SCI-FI-LONDON returns for its 2026 edition with a rich programme — a five-day celebration of bold, boundary-pushing science fiction from across the globe. Running from 13 to 17 May at Rich Mix in Shoreditch, the festival brings together world premieres, a raft of UK premieres, and five curated short film programmes spanning everything from quantum mechanics to time-bending romance.
Opening the festival is Signal One, a world premiere sci-fi thriller from Canadian writer-director Jonathan Sobol, starring Isabelle Fuhrman, Josh Hutcherson, Dennis Quaid, and David Thewlis. Drawing comparisons to Ex Machina and Contact, the film asks what happens when humanity attempts to respond to alien intelligence — only to find itself dangerously out of its depth.
Across five days, audiences will encounter stories of grief, survival, memory, obedience, and the cost of progress — told through films from Canada, Mexico, Romania, Australia, the USA, the UK, China, and beyond. This year’s programme places particular emphasis on debut features and independent voices, with several filmmakers presenting their first feature-length work on the international stage.
Closing the festival is Voidance, a solid example of the independent British science fiction the festival has long championed. Directed by Marianna Dean and led by a fearless performance from Zoe Cunningham, the film follows Alana Toro through a simulation that resets with every mistake — until the system itself becomes the threat. Intelligent, tense, and anchored by a female creative vision both in front of and behind the camera, Voidance is exactly the kind of bold, homegrown filmmaking SCI-FI-LONDON exists to put on the map. We are delighted to present it as our closing night film.
FEATURE FILMS
Signal One – OPENING NIGHT FILM
Dir: Jonathan Sobol · Canada · 88 mins · 2026 · English
[ World Premiere ] [ Opening Night Film ]
When tech billionaire Sam Houston recruits brilliant computer scientist Annika to work at a secretive facility, she stumbles into a discovery that changes everything: alien intelligences are communicating all around us, right now. But when the mission shifts from listening to talking back, the protocol fractures. The only problem? We may be far too primitive to understand what they’re saying — and with contact comes consequences, with the survival of our species suddenly very much on the line.
ReLive
Dir: Steven Lee Taylor · USA · 80 mins · 2026 · English
[ World Premiere ]
The world is experiencing temporal anomalies, and when Priscilla’s son is suddenly ripped from her life, grief nearly destroys her. Then comes an offer she can’t refuse: go back. Stop the man responsible before he ever invents the technology that unravels time itself. Thrust back into her 21-year-old body, Priscilla has only four hours on a sun-drenched college hiking trail to complete her mission. Her target hasn’t committed any crime yet, but she has to hunt him anyway.
We are delighted to have the director for a post world premiere Q&A
Beings (Seres)
Dir: Sandro David Arceo Espinosa · Mexico · 103 mins · 2025 · Spanish
[ UK Premiere ]
In a world suffocating under water and medicine shortages, inventor Lucio is pouring everything he has into fixing his medical robot. It’s his last hope. But as the machine sparks and stutters, so does his grip on what matters most. Gritty, claustrophobic, and impossible to shake, Beings asks a simple but devastating question: what happens to our humanity when our tools — and our empathy — start to break down?
The Uncertainty Principle
Dir: Sebastian Bărădău · Romania · 90 mins · 2025 · Romanian with English subtitles
[ UK Premiere ]
Sebastian Bărădău’s debut feature is a razor-sharp, claustrophobic sci-fi that trades CGI spectacle for something far more exhilarating — the raw, electric tension of three scientists on the brink of a quantum-mechanics breakthrough that could redefine reality itself. But discovery is never clean. As the evidence mounts, so does the conflict: bitter, personal, and suffocatingly human. The Uncertainty Principle is hypnotic, intellectually fearless, and shot with a gritty intensity that makes every argument feel like a fistfight.
Yesterday Island
Dir: Sam Voutas · Australia · 91 mins · 2025 · English
[ UK Premiere ]
When failed novelist Amos agrees to mind a friend’s remote research station for just one day, he expects solitude and a chance to break his writer’s block. What he gets is something far stranger — on Yesterday Island, one day turns out to be a terrifyingly elastic concept. Inspired by Greek myth and the trickery of the Labours of Hercules, Sam Voutas’ award-winning dark comedy is bewildering, astonishing, and impossible to forget.
Chatlines
Dir: Lloyd Eyre-Morgan & Neil Ely · UK · 78 mins · 2026 · English
[ London Premiere ]
Jordan is a 30-something facing terminal cancer in 2027, drifting through morphine dreams and digital distractions. On a whim, he fires up an old Chatroulette-style app — and meets Danny, sarcastic, vibrant, and achingly alive. The catch? Danny swears it’s 2005, and he’s dying too. Anchored by Siobhan Finneran (Happy Valley), Chatlines weaves queer romance, Northern grit, and time-bending tenderness into something that stays with you long after the screen goes dark.
Shackled
Dir: Luke Spears · USA · 80 mins · 2025 · English
[ World Premiere ]
In a dystopian tomorrow, parole has been replaced by R.A.P.P. — the Recidivism Accountability Partnership Program — and survival now means forced collaboration. A white-collar criminal is tethered to a sociopathic gangster with terminal cancer. Both men carry explosive charges surgically implanted in their hearts. If either falter, both die. A lean, heart-pounding thriller where freedom is a shared sentence, and trust is the most dangerous gamble of all.
We are delighted to have the cast and crew for a post world premiere Q&A
The Journey to No End
Dir: Xiang Chen · China · 93 mins · 2025 · Chinese with English subtitles
[ UK Premiere ]
In Xiang Chen’s breathtaking debut, the apocalypse arrives not with a bang but an upload. The world’s population has migrated its consciousness into a vast digital New World, leaving physical Earth eerily, beautifully abandoned. Sixteen-year-old Cheng Qi is the only one who won’t log in — and so he walks, alone, through the haunting ruins of a deserted China.
Voidance – CLOSING NIGHT FILM
Dir: Marianna Dean · UK · 87 mins · 2026 · English
[ UK Premiere ]
To join the elite ATIC Guard, Alana Toro must pass one final test: enter a simulation, prevent a terrorist attack, and prove her loyalty. Every mistake resets the clock. Every death disappears — except in her memory, where the weight keeps building. Starring Zoe Cunningham, James Cosmo (Game of Thrones), Mim Shaikh, and Neil Bishop, Voidance is a taut, intelligent British sci-fi thriller about the cost of obedience — and what happens when the system resets, but you don’t.
We are delighted to have cast and crew for a Q&A following the film.
SHORT FILM PROGRAMMES
Alongside the feature programme, SCI-FI-LONDON 2026 presents five curated short-film showcases featuring 39 films by filmmakers from four continents. Broadcast, directed by Ewan Pollitt, takes home the Best Short Film award for 2026. The programmes are:
— Shorts I: The Long Way Home — A journey across the stars becomes a journey into human connection. Lost astronauts, solitary researchers, and rebels confront isolation, legacy, and the fragile ties that bind them. (8 films)
— Shorts II: Synthetic Hearts — Love in the age of robots is awkward, messy and occasionally sparks in very unexpected ways. (6 films)
— Shorts III: The Memory Archive — Memory is a tricky thing. It fades, it lies, and now you can back it up, replay it, and completely ruin your life with it. (8 films)
— Shorts IV: The Systems Design — Good news. Everything works. Bad news. It’s working exactly as intended. Includes Best Short Film winner Broadcast (dir. Ewan Pollitt). (8 films)
— Shorts V: Earth Altered — Earth has been flooded, abandoned, reclaimed and occasionally visited by something unexpected. (9 films)
