SXSW London‘s film strand is officially underway with the world premiere of Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day.
At a blustery Barbican Centre in central London on Monday night, the cast and crew of Tina Gharavi’s 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’s novel of the same name, as female astronomer Katharine Hilbery (Bennett) attempts to free herself from the patriarchal constraints of the early 20th century.
“Virginia Woolf’s themes are so timeless and universal: the struggle to balance love with ambition, freedom with societal expectations, how to live life — on your own terms,” Bennett told The Hollywood Reporter. “It’s 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’s anything wrong with that. I am a working mom,” added Bennett, who shares a daughter with filmmaker Joe Wright.
“I juggle parenting and traveling the world and trying not to give up my dreams because I have a child,” she added. “I want her to see me doing what I love and be inspired by that.”
Bennett admitted that it was daunting to join a film with so many of Britain’s brightest talents, including Spall, Saunders, Allen and Whitehall. “That was really scary for me!” she said. “I’m 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.”
“But they were so generous and so warm,” she added, “and it just became a really joyful experience. They’re so loose and free, and at the same time so prepared. I would love to make this film 100 times over.”
Whitehall told THR that it was fun not being the only comedian on set. “I’d met Jennifer before, and went to uni with her daughter, actually, so had a weird little connection there, but I’d never had the opportunity to work with her before. Also, Sally —Smack the Pony was one of my favorite shows growing up, so I love when you get in a room with people like that, [who you’ve] grown up watching and admiring, and getting the opportunity to do scenes with them.”
Phillips, star of the Bridget Jones franchise, was beaming about being SXSW London’s opening night film. “So many films never see the light of day. They never get seen,” she said to THR. “They struggle, and then end up on some streamer that no one ever catches. So, on a low budget, they did [Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day] with not very much money, scrabbling for cash and all the rest of it. [The fact] that the film has come out, that it’s good enough, that people want to watch it, that it’s going out to cinemas, is great.”
One of the first things you learn about Woolf from this film? “That she was funny,” said Phillips. “This is a book she didn’t particularly rate, and it’s 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’s playing with that form. It’s really, really funny. You wouldn’t believe it.”
Virginia Woolf’s Night and Day is not the only buzzy film hitting SXSW London this week: also premiering is Olivia Wilde’s The Invite and closing out the strand is Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma. SXSW London 2026 runs June 1-6.