Full programme announced for We Crip Film Festival 2026
At BFI Southbank from 18 to 19 July, the festival returns with a programme of premieres, talks and events championing disabled filmmaking, community and creativity.
Today we announce the programme for the second edition of We Crip Film Festival, returning to BFI Southbank on 18 to 19 July during Disability Pride Month for a bold and celebratory weekend of disabled filmmaking, creativity and community. Previously known as Busting the Bias, We Crip Film Festival 2026 presents a vibrant weekend of activity co-programmed by Charlie Little and Tara Brown, featuring world and UK premieres alongside short films, talks, panel discussions, community events and an industry pitch session.
With the ethos of ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’ at its core, the festival is programmed in close collaboration with We Crip Film, the BFI’s intersectional disability advocacy group, chaired by actor and writer Kyla Harris, the Emmy Award-winning producer and BAFTA-nominated co-creator of We Might Regret This. In the UK, an estimated 16.8 million people – around one in four of the population – identify as disabled. We Crip Film Festival provides a platform for storytelling that centres disabled voices and lived experience, while creating space for disabled audiences and creatives to come together in solidarity, community and joy.
This year’s edition features the world premiere of documentary D-Punk from the D-Punk Collective. Urgent, political and unapologetic, D-Punk traces the loud, unruly collision of punk and disability through candid interviews and first-hand stories, including contributions from Celeste Bell, Jemima Dury and Mat Fraser. The festival also presents the UK festival premiere of Joybubbles, the Sundance-selected debut feature from filmmaker Rachael J. Morrison, and the European festival premiere of Lone Wolves from Ryan Cunningham (Broad City, Inside Amy Schumer), starring autistic writer-performer Matt Foss. Spanning documentary, comedy, performance and punk politics, the programme showcases the richness, originality and diversity of contemporary disabled filmmaking today.
Festival co-programmers and We Crip Film advocacy group members Charlie Little and Tara Brown said: “We’re delighted to return to BFI Southbank with our second edition of We Crip Film Festival, celebrating crip identity, disability community and disabled talent. We wanted the programme to showcase films that authentically reflect the richness and complexity of disabled experience, while rejecting the reductive and voyeuristic portrayals of disability we continue to see too often on screen. In an increasingly ableist climate, it feels more important than ever to come together in celebration, solidarity and crip joy. Please join us during Disability Pride Month for an empowering weekend of crip creativity and filmmaking excellence.”
The festival opens on 18 July with the UK festival premiere of Joybubbles (Rachael J. Morrison, 2026), introduced by BFI Senior Director of Inclusion Melanie Hoyes, We Crip Film Chair Kyla Harris and co-programmers Tara Brown and Charlie Little. Set in an era before the internet and smartphones, Joybubbles recounts the story of Joe Engressia, a blind man who discovers he can manipulate the telephone system by whistling a specific tone. Longing for connection, his obsession inadvertently helps lay the foundations for a subculture that would shape the future of hacking and technology. Joybubbles is a powerful reminder of the ways disabled people use community, creativity and kindness to reimagine a world that too often attempts to minimise them.
The festival closes on 19 July with the world premiere of D-Punk (D-Punk Collective, 2026), followed by a community panel discussion hosted by co-programmers Charlie Little and Tara Brown, alongside award-winning writer-director and We Crip Film member Justin Edgar, and Jameisha Prescod, artist and founder of You Look Okay To Me, an online space for people living with chronic illness, with further guests to be announced. D-Punk features contributions from Celeste Bell, writer, musician and daughter of punk pioneer Poly Styrene; Jemima Dury, artist and daughter of Ian Dury; acclaimed disabled actor and performer Mat Fraser; writer and disability activist Penny Pepper and broadcaster, musician and disability rights campaigner Mik Scarlet, exploring punk and disability as two cultures rooted in defiance, and uncovering a hidden history of resistance, creativity and refusal through candid interviews and first-hand testimony. Urgent, political and unapologetic, D-Punk reclaims punk as a force for difference.
The programme also presents the European festival premiere of Lone Wolves (Ryan Cunningham, 2024) on 19 July. Starring autistic writer and actor Matt Foss, the film follows Fran, who is over 40 and determined to get pregnant on her own terms, turning to Ben for help. But when Ben struggles to “keep up” his side of the arrangement, their carefully constructed plan unravels into something far more intimate. Through a sharp comedic lens, Lone Wolves explores reconnection, late diagnosis and grief.
Continuing the legacy of one of the festival’s most celebrated strands, It’s Not You, It’s Ableism returns on 19 July with a vibrant short film programme spanning animation, comedy and documentary. Showcasing disabled-led work, the strand moves from sharp-witted teenage perspectives to portraits of lifelong love and politically charged queer crip performance art. The screening will be followed by a filmmaker Q&A featuring Emma Malins (Picture This) and Klarissa Webster (To Each Their Own World), with additional filmmakers to be announced.
On 17 July, the festival will also present the WCFF Live Pitch Event in collaboration with 104 Films, who are delivering a D-Horror development programme supported by the BFI Creative Challenge Fund. The session will feature five disabled-led genre projects pitching live to an invited audience of industry decision-makers, followed by feedback from an industry jury panel, offering an opportunity to discover bold new voices in genre filmmaking, engage with disabled-led work at an early stage of development and connect with disabled talent in a supportive setting.
Access remains central to the festival experience with all screenings presented in a relaxed format, with access provisions including descriptive subtitles, audio description, BSL/English interpretation, live captions, quiet spaces and wheelchair access available throughout the weekend.
A selection of short films from It’s Not You, It’s Ableism will also be available to UK-wide audiences on BFI Player during the festival.
The BFI’s disability advocacy group We Crip Film supports, guides and holds the BFI accountable in becoming an anti-ableist organisation, addressing barriers facing disabled talent while helping to shape more meaningful and effective engagement with disabled communities. Building on the legacy of Busting the Bias, We Crip Film Festival embodies the group’s ethos, foregrounding storytelling led by disabled creatives and providing space for vital conversations around disability representation and the ableism that continues to persist across the screen industries.
We Crip Film Festival takes place at BFI Southbank from 18 to 19 July 2026. Tickets for screenings in July will be on sale to BFI Patrons on 1 June, BFI Members on 2 June and to the general public on 4 June.