Culture Shock: Festival of Fantastic Film returns to Showroom Cinema, Sheffield, from Friday 1 – Sunday 3 May, for its second annual edition, bringing the best in new and classic genre film to the big screen.
Culture Shock is presented by the makers of Celluloid Screams, Sheffield’s horror film festival, which has shown the best in classic and contemporary horror cinema since 2009.
The expanded programme of sci-fi, fantasy, action and more is set to deliver the same thrills and spills that fans love, with premieres, previews and rare retrospective screenings of underseen gems from across the world.
The 2026 festival kicks off with the UK Theatrical Premiere of Stinker, a heartwarming sci-fi tale from Kazakhstan, in which an alcoholic takes on problems of intergalactic proportions when he has a close encounter with an alien that has taken up residence in the outhouse of a roadside store.
Fans of David Lynch and Dario Argento will find lots to enjoy with Julie Pacino’s mesmerising debut I Live Here Now, in which a young woman becomes stranded in a strange hotel after fleeing her boyfriend and his oppressive mother (played by Laura Palmer herself, Sheryl Lee), while closing film Mag Mag combines J-Horror chills with scathing satire and heartbreak drawn from director Yuriyan Retriever’s own romantic history to create an unclassifiable and thrilling cinematic experience.
Elsewhere in the programme are Andrzej Zulawski’s cult horror masterpiece Possession, rare screenings of action-horror hybrids American Rickshaw and R.O.T.O.R, alongside new 4K restorations of John Woo’s trailblazing Hong Kong action spectacle A Better Tomorrow, and Guillermo del Toro’s award-winning debut feature Cronos.
Day and weekend passes as well as individual tickets are on sale Friday 27 March at 12 noon. The £90 weekend pass gets audiences access to all 15 screenings. Audiences 26 and under can get £6 tickets with their free CINE 26 membership.
For full details of the film programme, tickets and schedule please visit: https://showroomcinema.org.uk/festivals/culture-shock-festival-of-fantastic-film
Rob Nevitt, Festival Director, says: “Culture Shock: Festival of Fantastic Film is back with a packed programme of strange sci-fi, surreal mystery, high octane action and independent horror. If you’re a fan of cult film, international sci-fi, horror or world genre cinema, Culture Shock is made for you.”
Paternoster Row, Sheffield City Centre, Sheffield S1 2BX
Bike racks, nearby tram parking, tram and bus access
