Ghost Town

Director: Katharine Round

Year: 2015

This film sets out to solve one of the greatest mysteries of our age: why despite rising material wealth, many Western countries are experiencing profound social breakdown. This real life detective story unravels the big story of the unprecedented shifts in income and wealth that have occurred over the last 35 years – the how, why and who. At the heart of the story is the shift to the freedom of the market, freeing businesses to create wealth for all, and make everyone better off. As markets were freed and the financial sector deregulated, the wealth flowed to the top. Between 1979 – 2007 the top 1% of US households gained 275%, compared to 18% for the bottom fifth. A series of human narratives piece together the realities of life for those at varying ends of the income spectrum in the developed world today - a harsher society where stress, crime and fear are rising, and we increasingly see those around us as "other". Could economic differences be driving these social differences? Inspired by he award-winning book 'The Spirit Level' by Professors Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, the film features Michael Marmot, Noam Chomsky, Alan Budd, Ha-Joon Chang and Alexis Goldstein.

Director: Jonathan Glazer

Year: 2026

JOY OF JOYS is a short documentary about the recording sessions for War Child Records' HELP(2) at Abbey Road Studios, directed by Jonathan Glazer and devised by Mica Levi and Glazer. Children in London film themselves and the musicians, including Olivia Rodrigo, Arctic Monkeys, Damon Albarn, Cameron Winter, Fontaines DC and Pulp. While children in Gaza Ukraine, Sudan and Yemen film themselves and their surroundings. The documentary interweaves these layers across continents and backgrounds to show a universal innocence and the joy of childhood itself. Glazer and Levi describe the film as being “by children, for children”. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2026

Director: Wallace Minchong Li

Year: 2026

European archival footage from the 1950s documents the life of indigenous, nomadic Sahrawi children and youth in Western Sahara / Morocco. Seventy years later, local young people from Laayoune (El Aaiún) revisit locations that may have appeared in the footage. From ocean to desert to oasis, under trembling starlight, they share their thoughts on life, dreams, and utopia as they search for an uncertain upstream. Official Selection BFI London Film Festival 2026