Barbican to showcase cinematic versatility at FOCUS 2025

The Barbican will use FOCUS 2025, taking place today and tomorrow at the Business Design Centre in London, to highlight its growing role as a premiere venue, filming location and home for photo shoots. 

The Barbican’s team will share recent case studies that span red-carpet launches, festival screenings, location work and an expanding ScreenTalks programme, and will invite producers and location decision makers to explore how the Barbican’s spaces can support both large scale and more intimate on-screen projects. 

“Production teams come to the Barbican because they want a location that does more than look good on camera,” says Jenny Waller, Head of Sales, Barbican. “They are looking for flexible, film friendly spaces, experienced event management and a setting that feels part of London’s cultural story. At FOCUS we will be talking to delegates about how our cinemas, hall, foyers and public areas can work for premieres, festival screenings, unit bases, photo shoots and more, with commercial income reinvested into our arts and learning programme.”

In June, the Barbican hosted two landmark Netflix premieres for Squid Game Season 3 and Lena Dunham’s new series Too Much. Both events brought more than 280 guests, cast and media to the centre, using spaces such as the Lakeside terrace for arrivals before moving into Cinema 1 for the first episode screenings, with an after party for Too Much in the Conservatory. These projects demonstrated how the venue’s brutalist architecture, lakeside setting and indoor green spaces can be combined into a single, cinematic journey for guests. 

That momentum has continued across other screen clients. Later in the Summer, Disney+ hosted the premier of Alien:Earth, transforming the Barbican into an otherworldly landscape that captured the tone of the Alien franchise. Then, in October, Sky chose the Barbican for the premiere of The Iris Affair, with a focused media line, screening and on-stage Q&A that showed how Cinema 1 and its adjoining spaces can deliver high impact events at a smaller scale. The Barbican was also a key London location for SXSW film premieres, including a screening of Amazon’s Deep Cover in the Barbican Hall with a red carpet in the foyer, alongside additional screenings in Cinema 1.

The Barbican’s ScreenTalks and festival work also offer a blueprint for producers who want to create closer connections between talent and audiences. Recent programmes, including ScreenTalk events as part of the London International Animation Festival, have paired curated screenings with live discussions featuring filmmakers and critics, using the Barbican’s cinemas as spaces for deeper conversation.

Beyond premieres and festivals, the Barbican is seeing sustained demand from the wider production and fashion communities. Enquiries for feature and television work remain strong, while photo shoots have grown across the estate. The venue’s Conservatory, Barbican Hall, lakeside and foyers sit alongside its more unexpected corners, offering a mix of lush greenery, expansive interiors and striking concrete lines that appeal to brands and creative teams. Recent clients have included Yves Saint Laurent, Adidas, Harper’s Bazaar, Amazon, John Lewis, Doc Martens, French Connection, Net-a-Porter, Madame Tussauds and Tinie Tempah for Chase Vodka.

Urban environments that combine modernism and historical nuance are in particular demand across the industry. Located in the City of London’s historic Square Mile, the Barbican offers this blend in one self-contained destination, with a track record that ranges from appearances in Quantum of Solace and Star Wars: Andor to serving as the London premiere location for Academy Award winning Poor Things.

“At FOCUS we want to show how adaptable the Barbican is for screen clients,” concludes Waller. “Whether you are planning a global streaming premiere, a festival gala, a ScreenTalk that brings filmmakers and audiences together, or a shoot that needs distinctive backdrops in central London, we can help you design something cinematic, operationally robust and audience ready.”

Barbican representatives will be available on stand R17 throughout FOCUS 2025 to discuss upcoming briefs, walk through floor plans and talk about how the Barbican’s spaces can support everything from red-carpet premieres and festival screenings to unit bases, location filming and photo shoots.