Try telling Londoners that cinema is dead and they will direct you to the BFI Imax cinema on the Southbank, where Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey is still playing to sold-out houses nearly three months after its release. But if you’ve been there, done that, 2026 still has some surprises left up its sleeve, and plenty of other titles will be jockeying for your consideration once the Oscar landscape starts to take shape.

For the moment, that race is still wide open; luckily, Deadline’s Contenders Film: London event taking place Saturday at the Ham Yard Hotel is here to help you make sense of an already overcrowded calendar. Our event is a one-stop shop for movie fans, packed with preview clips, star-studded panels and insider insights from behind-the-scenes players.

A good place to start would be two animation world premieres coming to the capital in October. We open the day with Pixar’s neo-noir science fiction mystery Ray Gunn, welcoming writer-director-producer Brad Bird and composer Michael Giacchino to the stage. Later in the day, we’ll have director-producer Travis Knight, cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, composer Dario Marianelli and costume designer Deb Cook on hand to present Laika’s magical stop-motion fantasy Wildwood.

Back in the real world, director Danny Boyle will accompany writer James Graham and actor Jack O’Connell for a discussion of their new collaboration Ink, which tells the story of Australian media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s takeover of British tabloid newspaper The Sun in 1969. From the documentary world, directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, with elite ski mountaineer Jim Morrison, will share stories about the making of Everest: The Other Side.

Legendary British director Mike Leigh returns to Contenders with his latest and possibly last film, Tender Loving Care. Starring Widow’s Bay Emmy winner Kate O’Flynn, who will be joining him for the event, it tells the story of a professional carer trying to get her life back on track after a breakup. Similarly, writer-director Guy Nattiv will be joined by Carrie Coon to take questions about The Liberation, their ’80s-set tale of a woman who leaves her family to join an all-female cult.

Being Heumann is the latest from Siân Heder, who last came to Contenders with her 2021 Oscar winner CODA. Joining will be the film’s star Ruth Madeley, who plays real-life American disability rights activist Judith Heumann, and casting directors Bernard Telsey and Adam Caldwell. Afterwards, Austrian writer-director Marie Kreutzer will take the stage for her drama Gentle Monster, joined by actress Léa Seydoux.

Fresh from their success at the Toronto Film Festival, “Los Javos” — the Spanish writer-director-producer team of Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi — will present their literary, multi-stranded period drama La Bola Negra with actors Miguel Bernardeau, Guitarricadelafuente, Carlos González and Penélope Cruz.

We end with two extremes; first Cruz sticks around to join Florian Zeller with their film Bunker, in which a married couple (real-life partners Cruz and Javier Bardem) hit a rock in their relationship over the husband’s commitment to building a billionaire’s safe room. Then we’re off to outer space to meet the creative team behind sci-fi spectacular Project Hail Mary: cinematographer Greig Fraser and production designer Charles Wood.

In addition, surprise guests — look out for a festival favorite that won a significant award at Cannes — are likely to be in the mix.

It’s going to be quite a day, so follow along with our panel coverage on Deadline.com and on social via #DeadlineContenders. And check back Monday when we launch the event’s streaming hub with all the panel videos.

Below is Saturday’s schedule, with order subject to change.

Contenders London 2026 Lineup

NETFLIX

Ray Gunn

Brad Bird (Writer/Director/Producer)
Michael Giacchino (Composer)

Ink

James Graham (Writer)
Danny Boyle (Director)
Jack O’Connell (Actor)

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTARY FILMS

Everest: The Other Side

Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi (Director/Producer)
Jimmy Chin (Director/Producer/Director of Photography)
Jim Morrison (Elite Ski Mountaineer and Film Subject)

BLEECKER STREET / STUDIOCANAL

Tender Loving Care

Mike Leigh (Writer/Director)
Kate O’Flynn (Actor)
Marion Bailey (Actor)

The Liberation

Guy Nattiv (Writer/Director)
Carrie Coon (Actor)

LAIKA

Wildwood

Travis Knight (Director/Producer)
Caleb Deschanel (Cinematographer)
Dario Marianelli (Composer)
Deb Cook (Costume Designer)

APPLE ORIGINAL FILMS

Being Heumann

Siân Heder (Writer/Director/Producer)
Kevin Walsh (Producer)
Ruth Madeley (Actor)
Bernard Telsey (Casting Director)
Adam Caldwell (Casting Director)

NETFLIX

Gentle Monster

Marie Kreutzer (Writer/Director)
Léa Seydoux (Actor)

La Bola Negra

Javier Calvo (Writer/Director/Producer)
Javier Ambrossi (Writer/Director/Producer)
Miguel Bernardeau (Actor)
Guitarraicadelafuente (Actor)
Carlos González (Actor)
Penélope Cruz (Actor)

SONY PICTURES CLASSICS

Bunker

Florian Zeller (Writer/Director)
Penélope Cruz (Actor)

AMAZON MGM STUDIOS

Project Hail Mary

Greig Fraser (Cinematographer)
Charles Wood (Production Designer)

ALEXANDER

Ben’Imana

Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo (Writer/Director)

Danny Trejo has broken his silence amid backlash around his role in Daily Wire‘s latest controversial production, Pawn Shop.

On Friday, the Mexican-American veteran actor insisted he’s “pro-immigrant,” despite his casting in the pro-ICE film from Ben Shapiro‘s production company and Dallas Sonnier’s Bonfire Legend, which has been protested by locals in Livingston, Montana, where filming has been underway.

“Hey everyone. I want to address some social media comments about me,” he began in a statement on social media. “Make no mistake. I am a proud Mexican who has always been and will always be a supporter of my community. I am also obviously, pro immigrant. I am not pro ice. I know where I come from and I know our struggles. I am an actor. My job is to tell a story. God Bless you, Danny

Trejo added in the caption, “I am a proud Mexican who has always been and will always be a supporter of my community. I am also obviously, pro-immigrant. I am not pro-ICE.”

The actor’s statement comes after production was temporarily suspended last weekend, resuming with a revised film permit on Tuesday, requiring the crew to ensure food pantry access for locals to the Livingston Food Resource Center, and shielding the public both from the shooting of violent scenes, as well as from noise. The production also agreed to address backlash to their use of private security, ensuring there would be no policing or harassing of locals on nearby public streets.

On November 3, U.S. voters will cast ballots in midterm elections that will go a long way toward shaping or reshaping our government. The results will offer a pivotal snapshot of how the country is currently viewing the solvency of our particular brand of democracy.

Ava DuVernay‘s new documentary for Netflix focuses on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, recent attempts to strip the 14th Amendment of its power, and the ways in which the 14th Amendment embodies and represents the ideals and long-term viability of the American experiment.

Naturally, Netflix has set 14th for a brief theatrical run on November 27 ahead of a streaming premiere on December 4th. A sequel or companion to DuVernay’s Oscar-nominated 13th, the doc is a cogent, urgent clarion call, and Netflix is sending it straight to the scheduling equivalent of voicemail.

I’m baffled, but I guess it isn’t my job to review programming choices or corporate politics. Like its predecessor — I briefly was outraged recalling that 13th lost the Oscar, until I was reminded that OJ: Made in America won — 14th is powered by well-earned rage; also like its predecessor, it’s more a history lesson and a model of carefully composed rhetoric than a screed.

As anybody who studied Constitutional amendments in school — and why isn’t that everybody? — knows, there are plenty of amendments that can be summed up in a catchy phrase: “Alcohol? No!” “Actually, alcohol? Sure!” “Vote at 18!” “Vote if you’re a woman!” “Cruel and unusual punishment, like when a state is unable to correctly administer the death penalty (or, actually, the death penalty itself)? No!” Etc., etc.

DuVernay’s last documentary focused on the supposed simplicity of the 13th Amendment, which outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude, except in cases where the prison industrial complex is involved. It’s a simple amendment, but the hypocrisy around its implementation remains complicated.

The 14th Amendment is not one of the simple ones.

As Stacey Abrams, part of a wide-ranging group of talking heads here, puts it, the 14th Amendment is the “everything bagel” of constitutional amendments.

As Dr. Eric Foner puts it, the 14th Amendment is the most important since the Bill of Rights.

As Dr. Sherrilyn Ifill explains in some depth, the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments reflect a grand reimagining of the American experiment in the aftermath of the Civil War — almost a second Constitution.

The amendment offers a new definition for citizenship, one built on equality, particularly in issues of due process and equal protection under the law. It’s the foundation for Supreme Court decisions allowing for interracial and gay marriage, the origin of birthright citizenship, and the reason why paying off the January 6th insurrectionists is blatantly unconstitutional.

It is, in modern TV and movie terms, a constitutional reboot, and like so many reboots, it has sparked debate about what is and isn’t canonical to the intention of its framers — both the original constitutional framers and the framers of these bridge amendments, including John Bingham, Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner. Note that the documentary promises to remove the obscurity around this second group of framers and, unfortunately, it doesn’t come close.

DuVernay and her various talking heads establish quickly why the 14th Amendment is so essential, and then go into depth on the attempts to erase the amendment’s protections over the years, with a particular focus on the decades of efforts to erase the immediate gains of Reconstruction. Some of that will be familiar to regular viewers of documentary and comedy/news programs, especially when it comes to the evisceration of the Daughters of the Confederacy, the perpetuation of the Lost Cause myth, and the erection of countless monuments to the various slaveholders and insurrectionists who fought for the South. I attended a Jefferson Davis Elementary School in my youth — since renamed for Barack Obama — so much of this hit hard and close to home.

In addition to the usual historians, constitutional scholars, populist commentators and politicians — including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jasmine Crockett, Alex Padilla and dedicated regurgitator of MAGA talking points Anna Paulina Luna — DuVernay weaves in ground-level vignettes. We spend time with the likes of Devon Henry, the contractor tasked with removing Richmond’s Confederate monuments, and Dr. Carla Hayden, fired as the Librarian of Congress for poorly articulated reasons related to the current administration’s war on DEI.

The documentary is fairly straightforward, but never visually dull. DuVernay stages her interviews in a diverse assortment of settings, moving the camera in a way that’s kinetic but never nauseating. There’s a frequently utilized effect that brings to life vintage black-and-white photos, which comes across as an extension of Ken Burns’ beloved technique with a computer-effects twist that I don’t fully understand, but it keeps things lively. The argument DuVernay builds is deftly constructed within the 108 minutes of the documentary, escalating from past to present to future and from dryly historical to emotional and visceral.

Spencer Averick’s editing and the score by Jason Moran retain a high intensity throughout, evoking a heist movie in which the main antagonists are out to steal your rights. Which is apt, I guess.

The documentary generates anger, sadness and even, by showcasing clips from the likes of George Carlin and Hasan Minhaj, humor. More than that, though, 14th made me wish for two things: First, that DuVernay continue her amendment-by-amendment documentary series until we eventually get her exposé on the timetable of Congressional salary increases. Second, that given the effort DuVernay puts into these films, it would be nice if they were released at the time when they could most successfully stir people to action.