• In conjunction with the M+ Collections exhibition Shanshui: Echoes and Signals, From Signal to Screen: Reflections on Shanshui features eight screening events that explore the interplay between landscape and human intervention, including Solaris (1972), Lessons of Darkness (1992) and more
• Art at the Stair, a new series featuring the work of high-profile moving artists at the Grand Stair, presents Carsten Nicolai’s ENDO EXO (2024) and PHOSPHENES (2024), accompanied by soundtracks from Ryuichi Sakamoto’s final studio album 12 (2022)
• Rediscoveries presents 35mm screening of Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (1975) celebrating the beauty of celluloid film
• The Lunar New Year Special Screening features Tsui Hark’s The Chinese Feast (1995), a film that transforms a culinary contest into a suspense-filled story and showcases the director’s boundless creativity
• Avant-Garde Now: Hidden Spaces is a full-day event of screenings, performances, and curatorial presentations in the company of trailblazing artists, including Lee Kai Chung, He Zike, Samuel Swope, and YoungEun Kim

M+, Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture in the West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK) in Hong Kong, presents the M+ Cinema Winter Edition, running from January to March 2026. Tickets for major programmes is currently available for purchase. M+ Cinema screening redemption vouchers can be used for select screenings.

Winter Edition Highlights

M+ Cinema welcomes the new year with a thought-provoking thematic programme examining our relationship to the world around us. From Signal to Screen: Reflections on Shanshui features eight screenings that extend and deepen the exhibition’s meditation on the complex connections between humans and the contemporary landscape. Special Screening presents two documentaries on the late Ryuichi Sakamoto, introducing the composer and artist’s extraordinary oeuvre. This season, Rediscoveries celebrates cinematic artistry with 35mm screenings of works by Stanley Kubrick, and Stair in the Dark—Big Leap Forward delves into ever darker cult classics, including Sorcerer (1977) and Possession (1981). Meanwhile, M+’s signature contemporary artist series Avant-Garde Now offers original perspectives with its theme Hidden Spaces, leading up to next year’s Asian Avant-Garde Film Festival.

Details of the M+ Cinema Winter Edition:

• From Signal to Screen: Reflections on Shanshui

This thematic programme is organised in conjunction with the M+ Collections exhibition Shanshui: Echoes and Signals. Through the voices of leading artists and filmmakers, it calls for an increased awareness of traditional social and knowledge structures in which humanity is an integral part of the ecosystem. Echoing the literati tradition around shanshui, it explores the relationship between stillness and motion, vision and imagination, the immediacy of experience and the persistence of historical memory. Highlights include Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972), Werner Herzog’s Lessons of Darkness (1992), Park Chan-kyong’s Belated Bosal (2019), and Hong Kong artist and farmer Lo Lai Lai’s live performance Resilient Echoes (2026).

• Special Screening: Ryuichi Sakamoto: CODA (2017), Ryuichi Sakamoto: OPUS (2023), and Linda Linda Linda (2005)

This programme presents two documentaries about Ryuichi Sakamoto. Illuminating how the late composer confronted the finitude of human life, the personal travelogues and live performances featured in the films also heighten awareness of our surroundings. Ryuichi Sakamoto: CODA (2017), directed by Stephen Nomura Schible, captures Sakamoto’s ingenious creativity and tireless perseverance following cancer treatment. Ryuichi Sakamoto: OPUS (2023), directed by Neo Sora and filmed mere months before Sakamoto succumbed in March 2023, is a black-and-white concert film featuring twenty songs spanning an illustrious career. In Nobuhiro Yamashita’s Linda Linda Linda (2005), a slice of high school life is transformed into a breezy musical adventure.

• Lunar New Year Special: The Chinese Feast (1995)

Tsui Hark’s The Chinese Feast (1995) has garnered both critical acclaim and box office success. Tsui cleverly transforms a cooking competition into a martial arts showdown, reimagining the culinary world as rival wuxia sects. With his signature cinematic flair and boundless creativity, he elevates a simple cooking contest into a suspense-filled story.

• Rediscoveries: Barry Lyndon (1975) (35mm film print & 4K restoration)

M+ Cinema remains Hong Kong’s sole cinema to regularly screen 35mm prints. Starting in 2026, M+ Cinema will expand its programme to feature more 35mm presentations, inviting audiences to rediscover the magic of celluloid. This iteration of Rediscoveries is dedicated to those on the margins of society, whose destinies shift with the tides of change. Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (1975) follows the title character, a poor Irish country boy, as he navigates ambition and adversity across Europe.

• Art at the Stair

Art at the Stair is a new exhibition series presented at the Grand Stair, showcasing moving image works of outstanding contemporary makers. The videos ENDO EXO (2024) and PHOSPHENES (2024) are the culmination of Carsten Nicolai’s long-standing friendship and collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto, which began in 2002. Developed from the first two chapters of a 24-part film project inspired by Jules Verne’s science fiction novel Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, each video is paired with a soundtrack from Sakamoto’s final studio album 12 (2022).

• Stair in the Dark—Big Leap Forward

Stair in the Dark continues to spotlight filmmakers who dare to take a leap into the unknown, capturing the fear, excitement, and confrontation that arise from it. These titles reveal how expectations, archetypes, and preferences have shaped and continue to influence film culture. This season spotlights William Friedkin’s Sorcerer (1977) and Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession (1981).

• Avant-Garde Now: Hidden Spaces

Avant-Garde Now is a regular series of one-day events that presents cutting-edge moving image practices by local and international artists. The theme for the next edition, Hidden Spaces, continues a year-long exploration of space. In this edition, invited artists—Lee Kai Chung, He Zike, Samuel Swope, and YoungEun Kim—will present works that uncover hidden spaces, delving beneath the surface to reveal the histories, politics, systems, and traditions contained within. Their works also gesture toward the unseen depths of our collective psyche, the hidden narratives of the past, and uncertain speculations of the future. Screenings, performance, talks and discussions involving artists, curators, and audiences in the programme will lay the foundation for future events, including the upcoming Asian Avant-Garde Film Festival in May 2026.

Rediscoveries and Avant-Garde Now are supported by CHANEL, M+’s Major Partner. For more ticketing and programme information, please visit the M+ website.

M+ Membership

M+ annual membership and patron membership offer an exclusive experience of contemporary visual culture for visitors of all ages and backgrounds. Members across all tiers enjoy priority ticket purchases with a twenty per cent discount on selected cinema screenings, two free cinema redemption vouchers per membership year (four for M+ Patrons), and free exclusive screenings. M+ Members can enjoy unlimited admission to all M+ exhibitions throughout the year. Meanwhile, M+ Patrons can enjoy unlimited free admission to all exhibitions with up to three guests per visit. Other membership benefits include invitations to selected exhibition previews, exclusive M+ Lounge access with guests and M+ Private Viewings, priority ticket purchase, and much more. For more information, please visit the M+ website.

About M+

M+ is Asia’s global museum of contemporary visual culture. Located in Hong Kong’s West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK), it is dedicated to collecting, exhibiting, and interpreting visual art, design and architecture, moving image, and Hong Kong visual culture of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The landmark M+ building on Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbourfront was designed by the world-renowned architectural firm Herzog & de Meuron in partnership with TFP Farrells and Arup. It spans a total floor area of 65,000 square metres, featuring thirty-three galleries alongside a Learning Hub, Moving Image Centre, Research Centre, and Roof Garden, among other event and programming spaces. The M+ Facade is one of the largest LED screens in the world, showcasing commissioned artworks on the Hong Kong skyline every evening. The museum stewards a multidisciplinary permanent collection that includes objects from regions across Asia and beyond. A highlight is the M+ Sigg Collection, one of the world’s most comprehensive collections of Chinese contemporary art. Today, M+ is a nexus for researching and presenting contemporary visual culture, inspiring thought and curiosity.

About the West Kowloon Cultural District (WestK)

WestK is one of the largest and most ambitious cultural hubs in the world and Hong Kong’s new cultural tourism landmark, spanning forty hectares alongside Victoria Harbour. WestK comprises a mix of landmark arts and cultural facilities, including world-class museums M+ and the Hong Kong Palace Museum, intricately designed performing arts venues the Xiqu Centre and Freespace, the eleven-hectare Art Park with a waterfront promenade, and the upcoming WestK Performing Arts Centre.

Hosting over 1,000 exhibitions, performances, programmes, and events each year, WestK provides a vital platform for both emerging and established artists. WestK welcomes more than ten million visitors each year, evolving as the international cultural brand of Hong Kong and strengthening the city’s strategic role as an East-meets-West centre for international cultural exchange.