Riz Ahmed brought Aneil Karia's Hamlet, which moves Shakespeare's tragedy into a wealthy British South Asian family in present-day London, to the festival's Dare strand.
Riz Ahmed presented Aneil Karia’s Hamlet, in which he plays the prince, at Curzon Mayfair in Mayfair on Monday 13 October 2025. Morfydd Clark and the director joined him.
Ahmed was born in London in 1982 and studied at Christ Church, Oxford. He began in independent film with Four Lions, broke out in Nightcrawler and went on to Rogue One.
The Night Of won him a Primetime Emmy, and Sound of Metal brought an Academy Award nomination. As a rapper he recorded The Long Goodbye, and its companion short film, directed by Karia, won the Academy Award for Best Live Action Short Film.
Hamlet reunites the two, and Ahmed also produced it. Michael Lesslie’s screenplay moves the play from Denmark to a wealthy British South Asian family in present-day London. Hamlet passes between Hindu temples and the city’s homeless camps as he seeks revenge.
Clark plays Ophelia and Art Malik plays Claudius, with Joe Alwyn and Timothy Spall. The London screening was in the Dare strand of the 69th BFI London Film Festival, after the film opened at Telluride in August. Universal released it in British cinemas on 6 February 2026.