BFI announce programme highlights for August 2025

The BFI announce the programme for August 2025, beginning with SOPHIA LOREN: HOLLYWOOD STYLE, NEAPOLITAN SPIRIT, a season presented in partnership with Cinecittà and the Cinema Department of the Ministry of Culture of Italy.

For more than 70 years Sophia Loren has been a star, style icon and groundbreaking actress. Drawing on a strong sense of cultural identity, a teenage Loren entered the Italian film industry in 1950 and in a few short years became an Oscar®-winning actor, balancing a lightness of touch in comedy with the heft of more dramatic roles to transform into a glamorous international star. Through her professional and personal relationship with producer Carlo Ponti, and her long-term creative partnerships with actor-filmmaker Vittorio De Sica and co-star Marcello Mastroianni, Loren helped make some of Italian cinema’s most beloved films while taking Hollywood and international roles that, combined, make Loren one of the great screen icons. This BFI season, which features numerous 4K restorations courtesy of season partner Cinecittà, draws on these cinematic worlds to highlight the versatility and magnetism of a singular star. The programme kicks off on 1 August with SOPHIA LOREN: HOLLYWOOD ITALIAN STYLE, when season curator Adrian Wootton will give an illustrated talk encompassing the full range of Loren’s extraordinary life and career. Offering insights into the making of her finest films, alongside anecdotes and behind the scenes stories about her creative relationships, the talk will feature excerpts and images from her films. A 25 & UNDER INTRODUCTION TO SOPHIA LOREN will also take place on 16 August, when researcher and strategist Alexandria Amaka Animba will discuss the world of one of cinema’s most enduring icons, while films playing across the season will include GOOD FOLK’S SUNDAY (Anton Giulio Majano, 1953), THE GOLD OF NAPLES (Vittorio De Sica, 1954), TOO BAD SHE’S BAD (Alessandro Blasetti, 1954), LUCKY TO BE A WOMAN (Alessandro Blasetti, 1956), HELLER IN PINK TIGHTS (George Cukor, 1960), TWO WOMEN (Vittorio De Sica, 1960), EL CID (Anthony Manny, 1961), YESTERDAY, TODAY AND TOMORROW (Vittorio De Sica, 1963), MARRIAGE ITALIAN STYLE (Vittorio De Sica, 1964), ARABESQUE (Stanley Donen, 1966), THE VOYAGE (Vittorio De Sica, 1974), A SPECIAL DAY (Ettore Scola, 1977), SATURDAY, SUNDAY AND MONDAY (Lina Wertmüller, 1990) and THE LIFE AHEAD (Edoardo Ponti, 2020).

Elsewhere, IN CHARACTER: THE FILMS OF PETER SELLERS celebrates the mercurial comic talent in what would have been his 100th year. Sellers’ prodigious talent lay in an innate ability to inhabit the characters he created. Each was authentic and markedly different from the last, with Sellers’ skill enhanced by his incredible vocal range – first borne out in his radio work – which helped immeasurably across a prolific career, particularly when playing more than one character in a film. This season, curated by the BFI’s Justin Johnson and Dick Fiddy, looks back on Sellers’ formative years, breakthrough roles and greatest hits, starting with the introductory event PETER SELLERS IN CONTEXT – a richly illustrated discussion on 5 August when invited guests will explore Sellers’ iconic roles, his comedic brilliance and his lasting influence on film and modern comedy. Films playing throughout August will include THE LADYKILLERS (Alexander Mackendrick, 1955), THE SMALLEST SHOW ON EARTH (Basil Dearden, 1957), THE NAKED TRUTH (Mario Zampi, 1957), I’M ALL RIGHT JACK (John Boulting, 1959), TWO WAY STRETCH (Robert Day, 1960), HEAVENS ABOVE! (John Boulting, 1963), THE WRONG ARM OF THE LAW (Cliff Owen, 1962), DR. STRANGELOVE OR: HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE THE BOMB (Stanley Kubrick, 1963), A SHOT IN THE DARK (Blake Edwards, 1964), THE RETURN OF THE PINK PANTHER (Blake Edwards, 1975), BEING THERE (Hal Ashby, 1979), plus the world premiere of a 4K Restoration of ONLY TWO CAN PLAY (Sidney Gilliat, 1961) on 15 August, introduced by Vic Pratt, Producer, BFI Home Entertainment, and PETER SELLERS: ODDITIES AND RARITIES on 18 August, a curated collection of TV appearances including interviews and performances featuring Sellers an others. Studiocanal will be releasing numerous titles into their Vintage Classics Collection later this year: TWO WAY STRETCH, HEAVENS ABOVE! and ONLY TWO CAN PLAY, accompanied by a Peter Sellers box-set with these titles and more.

Finally, August sees the conclusion of MOVIEDROME: BRINGING THE CULT TV SERIES TO THE BIG SCREEN, our two-month season celebrating some of the most notable titles screened by BBC2’s MOVIEDROME series. A portal into the world of weird and wonderful cinema, between 1988 and 2000 more than two hundred features were shown, informing and inspiring a generation of movie fans and filmmakers alongside the wit and wisdom of the show’s iconic introductions from hosts Alex Cox and later Mark Cousins. Films playing in August to close out the season will include JOHNNY GUITAR (Nicholas Ray, 1954), YOJIMBO (Akira Kurosawa, 1961), WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? (Robert Aldrich, 1962), CARNIVAL OF SOULS (Herk Harvey, 1962), THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Sergio Leone, 1966), THE GIRL ON A MOTORCYCLE (Michael Reeves, 1968), PERFORMANCE (Donald Cammell, Nicolas Roeg, 1970), THE HARDER THEY COME (Perry Henzell, 1972), ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE (James William Guercio, 1973), BADLANDS (Terrence Malick, 1973), ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK (John Carpenter, 1981), DIVA (Jean-Jacques Beineix, 1981), MISHIMA: A LIFE IN FOUR CHAPTERS (Paul Schrader, 1985), WHITE OF THE EYE (Donald Cammell, 1987), MOMMIE DEAREST (Frank Perry, 1981) and TO SLEEP WITH ANGER (Charles Burnett, 1990).

Events taking place this month will include the seventh annual S.O.U.L. FEST, in partnership with ABFF Global London, which returns to BFI Southbank from 28 – 31 August to celebrate Black British excellence in film and television. The full programme will be revealed in August but expect the usual combination of exclusive preview feature films and TV, hand-picked shorts and panel discussions, while on 31 August we screen a selection of the very best short films from Black British filmmakers and announce the S.O.U.L. Fest Awards. In addition to acknowledging the incredible talent on show, S.O.U.L. Fest also recognise an outstanding contribution to Black British screen culture with an Impact Award. Elsewhere, an EXPERIMENTA screening of AAAAAAAAH! (Steve Oram, 2015) on 20 August will be followed by a Q&A with director Steve Oram and (work permitting) Julian Barratt, Noel Fielding, Julian Rhind-Tutt and Toyah Wilcox. Debauchery, chaos and the jarringly mundane unfold in weird ways, and amid drab suburban contexts, in actor-comedian Oram’s strange and unpredictable feature directorial debut – a wildly original, gleefully animalistic film and a true one-off for 21st century British cinema.

We preview THE CEREMONY (Jack King, 2024) on 22 August, followed by a Q&A with director Jack King, producer Hollie Bryan and actors Tudor Cucu-Dumitrescu and Erdal Yildiz. Yorkshire writer-director King’s striking debut feature won the Sean Connery Award for Feature Filmmaking Excellence at last year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, and follows Romanian Cristi and Kurdish Yusuf, two undocumented migrants working alongside each other in a Bradford car wash brought together by a dark discovery that sends them on a mission across the moors. Finally on 17 August we celebrate the 10th anniversary of MAGIC MIKE XXL (Gregory Jacobs, 2015) with a post-screening discussion. The second instalment of the Magic Mike trilogy sees Channing Tatum’s retired stripper jump back in the saddle to deconstruct myths of American machismo with a radical lens on the politics of pleasure. Richly emotional and hugely entertaining on many levels, revel in this cult film’s anniversary screening and delve into its nuanced depictions of performance, sexuality and selfhood.