The Film and TV Charity stages the Royal Film Performance on 22 September 2026: the world premiere of Alejandro G. Iñárritu's Digger, with Tom Cruise, in Leicester Square.
The Film and Television Charity began in 1924 as the Cinematograph Trade Benevolent Fund, took royal patronage in 1936, and planned its first royal screening for 18 October 1939 under the name the Royal Cine-Variety Performance. War postponed it. The event finally happened in 1946 as the Royal Command Film Performance, when King George VI watched A Matter of Life and Death, It carried the name Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund from 1964 to 2017, and the performance has been staged 72 times since that first one.
The money is the point of it. The charity supports people who work in film, television and cinema and who are out of work, unwell or in difficulty, from technicians and crew to front-of-house staff, and the performance is its single largest fundraising night. That is why the industry turns out for it rather than for the premiere alone.
The 2026 performance is on Tuesday 22 September in Leicester Square, with the world premiere of Digger, Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s original film starring Tom Cruise, from 4.45pm. Senior members of the Royal Family attend, and Iñárritu, Cruise, Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Michael Stuhlbarg and Jesse Plemons are confirmed. Dress is black tie, and the charity confirms which house in the square to ticket holders nearer the night. Digger reaches British cinemas on 2 October.