South London Film Festival brings UK and world premieres to Brixton for sixth edition

The South London Film Festival returns to Brixton this September with three weekends of independent cinema, bringing together emerging filmmakers and established names across a programme of premieres, award winners and specially curated strands.

Now in its sixth year, the festival will take over Picturehouse Ritzy from 12^th to 27^th September, with three UK premieres and one world premiere among its 2026 selection. The programme includes work involving Jordan Peele, Idris and Sabrina Elba and Wunmi Mosaku, alongside films featuring Ashley Walters, Nathalie Emmanuel, Rudolph Walker, Sheila Atim and Josh Tedeku.

Opening the festival is its Official Awards Showcase, comprising 15 shorts spanning fiction, documentary, animation and music video. Among them is Vote Gavin Lyle, written and directed by Academy Award winner Aneil Karia and starring Jack Lowden, which follows an aspiring right-wing parliamentary candidate through a single day. BAFTA-winning animation Two Black Boys in Paradise, based on Dean Atta’s poem and narrated by Jordan Stephens, also features, alongside the music video for Dave’s The Boy Who Played the Harp.

Two Jordan Peele-backed projects are also part of the programme. Jared Leaf’s horror short Spilled Milk, developed through the Monkeypaw Productions and TIFF No Drama initiative, receives its UK premiere, while Peele and Monkeypaw executive produce Charlie Dennis’s The Pigs Underneath, starring Josh Tedeku and Vinette Robinson. Elsewhere, Vultures, directed by Dian Weys, also receives its UK premiere.

The following day turns towards mental health with Behind the Smile, presented in collaboration with The Film and TV Charity. Its ten-film selection includes the UK premiere of Alex Lanipekun’s Echoes, starring Ashley Walters and Nathalie Emmanuel as childhood friends confronting buried trauma, as well as Bobby, narrated by Sir Michael Caine, and How Black Men Lose Their Smile, featuring Ashley “Bashy” Thomas. The strand will culminate in a discussion with participating filmmakers, festival managing director Kyriakos Georgiou and Film and TV Charity CEO Marcus Ryder.

That programme will also host the world premiere of Ashleigh Ashley’s An Ode to Joy, starring Rudolph Walker as a widower attempting to adjust to life after the death of his wife while continuing the rituals they once shared.

Closing night sees the return of She Owns the Scene, spotlighting women in front of and behind the camera. Among its films are Ramla Ali and Richard A Moore’s How to Hide It, executive produced by Idris and Sabrina Elba; Joan Iyiola’s MANGO, executive produced by Wunmi Mosaku; and Rashida Seriki’s BIFA-longlisted Leaving Ikorodu in 1999, featuring Sheila Atim, Tobi Bakre and Tomi Ojo.

With its mix of recognisable talent and filmmakers at earlier stages of their careers, the festival’s sixth edition remains firmly rooted in South London while ranging across subjects including class, masculinity, migration, grief, mental health and identity – giving audiences the chance to discover work that might otherwise be difficult to encounter on the big screen.

The editorial unit

The South London Film Festival takes place from 12^th to 27^th September 2026 at Picturehouse Ritzy, Brixton. For more information, visit the festival website here.