Short film starring Cillian Murphy to have London premiere at Southbank Centre

Short film All Of This Unreal Time starring Cillian Murphy is to have its London premiere at the Southbank Centre.

The arts centre, home to the Royal Festival Hall and Hayward Gallery, has announced a new raft of programming for 2024 and 2025, which includes a screening of the film and a new creative partnership with the Montreux Jazz Festival.

Oscar-winner and Peaky Blinders star Murphy, 48, plays the nameless main character of the short, which was shot around London during the pandemic and takes the form of a “visual poem”, according to the actor.

It will be screened at the Royal Festival Hall on December 6 and Factory International in Manchester on December 7.

The events will be followed by a Q&A with members of the creative team and live performances of new work inspired by the film from composers Aaron and Bryce Dessner and Jon Hopkins.

Murphy said: “All Of This Unreal Time is a project I have deep affection for.

“It was made in the bleak depths of a pandemic, yet comes from a place of pure collaboration and love.

“We wanted to make a visual poem that scratches at concerns about masculinity, society and personal responsibility, all of that knotty difficult stuff, but make it with an open and a broken heart.”

Also announced is an exhibition by artistic duo Gilbert and George called 21st Century Pictures, at the Hayward Gallery, which will open in October 2025 and include pieces said to challenge the “boundaries of taste and propriety”.

Beginning in spring 2025 with an event exploring the music of Nina Simone will be a creative partnership spanning three years between the centre and the Montreux Jazz Festival called What is Jazz Today?

There will also be a new artist exchange programme which will support two artists from the UK and two artists from Switzerland to engage in a one-week residential in both London and Montreux.

Elsewhere, a new festival called Multitudes, from April 23 to May 3 2025, will see orchestras join with artists from a mix of disciplines and genres.

Launching in summer 2025 will be a Roblox experience encouraging young gamers aged eight to 11 to apply their creativity to making and performing music, with players able to learn the basics of sampling and mixing through gameplay.

Across July and August 2025 the centre’s public spaces will be transformed into dancefloors in a five-week celebration curated in collaboration with Emma Warren, who wrote the book Dance Your Way Home: A Journey Through the Dancefloor.

Mark Ball, artistic director of the Southbank Centre, said: “We are a place where culture happens, a creative engine room that helps forge the art of the future.

“Born out of the Festival of Britain we offer a space where everyone, regardless of income or background, can fully participate in arts and culture and fulfil their creative potential.

“And we are a home for artists at every stage of their career to be their most adventurous and create extraordinary work.

“The highlights we are announcing today are a testament to the Southbank Centre’s core purpose, to enable artists to create new works for audiences that are ambitious, forward looking and expressive, and to be an open, democratic space where culture grows people and its benefits are widely shared.”