BFI announce programme highlights for September

The BFI announce the BFI Southbank programme for September and early October 2024, beginning with Martin Scorsese Selects Hidden Gems of British Cinema.

These films are drawn from a list of titles handpicked by legendary director Martin Scorsese that highlight many of his personal favourites from the history of British cinema, with a particular focus on titles beyond the established classics. Originally shared during the height of lockdown in 2020 with filmmaker Edgar Wright, who in turn has helped narrow down the selection for the season, this list of cherished classics, hidden gems and unheralded treasures is a journey into the heart of British film, curated by one of world cinema’s greatest champions. Titles playing at BFI Southbank from 1 September – 8 October will include Shooting Stars (A. V. Bramble, Anthony Asquith, 1928), Brief Ecstasy (Edmond T. Grévill, 1937), The Man in Grey (Leslie Arliss, 1943), It Always Rains on Sunday (Robert Hamer, 1947), Mandy (Alexander Mackendrick, 1952), Station Six Sahara (Seth Holt, 1963), The Legend of Hell House (John Hough, 1973), and more. Many of the titles are screening from 35mm prints drawn from the BFI National Archive, with Went the Day Well? (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1942) being projected from a rarely screened nitrate print.

Also taking place this month is a season dedicated to the versatile career of Maggie Cheung. Bursting with distinctive auteurs including Stanley Kwan, Ann Hui and Olivier Assayas, Cheung’s filmography features complex stories of displacement, identity and femininity as well as wildly entertaining fantasy epics from directors like Johnnie To and Tsui Hark. Sparkling through a range of genres and languages, Cheung is simultaneously a sensitive performer and an irresistible comedienne, carrying the aura and presence of a classic film star. From lovers to warriors, reptiles to rock stars, Maggie Cheung: Films of Romance, Melancholy and Magic will take audiences on a journey through her greatest performances. Divided into four strands, the season launches with In the Mood for Maggie on 3 September, when season programmer, the BFI’s Kimberley Sheehan, will be joined by special guests for a conversation about the breath of Cheung’s career. Films playing in the season will include some of her greatest performances, from the satirical Irma Vep (Olivier Assayas, 1996) to The Actress (Stanley Kwan, 1991), migration stories such as  Farewell China (Clara Law, 1990) and Song of the Exile (Ann Hui, 1990), kick-ass action spectaculars including The Heroic Trio (Johnnie To, 1993) and Hero (Yimou Zhang, 2002), and a trio of Wong Kar Wai collaborations, As Tears Go By (Wong Kar Wai, 1988), Days of Being Wild (Wong Kar Wait, 1990) and In the Mood for Love (Wong Kar Wai, 2000), perhaps Cheung’s most beloved film.

Stop Motion: Celebrating Handmade Animation on the Big Screen, supported by Headline Partner LAIKA, also continues this month with free film screenings for Under-16s. The season, which is curated by the BFI’s Justin Johnson, is presented alongside LAIKA: FRAME x FRAME, a free exhibition running from 12 August – 1 October which showcases the artistry of the nearly one million hand-crafted frames that make up LAIKA’s five films to date: Coraline (2009), Paranorman (2012), The Boxtrolls (2014), Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) and Missing Link (2019) – all of which continue to screen in September. Special events will include Aardman’s Nick Park and Merlin Crossingham in Conversation on 29 September, when the creator and Creative Director of Wallace and Gromit respectively will discuss their careers at the studio and offer insights into this glorious form of animation. A Family Funday screening of Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (Nick Park, Steve Box, 2005) will also be introduced by Park and Crossingham on the same day. The Quay Brothers in Conversation on 12 September will see the filmmakers talk about their impressive body of work, which frequently draws on Central European literary and cultural sources to inform their unique and experimental work, with a programme of their short films also introduced by the brothers on the same day.

Elsewhere, British talent working in the stop motion space will be highlighted with a programme of classic shorts by filmmakers Suzie Templeton, Barry Purves and Osbert Parker, followed by a Q&A panel discussion with the animators on 20 September, while a screening of Chuck Steel – Night of the Trampires (Mike Mort, 2018) will be followed by a Q&A with Mike Mort on 20 September. Other titles playing in the second half of this major season will speak to the artform’s ability to contend with the human experience, from Anomalisa (Duke Johnson, Charlie Kaufman, 2015) andMy Life as a Courgette (Claude Barras, 2016), to Mary and Max (Adam Elliot, 2009). Screening alongside Mary and Max will be Neeraja Raj’s short film Meow or Never (2020), with Raj taking part in a Q&A following the screening on 11 September. We also continue to salute stop motion pioneers such as director Henry Selick with screenings of James and the Giant Peach (1996) and WENDELL & WILD (2022) and legendary effects pioneer Willis O’Brien with King Kong (1933) and Mighty Joe Young (1949). European pioneers of stop motion will be celebrated with a focus on Jan Švankmajer to mark the Czech filmmaker’s 90th birthday with screenings of Alice (1988) and Little Otik (2000), plus Jiøí Barta’s classic The Pied Piper (1986) and Dougal and the Blue Cat (Serge Danot and Eric Thompson, 1970).

Completing the line-up of seasons in September and early October is Roots, Rituals and Fantasmagoria, curated by Daniel Kokotajlo, director of Starve Acre (2024) which is released in cinemas UK-wide by BFI Distribution on 6 September. The films included have shaped many facets of the film, from their sensibilities down to the stylistic choices. A mix of cinema and television, every title has the ability to haunt and unsettle, but still summon a wry smile. It’s this duality found in dark fantasy and folk horror that fascinates Kokotajlo, and all of these titles craft worlds of wild landscapes, ancient folklore and the fantastical. Events taking place in the season will include Little Otik (Jan Švankmajer, 2000) introduced by musician and Starve Acre composer Matthew Herbert on 4 September, Against the Crowd: Murrain (John Cooper, 1975) and Omnibus: Whistle and I’ll Come to You (Jonathan Miller, 1968) introduced by writer Andrew Michael Hurley on 7 September, Screenplay: White Lady (David Rudkin, 1987) introduced by Daniel Kokotajlo on 16 September, and The Shout (Jerzy Skolimowski, 1977) followed by a Q&A with Kokotajlo and fellow filmmaker Mark Jenkin on 18 September, with other films playing throughout the month set to include Eraserhead (David Lynch, 1977), The Hunger (Tony Scott, 1983), Dead of Night (Alberto Cavalcanti, 1945), Don’t Look Now (1973) and many more.

Special events in September and early October will include a preview of Lee (Ellen Kuras, 2023) followed by a Q&A with Academy-Award® winner Kate Winslet on stage at BFI Southbank on 1 September. Ellen Kuras’ powerful drama details Lee Miller’s journey as an artist and photographer who would chronicle the worst moments of the Second World War for Vogue magazine, and Winslet embodies her subject in a performance of breathtaking range. Also previewing will be the bold and delightfully unpredictable BFI-backed In Camera (Naqqash Khalid, 2023), which both highlights and critiques the challenges of navigating the UK film industry as a British Asian actor; the preview on 5 September will be followed by a Q&A with director Naqqash Khalid and actors Nabhaan Rizwan, Amir El-Masry and Rory Fleck Byrne. An Evening with Radio Times presents a preview of Slow Horses (Adam Randall, 2024) on 2 September, when episode one of series four will be followed by a Q&A with cast members including Jack Lowden, Saskia Reeves and Christopher Chung.

In the new series, spook Jackson Lamb’s band of demoted spies face their biggest threat yet when a bomber targets Slough House. Other TV previews this month include Nightsleeper (Jamie Magnus, 2024) on 9 September, followed by a Q&A with actors Alexandra Roach and Joe Cole, writer Nick Leather and executive producer Kate Harwood. A real-time thriller, the show details the hacking of a sleeper train travelling from Glasgow to London and a government agency’s frantic efforts to intervene. A preview of The Life and Deaths of Chirstopher Lee (Jon Spira, 2024) will include a Q&A with Peter Serafinowicz, director Jon Spira, producer Hank Starrs and Christopher Lee biographer Jonathan Rigby on 1 October. Produced in association with the BFI, this unique documentary features exclusive interviews, unseen archive material and multiple forms of animation to bring one of the world’s leading actors back to life. Elsewhere, our Film Wallahs strand presents a preview of Girls will be Girls (Shuchi Talati, 2024) on 12 September. Mira, a perfect teenage student in her final year at a strict school in the Himalayas, finds her life thrown off course by her sexual awakening in this explicit and intimate coming-of-age tale.

We salute the 60th anniversary of Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964) with a special screening followed by a Q&A with Armando Iannucci, Sean Foley and Steve Coogan on 26 September. The creative team behind the first-ever stage adaptation of the film will talk about how the themes of Kubrick’s classic still resonate today. Robin of Sherwood (Robert Young, Gerry Mill, 1984 – 1986) will celebrate its 40th anniversary at BFI Southbank on 14 September with a screening of two classic episodes followed by a Q&A with actors Michael Praed and Nikolas Grace, with further guests to be announced. Richard Carpenter’s take on the Robin Hood legend employed mysticism and magic to compliment the history behind tone of our most famous rebels. Meanwhile, Reece Shearsmith will present The Elephant Man (David Lynch, 1980) on 17 September for the first in an occasional series that will see him share his cinematic influences, and a screening of Zardoz (John Boorman, 1974) on 18 September will be followed by a Q&A with director John Boorman. This bold sci-fi tale, shot entirely in Ireland and starring Sean Connery, was initially received with ambivalence but has subsequently grown in stature as a cult favourite. Only the third-ever UK screening of its original 1992 workprint version, The Thief and the Cobbler: A Moment in Time (Richard Williams, 1992) will be followed by a Q&A with Imogen Sutton, wife and producer of the late Richard Williams, on 22 September – marking the release of a new book written by the couple. Meanwhile, a Relaxed screening of This is Going to be Big (Thomas Charles Hyland, 2023) on 30 September will be followed by a discussion of this documentary which gives voice to a group of extraordinary young people as they prepare to stage a musical, filmed at a school where neurodivergent and disabled teenagers are enabled to thrive.