Watch Rhianna Dhillon's Galentine's Day online

BFI Player presents new Galentine’s Day and BFI Flare film collections curated by its newest programmer and acclaimed critic and broadcaster Rhianna Dhillon. Galentine’s Day launches on Wednesday 11^th February with an alternative to traditional Valentine’s fare, instead celebrating the joy and intensity of female friendship on screen including Frances Ha (2012) and Daisies (1966). On March 9^th, Dhillon will also be presenting a BFI Flare collection celebrating the 40^th year of BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival in all its depth and diversity, including Weekend (2011), Beach Rats (2017), and Young Soul Rebels (1991).

Designed as an ongoing monthly collaboration, Dhillon’s series’ brings a distinctive critical lens to BFI Player, with each collection exploring a specific theme through carefully selected films.

For February’s Galentine’s Day she turns her attention to female friendships – intimate, emotionally revealing – and often longer lasting – than romantic relationships. Films include:

Frances Ha, dir. Noah Baumbach (2012) – available now
Girls Girls Girls, dir. Alli Haapasalo (2022) – available now
Céline and Julie Go Boating, dir. Jacques Rivette (1974) – available now
Daisies, dir. Věra Chytilová (1966) – available now

Rhianna Dhillon’s BFI Flare collection on BFI Player celebrates the festival’s exceptional LGBTQIA+ filmmaking over the years, in all its depth and diversity. Love, angst, heartbreak and pure joy are woven throughout the films in the collection, capturing the many shades of queer experience, and together, the collection offers powerful and life-affirming stories that reflect the nuance of LGBTQIA+ lives on screen. Films in the collection include:

My First Summer, dir. Katie Found (2020) – available now
Beach Rats, dir. Eliza Hittman (2017) – available now
Young Soul Rebels, dir. Isaac Julien (1991) – available now
Weekend, dir. Andrew Haigh (2011) – available now
The New Girlfriend, dir François Ozon (2014) – available now

BFI Flare is the UK’s largest queer film event and at BFI Southbank from 18th to 29^th March 2026, screening the best in contemporary LGBTQIA+ cinema from across the globe, in addition to a rich selection of events and archive titles.

Rhianna Dhillon, BFI Player contributor, said: “I think it’s fair to say that Valentine’s Day has been done, so I decided this year instead to celebrate Galentine’s Day – lifting up the wonderful female friendships, loves and occasionally obsessions that can be found in so many brilliant movies on BFI player. From Daisies – where the silliness doesn’t stop from beginning to end, to Frances Ha, which is all about finding your person, I’m using this opportunity to embrace the role of a lifetime – the best friend.

It’s been incredibly tough pulling out my favourite films celebrating LGBTQIA+ filmmaking for the BFI Flare collection, but I hope my choices give the audience just a taste of the love, angst, heartbreak and pure joy woven throughout these films. From Weekend and My First Summer, to Beach Rats – I hope viewers have fun discovering some underrated gems alongside the all-time classics of queer cinema.”

Alongside its curated film collections, BFI Player has also become a destination for exclusive filmmaker conversations and event recordings, offering audiences rare access to the creative voices shaping contemporary cinema. Recent highlights include George Clooney in Conversation, filmed at BFI Southbank and connecting audiences not only with films, but with the stories and people behind them.

Rhianna Dhillon is available for interviews and can speak about her Galentine’s Day and BFI Flare collections, her ongoing monthly collaboration with BFI Player, as well as wider film and cultural topics.

For more information on BFI Player or to subscribe, visit player.bfi.org.uk