Playground15

Directed by Laura Wandel | France | 2021 | 1h 12m | French w/ English subtitles | Starring Maya Vanderbeque, Günter Duret, Lena Girard Voss

When seven-year-old Nora sees her older brother Abel being bullied at school, she rushes to protect him. However, her attempts to help only make matters worse. Featuring an extraordinary performance from young actress Maya Vanderbeque, Laura Wandel’s hard-hitting debut presents a child’s-eye-view of the harsh world of playground politics.

Shortlisted for the Academy Award for Best International Film and winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at Cannes Film Festival.

Reviews

‘A claustrophobic portrait of pre-adolescent turmoil, this is an exceptionally taut drama. It’s Wandel’s debut feature, and it feels like she’s been preparing for it her whole life.’
★★★★★
Alex Godfrey, Empire Magazine

Sorry - you missed it!

We showed Playground between May 21, 2022 and May 25, 2022.

Join our mailing list and we'll make sure you always know what's on and when.

What else is on?

Tomorrow (Thursday 12th November)
Find out more

12:30

Fatherland 12A
Parent + Baby Screening
1h 22m | German w/ English subtitles
1949: Erika joins her father, Nobel-winning author Thomas Mann, on a literary tour of East and West Germany. Then tragedy strikes the family. From the director of Ida and Cold War, a post-war drama about guilt, love, and a divided country trying to heal.

Book here

Find out more

15:00

Fatherland 12A
1h 22m | German w/ English subtitles
1949: Erika joins her father, Nobel-winning author Thomas Mann, on a literary tour of East and West Germany. Then tragedy strikes the family. From the director of Ida and Cold War, a post-war drama about guilt, love, and a divided country trying to heal.

Book here

Find out more

18:00

NAZA 15
1h 17m | Arabic & Hebrew w/ English subtitles
Filmed at night from Tel Aviv rooftops, NAZA investigates civilian deaths in Gaza and the systems behind Israel’s targeted killings of Palestinians. Directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor (No Other Land) premiered it at Venice, where it won the Special Jury Prize.

Book here

Find out more

20:00

NTLive: Golden Boy 12A
2h 36m
Josh O’Connor leads the cast in this searing revival of Clifford Odets’ knockout American classic. Filmed live from the Almeida Theatre, Olivier Award-winner Sam Yates (Vanya) directs this propulsive drama exploring ambition, identity, and the high price of success.

Book here


Friday 13th November
Find out more

15:15

Wildwood 12A
2h 11m
When crows abduct her baby brother, teenager Prue follows them into an enchanted forest of bandits, talking animals and scheming rulers. The new stop-motion adventure from LAIKA (Coraline) is a breathtaking and emotional tale told on an epic scale.

Book here

Find out more

18:15

Primetime 15
1h 49m
In 2006, reality TV show To Catch a Predator becomes a hit. But when it moves to primetime, Chris Hansen and his team push their methods further to keep viewers. Robert Pattinson stars in Lance Oppenheim’s (You Can See Everything) narrative feature debut.

Book here

Find out more

20:45

The Devils 18
1h 54m
Censored for more than half a century, Ken Russell’s visionary masterpiece returns to the big screen fully restored in 4K and cut to Russell’s direction — the first publicly released version of the film as intended by the filmmaker.

Book here


See all upcoming films

Plan your visit

Our beautiful art deco inspired auditorium can be found just off East Oxford's Cowley Road.We are open 7 days a week. We open the cinema and box office 30 minutes before the scheduled start time of each film, and the Box Office then closes 10 minutes after the film starts. We only show a few adverts – less than most cinemas – and we only play a couple of trailers, so please don’t be late as the film itself starts very close to the advertised time!

Find out more