Autumn Screening Days: Our top programming picks

  • Date

    9th December 2025

Last month, we attended ICO’s Autumn Screening Days in Leicester. Here’s a few of the titles we enjoyed – and think might work for your audiences. 

Every year, the Independent Cinema Office (ICO) runs Screening Days events for Film Hub members across the UK. Screening Days gives you the chance to watch the best upcoming film releases from across the globe and discuss them with industry peers; enabling you to go away and create incredible programmes. 

In addition to ICO’s main Spring and Autumn Screening Days, they also run specialised Screening Days events themed around inclusion and diversity, cinema for children and young audiences and archive film. 

Here’s a few of our top picks from this year’s Autumn Screening Days, held at the Phoenix Cinema in Leicester. Thanks to the ICO team for another great event!

Got a question about these films? Get in touch: info@filmhubscotland.com. 

Hanne’s picks:

IS THIS THING ON?
2025 | dir. Bradley Cooper | 120 mins

Loosely based on the life of comedian John Bishop, Will Arnett plays newly divorced Alex who, in order to avoid paying cover, performs an impromptu stand-up routine at a New York comedy club. I thought this was an interesting spin on the divorce comedy-drama trope, exploring how you start afresh after a long-term relationship ends. Laura Dern plays Alex’s wife Tess and there is a strong supporting cast including Bradley Cooper (who also directs), Amy Sedaris and Sean Hayes. 

HAMNET
2025 | dir: Chloé Zhao | 126 mins | 12A

Chloe Zhao’s adaption of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel, dramatizes the marriage between William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and Agnes Hathaway (Jessie Buckley) and the loss of their 11 year-old son, Hamnet. I will probably never see this film again purely because I was so emotional throughout. Buckley’s performance is incredible and Jacobi Jupe breaks your heart playing the title character. Take tissues.

NO OTHER CHOICE
2025 | dir: Park Chan-wook | 139 mins

The latest offering from Park Chan-wook explores the lengths that one man, Yoo Man-su (played by Lee Byung-hun) will go to in order to secure a new job after being made redundant. Probably my favourite film from Screening Days! Despite going to some very dark places, I found myself frequently laughing out loud and even rooting for Man-su.

THE PRESIDENT’S CAKE
2025 | dir: Hasan Hadi | 105 mins

Another one of my favourites, The President’s Cake follows 9 year-old Lamia, as she tries to find ingredients to bake a mandatory cake to celebrate Saddam Hussein’s birthday. The first Iraqi film to ever play at Cannes, The President’s Cake has an interesting tone – managing to balance humour and sweetness with an underlying sense of tension. Well worth a watch!

H IS FOR HAWK
2025 | dir: Philippa Lowthorpe | 115 mins | 12A
Based on the best-selling memoir by Helen MacDonald, H is for Hawk follows Helen (played by Claire Foy) as she trains a Goshawk while processing the grief of her father’s death. Foy’s performance is excellent and the sweeping shots of the Goshawk in flight are stunning.

SAIPAN
2025 | dir: Lisa Barros D’Sa, Glenn Leyburn | 90 mins | 15
Not just for football fans, Saipan shows the drama behind the rift between Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy (Steve Coogan) and star player Roy Keane (Eanne Hardwicke) in the build-up to the 2002 World Cup. I really enjoyed this, both Coogan and Hardwicke give great performances as ego-driven men with the expectations of a whole country on their shoulders. The soundtrack (and baggy shorts) take you right back to the early 2000’s.

Anna’s picks:

TWINLESS
2025 | dir: James Sweeney | 100 mins
Twinless won the Audience Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival – and it’s easy to see why. This darkly comic depiction on grief (from writer-director James Sweeney, who also co-stars) is as surprising as it is devious. It follows Roman (Dylan O’Brien), who, after the death of his identical twin, joins a support group for bereaved twins where he meets Dennis (Sweeney). The unfolding drama takes you on a truly unpredictable path that had our screening laughing out loud.

IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU
2025 | dir. Mary Bronstein | 113 mins
There’s nothing quite so powerful as a 9am screening that has your heart pounding within the first 15 minutes. Watching If I Had Legs I’d Kick You was reminiscent of every truly-great cinema experience: beads of sweat, forgetting where you are and, of course, tears. Rose Byrne delivers a nail-biting central performance as an exhausted mother struggling to balance work, disastrous house repairs and a sick daughter. I found Bronstein’s film honest, ruthless and funny and, despite the weight of the subject matter, it errs just on the right side of levity.

MIROIRS NO. 3
2025 | dir. Christian Petzold | 86 mins
The new film from German auteur Christian Petzold (Barbara, Transit, Phoenix, Undine, Afire) is a mysterious psychodrama starring his frequent collaborator, Paula Beer. Opening with a (literal) crash, Laura (Beer) clings to Betty (Barbara Auer), a local woman who rescues her from a near-death experience. Their ensuing domestic contentment is tinged with a falseness so potent as to become dangerous. Clarity unfurls for the audience at a restrained pace, bolstered by beautiful shots of the German countryside. A great pick for fans of suspense and intrigue. 

THE LOVE THAT REMAINS
2025 | dir. Hlynur Pálmason | 110 mins
Having loved Hlynur Pálmason’s previous film, Godland, I was excited to spend another two hours enveloped in beautiful Icelandic scenery. And I was not disappointed. Despite being tonally very different, The Love That Remains retains the magnitude and scale of its predecessor. Shot in 35mm on Academy ratio, Pálmason presents a series of vignettes that deliver an aching study of marriage, family life and the confusion of divorce. It’s not heavy on plot so, for fans of narrative, it may be a little slow. However, for those who love dramatic scenery and melancholic musings: this one’s for you. 

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