BFI announces 2025 highlights for audiences

The BFI announces its upcoming cultural programme highlights for audiences across the UK, in cinemas at BFI Southbank, BFI IMAX and venues UK-wide through BFI Distribution, on BFI Player, BFI UHD, Blu-ray and DVD.

From highly anticipated premieres and new releases, curated seasons and film festivals on the big screen, to the most exciting names in film and television live on stage, plus free, newly digitised archive film material in libraries and at home as well distinctive online collections, the BFI’s 2025 cultural programme will help connect audiences everywhere to stories on screen, old and new, from the UK and around the world.

The BFI’s 2025 programme will include:

• Film and TV seasons at BFI Southbank including actors Sidney Poitier, Sophia Loren, Dorothy Dandrige and Anna May Wong, filmmakers Chantal Akerman, Luchino Visconti, Bong Joon-ho, Ridley Scott, Mai Zetterling, Michael Haneke, Edward Yang, John Akomfrah, Wojiech Has,and thematic seasons looking at New Taiwanese Cinema, African American westerns, Melodramas, the work of the first ITV franchise Associated-Rediffusion, a season programmed by Karina Longworth to tie in with new seriesof her popular podcast You Must Remember This,and much more.
• BFI Distribution UK-wide theatrical releasesof new features including ARCHITECTON and FOUR MOTHERS,and re-releases including ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS, winner of Sight and Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time poll in 2022, JEANNE DIELMAN, 23, QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES,and Peter Weir’s mesmerising PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK.
• Annual BFI Festivals including the BFI Future Film Festival (20 Feb – 6 Mar), BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival (19 – 30 March), and the BFI London Film Festival (October), plus, returning for its second edition, the BFI Film on Film Festival (12 – 15 June).
• Major releases and event cinema screenings on the UK’s largest screen, BFI IMAX, including A COMPLETE UNKNOWN, THE BRUTALIST, THE COLOURS WITHIN, CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD and MICKEY 17 (accompanied by a Bong Joon-ho season), plus the inaugural edition of the LONDON SOUNDTRACK FESTIVAL (19 – 26 March) and a season of vampire movies and other uninvited guests to coincide with the releases of NOSFERATU through to SINNERS. Further key titles set to screen at BFI IMAX in 2025 include MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: THE FINAL RECKONING, THE BATTLE OF BATKAN CROSS, THE BRIDE!, TRON: ARES and AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH.
• New releases, classic titles, curated collections and free archive material on BFI Player including subscription collections on Chantal Akerman, Wojiech Has and Taiwan,plus exclusive titles including WILDING, GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS, POWER ALLEY, THE UNIVERSAL THEORY, ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT, LAYLA, ARCHITECTON and BLACKBIRD, BLACKBIRD, BLACKBERRY. Plus, for the first time, BFI Player will present monthly 4K releases from 2025, beginning with the BFI National Archive restoration of Horace Ové’s PRESSURE.
• BFI Blu-ray releases including HIGH AND LOW, STRAY DOG, ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT, CHANTAL AKERMAN VOLUME 1: 1967-1978 and CHANTAL AKERMAN VOLUME 2: 1982-2015 and UHD releases including CRONOS, YOJIMBO and SANJURO.
• UK-wide releases of films made with the support of the BFI Filmmaking Fund, awarding funds from the National Lottery, including ON FALLING, which won the First Feature Award at this year’s BFI London Film Festival, SISTER MIDNIGHT and SEBASTIAN.
• International co-productions supported by the UK Global Screen Fund, financed by the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport and administered by the BFI, released UK-wide or set for UK release in early 2025, include: ENO, SEPTEMBER SAYS, THE RETURN, THE END, BLUE ROAD: THE EDNA O’BRIEN STORY, BRING THEM DOWN and THE DAMNED.

JANUARY – APRIL 2025

• LUCHINO VISCONTI,including BFI re-release of ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS (3 Jan)(BFI Southbank/BFI Distribution/BFI Player – Jan) – presented in partnership with Cinecittà
• SIDNEY POITIER (BFI Southbank – Jan)
• UK-wide release of Victor Kossakovsky’s meditative ARCHITECTON (10 Jan)
• Akira Kurosawa’s HIGH AND LOW and STRAY DOG released on BFI Blu-ray (20 Jan) and YOJIMBO and SANJURO released together in new 4K UHD and Blu-ray sets (17 Mar)
• LONDON SHORT FILM FESTIVAL (BFI Southbank – Jan)
• WOMAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA SUMMIT (BFI Southbank – 18Jan, plus collection on BFI Player)
• CHANTAL AKERMAN, major retrospective including BFI re-release of JEANNE DIELMAN, 23, QUAI DU COMMERCE, 1080 BRUXELLES (7 Feb), a UK touring cinema package of her key films, a curated BFI Player Subscription collection and two BFI Blu-ray Collections (BFI Southbank/BFI Distribution/BFI Player/BFI Blu-ray/UK-wide – Feb/March)
• PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (UK-wide/BFI Southbank) – Valentine’s Day previews then re-released on 21 Feb in a 4K restoration of the Director’s Cut
• Payal Kapadia’s ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT, released exclusively to BFI Player subscribers (17 Feb)
• New 4K restoration of Guillermo del Toro’s CRONOS, released on BFI Blu-ray and UHD (24 Feb)
• EDWARD YANG (BFI Southbank – Feb/March)
• BLACK RODEO (BFI Southbank – Feb/Mar)
• BFI FUTURE FILM FESTIVAL (BFI Southbank/UK-wide/Online, 20 Feb – 6 Mar). The country’s largest festival for young, emerging filmmakers with masterclasses, workshops, screenings and networking opportunities. Full programme announced in January.
• Payal Kapadia’s ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT, released on Blu-ray/DVD (3 Mar)
• BFI FLARE: LONDON LGBTQIA+ FILM FESTIVAL (BFI Player/BFI Southbank/UK-wide – 19-30 Mar)

• The first edition of the LONDON SOUNDTRACK FESTIVAL, presented in partnership with the BFI at venues across London including BFI IMAX (19-26 March)
• FOUR MOTHERS (UK-wide/BFI Southbank, 4 Apr). Darren Thornton’s comedy drama which won the Audience Award at this year’s BFI London Film Festival
• NEW TAIWANESE CINEMA (BFI Southbank – Apr)
• QUEER EAST FESTIVAL (BFI Southbank – Apr)
• A film season programmed by Karina Longworth to coincide with the launch of the new series of her popular podcast series You Must Remember This,focusing on the late careers of Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Howard Hawks, Vincente Minnelli and many others (BFI Southbank – Apr)
• WOJCIECH HAS (BFI Southbank/BFI Player – Apr) – presented in partnership with KINOTEKA Polish Film Festival.

MAY – AUGUST 2025

• MAI ZETTERLING (BFI Southbank – May)–a centenary celebration in collaboration with the Swedish Film Institute.
• BLACK DEBUTANTE (BFI Southbank/BFI Player – May) – a season of first and second features from Black filmmakers.
• UK ASIAN FILM FESTIVAL (BFI Southbank – May)

• MICHAEL HANEKE (BFI Southbank/BFI Player – June) – in partnership with Curzon.

• BARBARA LODEN, VISIONARY: WANDA AND HER WORLD (BFI Southbank/BFI Player – June) – a season exploring Barbara Loden’s 1970 film WANDA and the ongoing legacies and influences of both the director and the film. Coincides with the publication of a new WANDA BFI Film Classic by season curator Elena Gorfinkel.
• BFI FILM ON FILM FESTIVAL (BFI Southbank and selected events at partner cinemas – 12-15 June)

• DOROTHY DANDRIDGE (BFI Southbank – July)
• MOVIEDROME (BFI Southbank/BFI Player – July) – a season celebrating the BBC television series that ran between 1988-2000 (hosted first by Alex Cox and in later years by Mark Cousins); it acted as an introduction for many British filmmakers and audiences to cult and art house cinema.
• LONDON INDIAN FILM FESTIVAL (BFI Southbank/BFI Player – July)
• SOPHIA LOREN (BFI Southbank/BFI Player – Aug) – presented in partnership with Cinecittà.
• JOHN AKOMFRAH (BFI Southbank – Aug)
• S.O.U.L FEST (BFI Southbank – Aug)

SEPTEMBER – DECEMBER 2025

• RIDLEY SCOTT (BFI Southbank – Sept/Oct)
• ANNA MAY WONG (BFI Southbank – Sept/Oct)
• ASSOCIATED REDIFFUSION (BFI Southbank/BFI Player – Sept/Oct) – a season of fascinating key works produced by the first ever ITV franchise.
• THE 69^TH BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL (BFI Player/BFI Southbank/Venues across London and the UK – dates in October to be announced)
• MELODRAMA (BFI Distribution/BFI Player/BFI Southbank/UK-wide – Oct/Nov/Dec)
• TERENCE DAVIES (BFI Southbank/BFI Player/UK-wide – Oct/Nov) – this season will feature selected events presented in partnership with Edge Hill University, who care for Terence Davies’ personal collection.
• SCREEN TWO (BFI Southbank – Oct/Nov) – celebrating the BBC’s successor to Play for Today, that was shot entirely on film.

The BFI is the UK’s lead organisation for film, TV and the moving image, a unique cultural charity that supports the work of filmmakers from the UK and around the word and champions independent filmmaking.