Sight and Sound #36:04
230 x 295 mm, 100 pages
London, UK
Published since 1932
Editor-in-chief: Mike Williams
Art director: Leo Field
The international film magazine from the British Film Institute, featuring reviews, interviews with filmmakers, profiles of film stars past and present, mega movie listicles and industry-focused news. It’s the solid movie magazine at the centre of the industry, around which the likes of Little White Lies and others can spin a more tangential approach to the subject.
This May 2026 edition opens with editor-in-chief Mike Williams’ appreciation for the recently passed Philip Castle and Drew Struzan—two pioneering artists behind some of the most famous movie posters, including Castle’s geometric yet sinister ‘A Clockwork Orange’ and Struzan’s constellation-like ‘Star Wars’. Williams describes their contribution to cinema as being beyond an advertisement, but rather an anticipatory prelude to the theatrical experience.
Cover star Mike Jenkin has an eight-page spread—recently gaining attention with his handmade 16mm drama ‘Bait’, he explains his filmic influences revolve around time unfolding, notable through his analogue approach and his surreal centering of Cornish coastal villages. Quite an existential and deeply personal interview, Jenkin talks about grappling with temporality, the influence of his Cornish identity and his upcoming feature ‘Rose of Nevada’.
Also featured in this issue: the spectacle of Katsuhiro Otomo’s cyberpunk ‘Akira’ and the profound impact it had on Western audiences, and film-makers Chris Petit, Emma Matthews, and their son Louis Petit transform Louis’ difficult journey with drug-resistant epilepsy into the experimental, moving road film ‘D is for Distance’. Elsewhere, Pamela Hutchinson debriefs on the Timothée Chalamet-opera faux pas, warning that film isn’t so safe either.