disrupt a corporate vision of outer space, imagining a queer, colourful, experimental galaxy of new filmmaking.

Start Time:
19th Jan 20:45
Location:
Rio Cinema
Runtime:
95 min
Info Book

MONDAY 20TH JANUARY

The Last Invention

Are we approaching a technological singularity? Are we seeing a technocratic dystopia dawning upon us? A programme reflecting on the anxieties of a new dawn of AI-assisted filmmaking.

Start Time:
20th Jan 6:20
Location:
Curzon Soho
Runtime:
97 min
Info Book

Lo-Budget Mayhem

One of our most popular programmes returns with a cracking collection of oddities, hand-crafted from the confines of our empty wallets and our mortal bodies.

Start Time:
20th Jan 18:30
Location:
Rio Cinema
Runtime:
78 min
Info Book

Men In Flux

Explore the tender, raw undercurrent of masculinity in this programme of short films that peel back the tough exterior of manhood and reveal its soft, vulnerable core.

Start Time:
20th Jan 20:30
Location:
Rich Mix
Runtime:
92 min
Info Book

International Competition: The Melody Haunts My Reverie

Uncovering the profound in the everyday, where absurdity and banality expose hidden currents of humanity and quiet defiance.

Start Time:
20th Jan 20:45
Location:
BFI Southbank
Runtime:
81 min
Info Book

TUESDAY 21ST JANUARY

Conjured Realities, Tainted Objects

How do art spaces shape our politics? How do colonial forces shape art? Might art spaces form counter-colonialisms?

Start Time:
21st Jan 18:00
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
89 min
Info Book

Under the Pavement, the Sea

In this double-bill, two filmmakers set their gaze upon the cityscapes of Bethlehem and Berlin, while zooming in on the architectural marks left by the state violence.

Start Time:
21st Jan 20:15
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
70 min
Info Book

Animation Variety Show

LSFF’s annual show that celebrates animators from across the world has a little bit of everything, featuring radical ideas and beautiful stories in claymation, 3D animation and stop-motion.

Start Time:
21st Jan 20:30
Location:
Rich Mix
Runtime:
94 min
Info Book

UK Competition: Panoramics

In this anthology of UK Competition films, selected from across the LSFF programme, immerse yourself in haunting desolate terrains, unearthed archival memories, and mysterious conspiracies.

Start Time:
21st Jan 20:45
Location:
BFI Southbank
Runtime:
75 min
Info Book

WEDNESDAY 22ND JANUARY

Helena Solberg Film Club: First Takes

Partnering with Helena Solberg Film Club, we present an unmissable collection of rare Brazilian films from the 1980s and 1990s

Start Time:
22nd Jan 18:00
Location:
Espaço Hélio Oiticica and Auditório Alberto Cavalcanti
Runtime:
83 min
Info Book

The Villainess

LSFF teams up with directors and stunt actors Jade Ang Jackman and Ayesha Hussain for a special feature screening of Jung Byung-gil's, the Villianess.

Start Time:
22nd Jan 18:00
Location:
Rio Cinema
Runtime:
124 min
Info Book

Speaking in Symbols

Join us on a journey through global symbolism, tradition, storytelling and mysticism, across marshlands and mountains.

Start Time:
22nd Jan 18:20
Location:
Curzon Soho
Runtime:
96 min
Info Book

The Arts Foundation Futures Awards Shortlist with Q&A

Join us for a special one-off screening featuring the shortlisted filmmakers of The Arts Foundation Futures Awards 2025 for film.

Start Time:
22nd Jan 18:30
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
90 min
Info Book

Sore Throat (+ Q&A)

A new artists' work explores how sound overheard through walls has impacted queer people in the Philippines, informed by monstrous mythology and the distortions of colonisation and gentrification.

Start Time:
22nd Jan 19:00
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
20 min
Info Book

Deeper than Throat and Tongue

Navigating a range of situations that test the power and limitations of language, we invite you to reflect on the invisible threads that bind us, and what happens when language is no longer enough.

Start Time:
22nd Jan 20:30
Location:
Rich Mix
Runtime:
94 min
Info Book

All We Have Of The House

This selection of archival shorts explores the potential of interventional filmmaking which showcases rare and abandoned footage and reimagines lost landscapes in the digital.

Start Time:
22nd Jan 20:45
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
97 min
Info Book

International Competition: Echoes of the Unseen

In the stillness, a tapestry unfurls, unveiling how time reveals its secrets, where unexpected discoveries arise and linger in the shadows.

Start Time:
22nd Jan 20:45
Location:
BFI Southbank
Runtime:
78 min
Info Book

THURSDAY 23RD JANUARY

LSFF x LCC: Oh, Holy

What do you know about joy? Oh, Holy is a programme that shines a light on the act of finding joy and invites you to consider your place within the realms of spirituality and religion.

Start Time:
23rd Jan 16:00
Location:
Rich Mix
Runtime:
50 min
Info Book

LSFF x LCC: Post Attitude

These experimental, punk films question established structures and authority, subverting truth, fixed identity, and unified narrative. Together, let us celebrate the aesthetics of chaos and rebellion!

Start Time:
23rd Jan 18:00
Location:
Rich Mix
Runtime:
78 min
Info Book

London Lives

A programme exploring the lives of those who brush past each other daily: these films reveal the human resilience and hidden bonds within London’s mosaic.

Start Time:
23rd Jan 18:20
Location:
Curzon Soho
Runtime:
93 min
Info Book

Documentary: Marching forward, looking back

Reflecting on the traces that linger in the quiet pursuit to understand what lies ahead.

Start Time:
23rd Jan 18:30
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
87 min
Info Book

Dark Fantasies

An exploration of the use of horror and fantasy in representations of the erotic. Join us at the intersection of the real and the imaginary for an evening of queer, orgiastic, violent delights!

Start Time:
23rd Jan 18:45
Location:
Rio Cinema
Runtime:
70 min
Info Book

Can you tell me a poem?

The selection of six non-/fiction diary films, capture the moment everyday life is transformed into a poem - and the mundane is made to become sacred.

Start Time:
23rd Jan 20:45
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
90 min
Info Book

FRIDAY 24TH JANUARY

London Lives (Carers & Babies screening)

A programme exploring the lives of those who brush past each other daily: these films reveal the human resilience and hidden bonds within London’s mosaic.

Start Time:
24th Jan 11:00
Location:
ActOne Cinema
Runtime:
93 min
Info Book

LSFF x LCC: Films On The Spectrum

A celebration of Autism through art and cinema. The films explore the freedom of movement and normalise the expression of emotion through stimming; the processing of emotions in a neurotypical world.

Start Time:
24th Jan 16:00
Location:
Rich Mix
Runtime:
79 min
Info Book

LSFF x LCC: Love Bites

Nosferatu, Edward Cullen, Dracula… tired of hetero vampire clichés? So are we. And so we present Love Bites, a screening of lesbian vampire films that redefine the genre through a fresh lens.

Start Time:
24th Jan 18:00
Location:
Rich Mix
Runtime:
74 min
Info Book

British Lives

Our British Lives programme celebrates tales of bizarre cultural obsession, diverse heritage and rural vistas from the furthest corners of our island, welcoming a vast, collective national portrait.

Start Time:
24th Jan 18:20
Location:
Curzon Soho
Runtime:
87 min
Info Book

The Presence of an Absence

Empty urban spaces, empty rural landscapes. A programme of new short films for lovers of the hauntological, or those interested in the psychogeography of forgotten spaces.

Start Time:
24th Jan 18:30
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
94 min
Info Book

Intimacy is much more (and much less)

"Intimacy is much more (and much less) than sex,” as these shorts explore in desires, fears, vulnerabilities and expectations.

Start Time:
24th Jan 21:00
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
92 min
Info Book

Midnight Movies

Get ready for a cornucopia of gore and guts, drenched in blood, and served with love and hysteria.

Start Time:
24th Jan 23:30
Location:
Rio Cinema
Runtime:
94 min
Info Book

SATURDAY 25TH JANUARY

Ragga to Rocklands: The Sounds of Deptford and New Cross

Explore the rich musical heritage of Deptford and New Cross with a guided walk through the area's cinematic and musical history, followed by a film programme mixing drama, documentary and music video.

Start Time:
25th Jan 11:00
Location:
Lewisham Arthouse
Runtime:
80 min
Info Book

Auto-Mythologies

Six shorts challenge the delineation of documentary and fiction, reminding us that there are even more sides to a story than there are voices to tell them.

Start Time:
25th Jan 12:30
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
81 min
Info Book

WTF!

Another year, another classic WTF programme. A programme brimming with the most wildly unconventional and fantastically ludicrous short films to land on our doorstep.

Start Time:
25th Jan 14:30
Location:
Rio Cinema
Runtime:
85 min
Info Book

Come on let's play!

A 60 minute programme of children's animations from the Czech Republic and Hungary, all made in the 1960s, featuring inanimate worlds brought to life by the magic of stop-motion animation.

Start Time:
25th Jan 15:00
Location:
Lexi Cinema
Runtime:
56 min
Info Book

Housing Problems

Gentrification and unregulated landlordism are fracturing communities, while social housing disintegrates and profits soar. However, as these films constantly underline we can and should resist.

Start Time:
25th Jan 15:30
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
99 min
Info Book

I Film, Therefore I Am

In this programme, filming - and not thinking - precedes being, using the camera to (de)construct identity with all the chaotic, messy and not-yet-decided parts that come with it.

Start Time:
25th Jan 18:20
Location:
Curzon Soho
Runtime:
85 min
Info Book

How to Look For a Future That does not Exist: the films of Basim Magdy

A retrospective of artist filmmaker Basim Magdy, exploring the fragility of human understanding and the illusion of control over time, truth, and reality.

Start Time:
25th Jan 18:30
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
65 min
Info Book

everything is romantic

Swooning maidens and stolen kisses - are you ready for some classic love stories? Don’t be.

Start Time:
25th Jan 21:00
Location:
ICA Cinema
Runtime:
91 min
Info Book

SUNDAY 26TH JANUARY

How To Make a Friend

Whimsical hand-drawn animation, stop-motion, live-action and magical adventures await in our now-annual selection of short films for younger film fans.

Start Time:
26th Jan 13:20
Location:
Garden Cinema
Runtime:
70 min
Info Book
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