“Colossal Wreck”: A Screening with Josh Appignanesi
‘Colossal Wreck’ is a feature documentary journeying into the depths of the COP climate conference in Dubai. Are these enormous get-togethers all about false promises that hinder change? Or are they the only hope we've got for world-saving unity?
With his innocuous selfie-stick, filmmaker Josh Appignanesi moves unnoticed through Dubai's seductive slickness to reveal the talks, meetings and backroom parties behind the strange mixture of global cry for help and political jostling that is a COP.
Lost in translation, he comes face to face with the irony of an oil baron hosting this last-chance climate saloon in a techno-utopian leisure city -- that, er, happens to be built in a burning desert. But then the business-as-usual is ruptured by a searing encounter with indigenous voices from the frontline of climate injustice…
A FILM BY: Josh Appignanesi / PRODUCED BY: Josh Appignanesi & Devorah Baum / MUSIC BY: Vik Sharma / DISTRIBUTED BY: Dartmouth Films
Speaker Bios:
Josh Appignanesi is a filmmaker whose work spans fiction, documentary and the space in-between. His seven feature films released theatrically in over thirty territories and online in over a hundred, with his work gaining festival competition slots at Tribeca, Rotterdam, Cannes/ACID, Berlin and Sheffield, with festival awards at London, Edinburgh, Turin, and Kodak, BIFA and BAFTA nominations.
As director, his features include acclaimed docufictions HUSBAND (2022) and the surrealist psychothriller and “feminist odyssey” on Leonora Carrington, FEMALE HUMAN ANIMAL (2018), the Wellcome-funded parenting documentary THE NEW MAN (2016), ethno-religious comedy THE INFIDEL (2010) scripted with David Baddiel, and religious psychodrama SONG OF SONGS (2006). He also co-wrote US rom-com ALL ROADS LEAD TO ROME starring Sarah Jessica Parker.
Most recently, climate activist documentary MY EXTINCTION (2023) released in over 60 UK cinemas and screened at COP28, and his sequel COLOSSAL WRECK (2025) is a lyrical deep-dive into the COP circus in techno-dystopian Dubai.
He has directed talent including Tom Hiddleston, John Malkovich, David Tennant, Archie Panjabi, Omid Djalili, Claudia Jessie, Miranda Hart, and Richard Schiff, and collaborated with artist Martin Creed. Cultural figures like Zadie Smith, Hisham Matar, Slavoj Zizek, Chloe Aridjis, and John Berger have appeared in his films, often playing ‘versions of themselves.’
Widely acclaimed, with interviews and op-eds on BBC Newsnight, BBC Radio, The Times, The Observer, The Ecologist and The Guardian, his work has broadcast on BBC TV, Channel 4, MUBI, and BFIPlayer. Funders have included BFI, BBC Films, Channel4, Film London, Arts Council England, WellcomeTrust, UKRI and AHRC.
He teaches internationally at a range of instituions and is Associate Professor of Film at Roehampton University.
WHEN: Thursday, 26th February 2026
5.00PM – 7.00 PM: Screening and discussion in the Keynes Lecture Theatre
WHERE: Keynes Lecture Theatre, King’s College, Cambridge
TICKETS: Register here.