The rom-com from director Tina Gharavi and writer Justine Waddell is adaptation of Virginia Woolf’s novel Night and Day. The movie stars Haley Bennett, Jack Whitehall, Lily Allen, Timothy Spall, Jennifer Saunders, Sally Phillips, Misia Butler and Elyas M’Barek.

SXSW London is owned and produced by Panarise, which operates under license from SXSW LLC, which is owned by Penske Media Corporation.

“This year, we had the benefit of having done one already last year with the same vision, so our programming process was a bit more refined,” she says. “We had the same amount of slots, about 40 features.”

But there is a core lens through which the team evaluates films. “Our vision is heavily focused on international filmmakers and genre-friendly and genre-pushing storytelling,” explains Bogutskaya. “The shared DNA of SXSW in Austin and the one that we’re trying to build here in London is always at the heart of our programming. The other thing is balance, which you only really see as a whole when the program is fully finalized. Do we have enough documentaries of this flavor, do we not have enough films from East Asian countries, or do we not have enough French, Spanish or Mediterranean films? We’re always looking for balance, so it never feels too overly weighted in one direction – not too many horror films, not too many documentaries of the same tone, not too many fiction films of the same tone, not too many war films, comedies or road movies.”

“We watched maybe over 2,000 films,” Bogutskaya says. “You have to be extremely selective and conscious of every decision. If we had program of 200 films, we would have more leeway.”

“We are trying to share the platform with he core ethos of the Screen Festival, which is international genre-bending, genre-friendly,”says the chief. “We have two international headliners that are world premieres. And two series, a huge Brazilian production called The Playoffs and Get Jiro, an anime series based on Anthony Bourdain graphic novel. It is such an incredible show, with the right tone and humor, which should make for “wicked experience.”

The Playoffs

The Playoffs, starring Cauã Reymond in a series about a former soccer star turned agent who runs from the militia and his family on the way to regaining glory, is also a coup, given its country of origin and timing.

“It is huge production for Globo in Brazil that has an audience here, and also the timing with the World Cup was too delicious to ignore,” says Bogutskaya. The FIFA soccer World Cup in the U.S., Canada and Mexico runs June 11-July 19.

Overarching Themes

“I can look at the films and see throughlines between them, but we never program with a theme in mind. What I can see in the program now is how characters, in both documentary and narratives, are dealing with real-life, larger-than-life events, whether war or other challenges, by using art to make sense of them.”

Sandu’s Memory is described by SXSW London website as “a haunting blend of documentary and dream.” Born in Crimea and raised in war-torn Chechnya, Sandu looks back at her past through “family secrets, rumors, and stories no one was allowed to tell. She uses reconstructions and evocative poetic imagery that recalls a childhood growing up in the Soviet Union.”

The docu Remake focuses n McElwee dealing with the death of his son through filmmaking.

The Other Side of the Sun “is incredible, using puppetry to process the damage and the trauma of having been captured and tortured” in Syria.

Joan Porcel’s La Carn (The Flesh) is about a queer performance artist who gets dangerously close to a stranger in online chat room.  The young man creates a theater piece out of internet hookup culture and the really fleeting connections that you can establish with people through a ChatRoulette conversation.

Even Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day is about a woman who’s looking up at the stars and using astronomy to make sense of a deeply patriarchal world.

SXSW London 2026 audiences are in for a grand experience, as Bogutskaya says: “We’re bringing the world to London audiences with  through a travelogue through different styles and tones of provocative filmmaking.”