Sunrise on the Reaping Will Screen for Fans in London and Italy Weeks Early
Fans in London and Lucca, Italy are set to see The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping about three weeks before it opens, with fan screenings listed for Westfield London on Wednesday 28 October and Lucca Comics & Games on Sunday 1 November.
The Lucca screening is confirmed on the festival’s official programme. London is listed but still hasn’t been announced by Lionsgate UK.
Neither is a premiere. The world premiere is in New York on 16 November and invite-only. These are full screenings of the film for members of the public, weeks before release, and that’s the part worth paying attention to.
Lucca: Sunday 1 November (confirmed)
The festival programme lists a “Special Fan Screening” of Hunger Games: L’alba sulla mietitura at Cinema Astra at 6pm local time (4am AEDT Monday 2 November), presented by Italian distributor Notorious Pictures (Lucca Comics & Games). It falls on the last day of the festival, which runs 28 October to 1 November.
No cast or guests are listed, and the programme doesn’t say how seats are allocated. Notorious is also putting a Sunrise installation in Piazza San Giusto for all five days (TV Serial, Libero).
The listing blocks out 6pm to 8pm, which is shorter than the film’s 158-minute runtime, so treat the finish time as a placeholder. Italy opens the film on 19 November, the same day we do.
London: Wednesday 28 October (listed, not announced)
Premiere Scene lists a fan screening with a red carpet at Westfield London on 28 October. It names Joseph Zada, Mckenna Grace, Whitney Peak, Jesse Plemons, Glenn Close, Kieran Culkin and Elle Fanning, plus director Francis Lawrence and producer Nina Jacobson. The LIT.ME London events calendar carries the same date and venue.
As of Tuesday 20 October (AEDT) there’s still no cinema, start time or ticketing, and the official UK site shows only the 20 November release date. Anyone planning travel around it should wait for Lionsgate UK to post it.
Why a fan screening is a different signal
A premiere is a controlled room: invited guests, a carpet built for photographers, and first reactions from people with a professional reason to be polite. A fan screening puts the whole film in front of the audience most likely to post about it, well before release.
Studios rarely do that with a film they’re nervous about. That’s our read rather than anything Lionsgate has said, but the schedule backs it up. London, Lucca, Berlin and Madrid add up to four public screenings across Europe in nine days, all before the New York premiere.
Book readers will want to know what those audiences make of the Quell’s doubled reaping, the first time the films have had to stage 48 tributes instead of 24, with four from District 12.
Lionsgate hasn’t said whether attendees will be asked to hold their reactions, so it isn’t clear yet whether word of mouth starts on 28 October or waits for a review embargo.
More are already on the calendar
Berlin is next, on Monday 2 November: a red carpet special event screening at Zoo Palast, with the film rolling at 7.40pm CET (5.40am AEDT Tuesday 3 November). Madrid follows on Thursday 5 November at 7pm in IMAX at Kinépolis Ciudad de la Imagen (5am AEDT Friday 6 November), and Diamond Films España’s double-pass competition for it closes today. Both are covered in our press tour tracker.
Further out, a Mexico event is rumoured only, with no date, venue or format. In the US, AMC and Cinépolis both have “early access” screening listings up, with no public dates yet. More markets could follow; nothing beyond these is confirmed.
What about Australia
Sydney hosted the tour’s first fan event on 14 October, but that was a Q&A night at The Eveleigh with Zada and Grace, not a screening of the film.
The earliest public sessions here are still the advance screenings on Wednesday 18 November, the night before release: Event Cinemas’ Cinebuzz “Chicks Pick”, Hoyts’ “Girls’ Night Out” and Dendy Coorparoo’s “Before the Sunrise Preview”. Roadshow hasn’t announced an earlier fan screening for Australia. We’ll update this story if that changes.
Letting the districts see the footage early and talk about it is a very Plutarch move, and the man who plays him is on the London list.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is directed by Francis Lawrence and stars Joseph Zada, Whitney Peak, Mckenna Grace, Elle Fanning, Jesse Plemons and Ralph Fiennes. It opens in Australian cinemas 19 November 2026, a day ahead of the US.
Sources: Lucca Comics & Games programme · TV Serial · Libero · Premiere Scene · LIT.ME · Lionsgate UK · Cinépolis USA · Berlin, Madrid and AU advance-screening details via our press tour tracker
