Desire, despair, deep water

Why cry in the sun when you can sulk in the pool? For the second year running, Zodiac Film Club brings you a programme of summer-set films with a dark side. Escape 2026’s spate of increasingly alarming heatwaves and dive with us into the blue, melancholy depths of sad swimming pool cinema.

The ultimate summer status symbol, the swimming pool offers a calm, cool escape from rising temperatures. In cinema, however, the pool is the site of something more sinister – the place where tensions, regret and insecurities come bubbling up from beneath the tranquil surface, ready to ruin everyone’s holiday. Bring your floaties and dive with caution into Summertime Sadness 2026.

Curated by Zodiac Film Club, a London-based cinema community. With a focus on good looking films, excess feelings and complex female characters, we create an irreverent space for watching, discussing and thinking about cinema.