{"id":2729,"date":"2026-06-01T20:01:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/2026\/06\/01\/sxsw-london-kicks-off-film-strand-with-world-premiere-of-virginia-woolfs-night-and-day\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T20:01:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:01:00","slug":"sxsw-london-kicks-off-film-strand-with-world-premiere-of-virginia-woolfs-night-and-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/2026\/06\/01\/sxsw-london-kicks-off-film-strand-with-world-premiere-of-virginia-woolfs-night-and-day\/","title":{"rendered":"SXSW London Kicks Off Film Strand With World Premiere of \u2018Virginia Woolf\u2019s Night and Day\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\tSXSW London<\/a>\u2018s film strand is officially underway with the world premiere of Virginia Woolf\u2019s Night and Day<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\tAt a blustery Barbican Centre in central London on Monday night, the cast and crew of Tina Gharavi\u2019s film defied the wind and gathered to celebrate their opener. Haley Bennett, Timothy Spall, Jack Whitehall, Misia Butler and Sally Phillips were all in attendance alongside Gharavi and screenwriter Justine Waddell, though their co-stars Jennifer Saunders and Lily Allen did not make an appearance on the pink carpet. <\/p>\n

\tThe movie adapts Woolf\u2019s novel of the same name, as female astronomer Katharine Hilbery (Bennett) attempts to free herself from the patriarchal constraints of the early 20th century. \t<\/p>\n

\t\u201cVirginia Woolf\u2019s themes are so timeless and universal: the struggle to balance love with ambition, freedom with societal expectations, how to live life \u2014 on your own terms,\u201d Bennett told The Hollywood Reporter<\/em>. \u201cIt\u2019s so fresh and rare to have a female lead who has absolutely no interest in romance, and that was something that I really aspire to. Not that there\u2019s anything wrong with that. I am a working mom,\u201d added Bennett, who shares a daughter with filmmaker Joe Wright.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cI juggle parenting and traveling the world and trying not to give up my dreams because I have a child,\u201d she added. \u201cI want her to see me doing what I love and be inspired by that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tBennett admitted that it was daunting to join a film with so many of Britain\u2019s brightest talents, including Spall, Saunders, Allen and Whitehall. \u201cThat was really scary for me!\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m American, this is distinctively a British story, British author, a British screenwriter, an entirely British cast and not only that, but the creme de la creme of British comedians. I had such stage fright.\u201d \t<\/p>\n

\t\u201cBut they were so generous and so warm,\u201d she added, \u201cand it just became a really joyful experience. They\u2019re so loose and free, and at the same time so prepared. I would love to make this film 100 times over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tWhitehall told THR <\/em>that it was fun not being the only comedian on set. \u201cI\u2019d met Jennifer before, and went to uni with her daughter, actually, so had a weird little connection there, but I\u2019d never had the opportunity to work with her before. Also, Sally \u2014\u00a0Smack the Pony <\/em>was one of my favorite shows growing up, so I love when you get in a room with people like that, [who you\u2019ve] grown up watching and admiring, and getting the opportunity to do scenes with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tPhillips, star of the Bridget Jones <\/em>franchise, was beaming about being SXSW London\u2019s opening night film. \u201cSo many films never see the light of day. They never get seen,\u201d she said to THR<\/em>. \u201cThey struggle, and then end up on some streamer that no one ever catches. So, on a low budget, they did [Virginia Woolf\u2019s Night and Day<\/em>] with not very much money, scrabbling for cash and all the rest of it. [The fact] that the film has come out, that it\u2019s good enough, that people want to watch it, that it\u2019s going out to cinemas, is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

\tOne of the first things you learn about Woolf from this film? \u201cThat she was funny,\u201d said Phillips. \u201cThis is a book she didn\u2019t particularly rate, and it\u2019s the book in which she develops her psychological style, but at the beginning, it just starts off as a straight-up romantic novel, and she\u2019s playing with that form. It\u2019s really, really funny. You wouldn\u2019t believe it.\u201d \t<\/p>\n

\tVirginia Woolf\u2019s Night and Day <\/em>is not the only buzzy film hitting SXSW London this week: also premiering is Olivia Wilde\u2019s The Invite <\/em>and closing out the strand is Jane Schoenbrun\u2019s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. <\/em>SXSW London 2026<\/a> runs June 1-6.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SXSW London\u2018s film strand is officially underway with the world premiere of Virginia Woolf\u2019s Night and Day. At a blustery Barbican Centre in central London on Monday night, the cast and crew of Tina Gharavi\u2019s film defied the wind and gathered to celebrate their opener. Haley Bennett, Timothy Spall, Jack Whitehall, Misia Butler and Sally Phillips were all in attendance alongside Gharavi and screenwriter Justine Waddell, though their co-stars Jennifer Saunders and Lily Allen did not make an appearance on the pink carpet. The movie adapts Woolf\u2019s novel of the same name, as female astronomer Katharine Hilbery (Bennett) attempts to free herself from the patriarchal constraints of the early 20th […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2730,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[249,2,116,27,60,1628,1533,1534,195],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-hollywood","category-international","category-movie-news","category-movies","category-red-carpet","category-sxsw-london","category-sxsw-london-2026","category-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsmag.live\/ja\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}