Programme highlights for February 2023 at BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX

The BFI announces the programme for February 2023 at BFI Southbank.

Highlights include the second month of KUROSAWA, a complete retrospective dedicated to master Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, the continuation of Sight and Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time 2022, a three-month countdown featuring  the top 100 films from the once-a-decade poll. You Beauties: New Australian Cinema, a season of films curated by ACMI (Australian Centre for Moving Image) celebrating new independent Australian cinema in all its diversity, and the BFI Future Film Festival 2023, BFI Expanded, plus a selection of big screen love stories for Valentine’s Day

The second month of KUROSAWA, a complete retrospective of the work of legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, continues with special screenings of the director’s epics, THRONE OF BLOOD (12 February) and RAN (11 February) on the UK’s biggest screen at BFI IMAX. Presented in partnership with the Japan Foundation, with generous support by Philippe and Stephanie Camu, the BFI Southbank season co-programmed by director Asif Kapadia and film author Ian Hadyn Smith shifts its focus to the conflicts within Family and Professional Lives., probing the nature of power structures, cycles of violence in history and the role of myth within society. February also includes titles that are unclassifiable, but still quintessentially Kurosawa in their preoccupations and cinematic vision.

Professional Lives includes DRUNKEN ANGEL (1948), the first of sixteen collaborations between Kurosawa and actor Toshiro Mifune, along with STRAY DOG (1949), IKIRU (1952), THE SILENT DUEL (1959), YOJIMBO (1961) and RED BEARD (1965). From a police officer to a samurai with no master, a dying administrator and a whole variety of doctors, Kurosawa’s tales of professional lives allowed him to explore the virtues and weaknesses of human character.

Meanwhile, family themes are explored through I LIVE IN FEAR (1955) and RHAPSODY IN AUGUST (1991), as well as in Kurosawa’s adaptations of Shakespeare – Macbeth in THRONE OF BLOOD (1957) and King Lear in RAN (1985). A.K. (Chris Marker, 1985) is Chris Marker’s riveting portrait of Kurosawa. Filmed on the set of RAN, it makes for a compelling companion piece to the film. Adrian Wootton, CEO of Film London and film curator, will give an in-depth illustrated talk, KUROSAWA AND SHAKESPEARE, ADAPTATION AND REINVENTION, exploring Kurosawa’s remarkable trilogy of films; THRONE OF BLOOD, THE BADE SLEEP WELL and RAN on 5 February.

Many of Kurosawa’s preoccupations lie at the heart of a group of his films which are simply unclassifiable, but they are also distinctive among his work in their setting, structure, subject or tone. These include his debut feature SANSHIRO SUGATA (1943), a thrilling martial arts action tale, as well as its sequel SANSHIRO SUGATA PART TWO (1945), DERSU UZALA (1975), DREAMS  (1990) and his last film, MADADAYO (1993), exploring the teacher/student dynamic.

A day of talks and discussions focusing on the less familiar aspects of Kurosawa’s work, while also celebrating his cinematic legacy, The Gathering Storm: Kurosawa Study Day takes place on 4 February. A subscription collection, Akira Kurosawa, featuring 15 of the director’s films is also available UK-wide on BFI Player.

The second part of a three-month-long season, BFI Southbank counts down Sight and Sound’s 100 Greatest Films of All Time from joint 63rd to joint 31st place following the prestigious once a decade Critics’ poll results revealed last month. Among the films screening in February are some of Cinema’s most towering and influential works, including BREATHLESS (Jean-Luc Godard, 1960), BARRY LYNDON (Stanley Kubrick, 1975) and BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT (Ridley Scott, 1982), as well as modern masterpieces such as MOONLIGHT (Barry Jenkins, 2016). Raucous comedies like SOME LIKE IT HOT (Billy Wilder, 1959) are nestled alongside powerful thrillers such as NORTH BY NORTHWEST (Alfred Hitchcock, 1959) and RASHOMON (Akira Kurosawa, 1959). Each film is a vital work that cries out to be seen on the big screen In addition to screenings at BFI Southbank, audiences will be able to experience the monumental scale of BATTLESHIP POTEMKIN (Sergei M. Eisenstein, 1925), BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT (Ridley Scott, 1982) and STALKER (Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979) at BFI IMAX on 4, 5 and 7 February respectively.

Until the season ends in March, every film will be playing at BFI Southbank with Under 25s able to buy tickets from just £3. Using the promo code GREATEST customers can buy 6 tickets to the Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time 2022 season at BFI Southbank for just £60. Please note this offer does not include screenings at BFI IMAX. In addition, over 50 titles from the Sight and Sound 100 Greatest Films of All Time are available UK-wide on BFI Player.

A selection of features, shorts and moving-image works, You Beauties: New Australian Cinema shines a spotlight on new independent Australian cinema in all its diversity: friendly, strange, blak, queer, bad, mad and beautiful, curated by ACMI (Australian Centre for Moving Image). You Beauties: New Australian Cinema is a legacy programme as part of the UK/AU 2021-22 cultural exchange, a joint initiative by the British Council and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The BFI Southbank programme follows a season of British films programmed by the BFI, which screened at ACMI in Melbourne in 2022.

From 3 – 26 February, the season showcases some of the most exciting, innovative and incisive emerging Australian Cinema voices, from feminist folktale YOU WON’T BE ALONE (Goran Stolevsi, 2022), mythological mash-up TERROR NULLIUS (Soda Jerk, 2018) and dusty coming-of-age road movie SWEET AS (Jub Clerc, 2022), to social media dummy spit SISSY (Kane Senes and Hannah Barlow, 2022). Back to Back Theatre’s provocation into AI’s intrusion on disability, SHADOW (Bruce Gladwin, 2022), will also screen, plus the deadpan grilling of white privilege in FRIENDS AND STRANGERS (James Vaughan, 2021). So-called Australia: Blak Art on Film will also feature a selection of moving-image works by First Nations artists canvassing memory, inheritance, and invasion.

The BFI Future Film Festival returns from 16 – 19 February, and for 2023 will be presented as a dual-format edition – live and in-person at BFI Southbank, whilst simultaneously offering a wide-ranging online festival that can be accessed from across the UK. The country’s largest festival for young, emerging filmmakers will feature four jam-packed days of masterclasses, workshops, screenings and networking opportunities, with events divided across three strands: Storytelling, the Business of Film and Career Ladder. With a host of industry experts and film creatives leading the sessions, the BFI Future Film Festival is the best way for filmmakers aged 16 to 25 to break into the screen industry. Full programme details will be announced on 25 January.

BFI Expanded, the BFI’s programme strand dedicated to immersive art and extended realities returns to BFI Southbank from 6 – 12 February. Shifting Perspectives: A focus on Female and Non-Binary creators in XR is a free exhibition of work from four female and non-binary creators working at the forefront of immersive technology – Areito Echevarria, Bambou Kenneth, Victoria Mapplebeck and Raqi Syed – challenging the preconception that emerging technology is often seen as a predominantly male domain. Works presented include KINDRED (2022), an animated VR experience highlighting the unique challenges faced by non-binary parents in the UK’s adoption process and MINIMUM MASS (2020), a powerful story of a couple that endure a series of miscarriages. THE WAITING ROOM (2019) explores director Victoria Mapplebeck’s personal journey with breast cancer whilst TESTING TIMES (2021) is an immersive audio experience that creates an unfiltered portrait of family life during a global pandemic.

Film lovers can enjoy a selection of some of the greatest and most romantic movies ever made on Valentine’s Day, with screenings of CASABLANCA, SOME LIGHT IT HOT, MOONLIGHT, L’ATALANTE and BREATHLESS at BFI Southbank, plus the 25^th anniversary re-release of James Cameron’s action-packed romantic epic TITANIC, which sets sail again at BFI IMAX – further details below.

Further highlights of this month’s events programme include a preview of SUBJECT (Camilla Hall (COPWATCH) and Jennifer Tiexiera (P.S. BURN THIS LETTER PLEASE), 2022). This insightful film focuses on the ethics and responsibility inherent in documentary filmmaking, unpacking and examining the experience and impact on participants from well-known documentaries including THE STAIRCASE’s Margaret Ratliff. She will join co-director Camilla Hall for a Q&A following the screening on 17 February.

The Pakistani entry for Best International Feature Film at this year’s Academy Awards, JOYLAND (Saim Sadiq, 2022) previews on 8 February. The film, which premiered at the BFI London Film Festival, is a distinctive and vibrant visual feast, encasing a tender and deeply moving queer drama of family, social expectations, love and longing.

Nathaniel Martello-White’s directorial feature debut THE STRAYS is a fun yet thought-provoking thriller, featuring a scene-stealing turn from Bukky Bakray (ROCKS). A preview on 22 February is followed by a Q&A, with guests TBA. Picture-perfect Neve (COUNTY LINE’s Ashley Madekwe) is the toast of her upper-middle-class suburban community. However, her pristine veneer cracks when she starts to see mysterious figures around her town. Are they from her past or just in her head?

Marking the Chinese New Year and the Year of the Rabbit on 5 February, scholar, artist and filmmaker Trinh Minh-ha’s new film WHAT ABOUT CHINA? combines travelogue-style video shot in the 1990s with poetry, folk songs and oral histories as a way of meditating on China’s past, present and future.. This profound, immersive work will be introduced by BFI London Film Festival programmer Hyun Jin Cho.

Mark Kermode, one of the nation’s most respected film critics, returns with Mark Kermode Live in 3D at the BFI on 6 February. Joined by surprise industry guests, Kermode explores, critiques and dissects new and upcoming releases, film news, cinematic treasures and guilty pleasures.