Barbican outdoor cinema 2026 programme announced

The Barbican Centre has unveiled its Outdoor Cinema 2026 programme, returning to the Sculpture Court this August with eleven nights of open-air screenings beneath the London skyline. Running from 19 to 30 August, the season transforms the brutalist courtyard into a summer cinema space, with street food stalls, bars, and a carefully curated line-up of international films.

Barbican Outdoor Cinema 2025 © Dion Barrett / Barbican Centre. Film still from Arrival (2016), dir Denis Villeneuve. Image courtesy of Paramount UK

Opening with Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival (2016), the programme begins with a science fiction drama starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner, in which linguists are tasked with communicating with mysterious alien visitors. Across the season, audiences are taken through a range of global cinema, from Jafar Panahi’s Offside (2006) and Mati Diop’s Atlantics (2019), to Makoto Shinkai’s anime Weathering with You (2019) and Ishirō Honda’s monster classic Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964).

The programme continues with Sean Baker’s The Florida Project (2017), Jean-Luc Godard’s French New Wave film Pierrot le Fou (1965), John Singleton’s road drama Poetic Justice (1993), and Hettie Macdonald’s London-set coming-of-age story Beautiful Thing (1996). Also included is Susan Seidelman’s comedy Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), adding a New York 1980s setting to the programme’s mix of stories and styles.

Closing the series on 30 August is Spike Lee’s David Byrne’s American Utopia (2020), a concert film combining music, dance, and spoken word, based on David Byrne’s Broadway show. 

Date: 19–30 August 2026. Location: Barbican Sculpture Court, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS. Price: General £20; Concessions £18; Members £16.50; Young Barbican £12.50; Under 18s £5. Book now