BFI announce programme highlights for late October and November 2025
The BFI today announce the complete programme for BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX for late October and November, beginning with TOO MUCH: MELODRAMA ON FILM, a new season celebrating the vivid visual language, heightened dramatics and emotional pathos at the heart of film melodrama. United by their emotion driven plots, vivid visual language and self-conscious audience manipulation, these films are designed to make you break down in tears, cause a scene, fall in love, feel something.
Presented by the BFI at BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX and by the BFI Film Audience Network (BFI FAN) using funds from the National Lottery at cinemas and venues across the UK, TOO MUCH will take place from October – December 2025 via programmes of special events, talks and screenings. The season will also be available UK-wide online via a curated collection of films available to stream on demand on BFI Player. A centrepiece of TOO MUCH will be the re-release of Douglas Sirk’s colourful, high-octane love story ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (1955), which returns to cinemas UK-wide on 24 October courtesy of Park Circus.
Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson entrance as the star-crossed lovers at the centre of Sirk’s transgressive, saturated portrait of 1950s Eisenhower-era Americana, class friction and moral values. The BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX programme, curated by BFI Programme Development Manager Ruby McGuigan, also features screenings of 7TH HEAVEN (1927, Frank Borzage), IMITATION OF LIFE (1934, John M. Stahl), STELLA DALLAS (1937, King Vidor), NOW VOYAGER (1942, Irving Rapper), BRIEF ENCOUNTER (1945, David Lean), THE LIFE OF OHARU (1952, Kenji Mizoguchi) ÉL (1953, Luis Buñuel), JOHNNY GUITAR (1954, Nicholas Ray), LOLA MONTES (1955, Max Ophüls), STELLA (1955, Michael Cacoyannis), THE CLOUD-CAPPED STAR (1960, Ritwik Ghatak), THE ARCH (1968, T’ang Tsu Shuen), THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT (1972, Rainer Werner Fassbinder), THE SILENCES OF THE PALACE (1994, Moufida Tatli) and more. Further details of TOO MUCH, including highlights of the UK-wide programme, can be found in a dedicated press release here.
Meanwhile, over the last 50 years Laura Mulvey has made numerous significant interventions into the development of film culture, theory and visual language through her groundbreaking writing and filmmaking. A towering presence in debates surrounding independent cinema, gender and psychoanalysis in film, classical Hollywood, writing and filmmaking, the author of the seminal essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema joins us for a special event, LAURA MULVEY IN CONVERSATION on 4 November when she will be bestowed with her recently announced BFI Fellowship at BFI Southbank. This will be a discussion about ideas, now and in the future, as well as a look back at Mulvey’s influential work over the last 50 years.
As Mulvey receives her BFI Fellowship, we also celebrate her scholarship, teaching and programming with the season LAURA MULVEY: THINKING THROUGH FILM. The collaborative films she made with Peter Wollen and Mark Lewis – eight films that employ drama and documentary to think through ideas around psychoanalysis, feminist theory, symbolism, formal experimentation, genre and the legacies of myth – are classics of British independent cinema and raise questions about the limits of cinema while continually challenging us to think about the moving image. The season also includes a selection of films which gave context to and informed the development of their iconic work RIDDLES OF THE SPHINX (Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen, 1977). Further details of the BFI Southbank season can be found in a dedicated press release here, with further details of Laura Mulvey’s BFI Fellowship in a press release here.
Recently announced, October will see the launch of a major celebration of Terence Davies, one of British cinema’s most singular filmmakers. LOVE. SEX. RELIGION. DEATH. THE COMPLETE FILMS OF TERENCE DAVIES, an extensive BFI Southbank season from 20 October – 30 November programmed by BFI Chief Executive Ben Roberts, will provide a comprehensive journey through Davies’ body of work, alongside a free exhibition curated by Edge Hill University from 1 – 30 November and a special subscription collection streaming on BFI Player from 6 October.
The recently discovered early short film BOOGIE (c.1980) will also be screened for the first time since being found among personal items donated from Davies’ estate to Edge Hill, who hold and care for the Terence Davies Archive, while the celebration will be enjoyed UK-wide with the theatrical re-release (24 October) and BFI Blu-ray release (24 November) of one of Davies’ most acclaimed features, THE HOUSE OF MIRTH (2000), newly remastered by the BFI.
A celebration of his heroism and quiet radicalism, tracing the evolution of an artist who gave cinema his soul, highlights of the BFI Southbank season will include REMEMBERING TERENCE DAVIES on 28 October, when close collaborators and special guests who knew the filmmaker best will join host Mark Kermode to share memories and stories of working with him. Meanwhile, the free exhibition curated by Edge Hill University will display previously unseen materials from Davies’s personal archive and the archive of production company Hurricane Films to offer an insight into the rich history and creative talent of the Liverpool-born filmmaker. Further details of our major Terence Davies celebration can be found in a press release here.
With a groundbreaking career spanning seven decades, FREDERICK WISEMAN is one of the great American storytellers. His documentaries, shot vérité-style, are meticulously edited narratives chronicling life’s complexities through rich portraits of social and cultural institutions. Wiseman’s themes are expansive: democracy, power, inequality and community, to name a few; but his focus is compellingly specific and humane.
Whether revealing shortcomings in social support or celebrating culinary excellence, he has a unique eye – and ear – for detail. Over the coming months, this BFI Southbank season will explore a selection of his films in loosely thematic and chronological order, looking first at renowned films about public institutions, followed by works grounded in a strong sense of place, before concluding in January with a group of films about cultural life. Previously announced details of this extended season, curated by Sandra Hebron, can be found in a press release here. All films are new digital 4K restorations, overseen by Wiseman himself.
The biggest international showcase of Korean films, the LONDON KOREAN FILM FESTIVAL returns for its 20th edition from 5 – 18 November offering a diverse range of films from the latest releases to specially curated strands across London. Organised by the Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK), in collaboration with the Korean Film Archive and with support from the Korean Film Council, films playing at BFI Southbank will include THE INFORMANT (Kim Seok, 2024), RED NAILS (Hwang Seul-gi, 2024), 3670 (Park Joon-ho, 2025), COMMISSION (Shin Jae-min, 2024), BREAK UP THE CHAIN (Lee Man-hee, 1971), and the Closing Night Gala HARBIN (Woo Min-ho, 2024) on 18 November.
Please see the festival website for full programme details and updates. Elsewhere, this year’s DOC’N ROLL FILM FESTIVAL features four electrifying premieres celebrating music’s rebels, innovators and rule-breakers at BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX. This is your chance to meet the artists, hear their stories and experience music history in the making with the London Premiere of MOVE YA BODY: THE BIRTH OF HOUSE (Elegance Bratton, 2025) on 6 November, the UK Premiere of BOY GEORGE AND CULTURE CLUB (Alison Ellwood, 2025) on 8 November, the World Premiere: ROCKERS DON’T STOP: THE REVIVAL OF ROCKERS REVENGE (Arthur Baker, 2025) on 8 November, and the World Premiere of HOW TANITA TIKARAM BECAME A LIAR (Natacha Horn, 20205) on 9 November, all followed by Q&As with the directors.
Also returning to BFI Southbank, FILM AFRICA, London’s biggest festival celebrating the best African cinema from across the continent and diaspora is brought to you by the Royal African Society. The opening night film will be MY FATHER’S SHADOW (Akinola Davies Jr., 2025) on 14 November, including an intro and Q&A with director Akinola Davies Jr. and cast. During the 1993 election unrest in Lagos, an estranged father and his two young sons navigate a city in turmoil. In his powerful debut, Davies Jr. crafts a tense and moving portrait of fractured bonds, resilience and hope over the course of a single, eventful and emotional day.
KATANGA: THE DANCE OF THE SCORPIONS (Dani Kouyate, 2025) will close the festival at BFI Southbank on 23 November, including an intro and Q&A with director Dani Kouyate and cast. A prophecy leaves Katanga destined to seize the crown, or lose his life, in this tense saga of power, betrayal and fate. The winner of the Yennenga Golden Stallion at the 2025 edition of the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), Dani Kouyate’s engrossing drama re-imagines Macbeth in Africa.
Further events taking place in late October and November will include TERRY JONES: THE RENAISSAINCE MAN on 1 November, looking back at Terry Jones’s glittering career five years on from the director, writer, historian, performer, presenter and Python’s passing. On the eve of the publication of a new biography, Seriously Silly: The Life of Terry Jones by comedy historian and close friend Robert Ross (published by Hodder and Stoughton on 6 November), join us for an evening of memorable and rare clips (including some from his own archive) and contributions from his friends, family and colleagues, with on stage guests including Michael Palin, Robert Ross, and Terry’s daughter Sally Jones. Elsewhere, writer and actor Brett Goldstein joins us on 25 October for the tenth anniversary of SUPERBOB (Jon Drever, 2015), followed by a Q&A with Goldstein, director Jon Drever and special guests.
This witty romantic comedy finds Goldstein, who co-wrote the screenplay, endearing as the ordinary postman from Peckham turned unlikely superhero after he is hit by a meteorite. Meanwhile, THE FUNDAMENTAL GILBERT & GEORGE (Gerald Fox, 1997), the BAFTA-winning documentary about artists Gilbert & George, provides a compelling insight into their working processes. Filmed around their home in East London and documenting their lives first hand, this is a fascinating film that engages with their challenging and witty art. Screening on 22 October to coincide with the new exhibition Gilbert & George: 21st Century Pictures (at the Hayward Gallery from 7 October), the event will be followed by a Q&A with Gilbert & George and director Gerald Fox.
TV previews this month will include TRIGGER POINT (Jamie Donoghue, 2025) on 23 October, including a Q&A with Vicky McClure, Nabil Elouahabi, Jason Flemyng, executive producer Chris Brandon and director Jamie Donoghue. Returning for its third season, the show takes us inside a highly strung team of bomb disposal experts led by McClure’s tough Lana Washington. As a crop of seemingly unrelated bomb threats across the city are called in, it becomes increasingly clear to the team that their randomness might be linked by a someone seeking revenge. Elsewhere, a screening of BLAKE’S 7: REDEMPTION & STAR ONE (Vere Lorrimer, David Maloney, 1979) on 8 November will include a Q&A with actors Jan Chappell and Sally Knyvette. Created by Terry Nation in 1978, BLAKE’S 7 was the BBC’s science fiction show aimed at a slightly older audience than its huge hit Doctor Who.
These newly remastered episodes follow Blake and his small group of freedom fighters in their fight against the dreaded Federation. Meanwhile, join us on 28 October to mark 40 years since the 1985 Broadwater Farm Riots with a screening of SCENES FROM THE FARM (Melissa Llewelyn-Davies, 1988), the Channel 4 Documentary which explores the community’s attempts to rebuild in the aftermath of the unrest. A post-screening discussion, hosted by BFI Professor in Practice Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka, will focus on the impact of the events captured in the documentary and how they affected Black Britain and British society.
The SCREEN TWO SYMPOSIUM on 12 November will see panels discussing the rich history and legacy of Screen Two and the television film. Launched by the BBC in 1985 as a successor to Play for Today, Screen Two featured an eclectic range of over 150 single dramas, including THE FIRM, EDWARD II, PRIEST, and TRULY, MADLY, DEEPLY. This event, co-hosted by the BFI and the Centre for the History of Television Culture and Production, Royal Holloway (in association with the AHRC-funded Screen Two research project), will mark the strand’s 40th anniversary.
Deeply controversial on its original release, Antonia Bird’s PRIEST (Antonia Bird, 1995) will also screen on 12 November. An engaging, intelligent and impassioned drama, a newly ordained Roman Catholic priest working in Liverpool struggles to reconcile his vows of celibacy with his deep-felt desires. Finally, MARK KERMODE LIVE IN 3D returns on 17 November with surprise guests and discussion of upcoming releases, cinematic treasures, industry news and even some guilty pleasures. Further details of events in late October and November at BFI Southbank can be found here.
FURTHER PROGRAMME INFORMATION FOR LATE OCTOBER AND NOVEMBER
BFI SOUTHBANK SEASONS AND FESTIVALS
TOO MUCH: MELODRAMA ON FILM
Vivid visual language and heightened dramatics invite you to leave your cynicism at the door and feel something. A press release with full details of this UK-wide season programmed by BFI Programme Development Manager Ruby McGuigan can be found here, with listings for the BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX season here.
LAURA MULVEY: THINKING THROUGH FILM
Over the last 50 years Laura Mulvey has made numerous significant interventions into the development of film culture, theory and visual language through her groundbreaking writing and filmmaking. Full details of this season co-curated by Aga Baranowska and William Fowler can be found here, with further information in a dedicated press release here and details of Mulvey’s accompanying BFI Fellowship in a press release here.
LOVE. SEX. RELIGION. DEATH. THE COMPLETE FILMS OF TERENCE DAVIES
Terence Davies’ cinema is one of memory, longing and tragedy; at once profoundly personal but universal in its themes – the suffocation of love, the cruelty of faith, the temptations of the flesh, and the shadow of death – all while remaining alive with the songs and cinema that he adored. Complete listings for this season curated by BFI Chief Executive Ben Roberts can be found here, with a press release including full details of our Terence Davies celebration available here.
FREDERICK WISEMAN
With a groundbreaking career spanning seven decades, Frederick Wiseman is one of the great American storytellers. Full details of this season curated by Sandra Hebron can be found in a press release here, with listings for the BFI Southbank programme here.
LONDON KOREAN FILM FESTIVAL 2025
The London Korean Film Festival, the biggest international showcase of Korean films, offers a diverse range of films from the latest releases to specially curated strands. Returning for its 20th edition from 5 – 18 November, the festival unfolds across London. It is organised by the Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK), in collaboration with the Korean Film Archive and with support from the Korean Film Council. Further information on BFI Southbank screenings can be found here, with full programme details and updates on the festival website.
FILM AFRICA 2025
London’s biggest festival celebrating the best African cinema from across the continent and diaspora, brought to you by the Royal African Society, returns from 14 – 23 November. Further information on BFI Southbank screenings can be found here, with details of the wider festival at filmafrica.org
DOC’N ROLL FILM FESTIVAL 2025
The 12th edition of Doc’n Roll Film Festival at BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX from 23 October – 9 November features four electrifying premieres celebrating music’s rebels, innovators and rule-breakers. With Q&As at each screening, this is your chance to meet the artists, hear their stories and experience music history in the making. Further information can be found here.
HALLOWEEN
It’s that time again. . . Celebrate Halloween in schlock and style with two cult classics of horror cinema playing at BFI Southbank – OFFICE KILLER (Cindy Sherman, 1997) and THE HUNGER (Tony Scott, 1983) – as well as FRANKENSTEIN (Guillermo del Toro, 2025) and THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (Jim Sharman, 1975) on the UK’s largest screen at BFI IMAX. Further information can be found here.
NEW AND RE-RELEASES
Films playing on extended run throughout the month at BFI Southbank will include the BFI Distribution releases of THE HOUSE OF MIRTH (Terence Davies, 1990) and THE ICE TOWER (Lucile Hadžihalilović, 2025), plus, ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS (Douglas Sirk, 1955), DIE MY LOVE (Lynne Ramsay, 2025), PILLION (Harry Lighton, 2025) and URCHIN (Harris Dickinson, 2025). Further details can be found here.
BFI IMAX
New releases playing at BFI IMAX in late October and November will include THE RUNNING MAN (Edgar Wright, 2025), WICKED: FOR GOOD (Jon M. Chu, 2025) and DEPECHE MODE: M (Fernando Frias, 2025), in addition to Halloween screenings of FRANKENSTEIN (Guillermo del Toro, 2025) and THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW (Jim Sharman, 1975) on 31 October. Further details can be found here.
REGULAR BFI SOUTHBANK PROGRAMME STRANDS
BFI Southbank’s regular programme strands have something for everyone – whether audiences are looking for silent treasures, restorations, experimental works, archive rarities, family previews or Relaxed screenings for neurodivergent audiences. The full details of our line-up can be found here.
BIG SCREEN CLASSICS
Black filmmakers have often been guided by a sense of duty, taking a careful approach to articulate buried histories that counteract the misrepresentations of a traditionally hostile industry. To mark Black History Month, and with reference to the ‘cinema of duty’ – initially referring to the documentary-realist era of 1960s Black British Cinema – this month’s BFI Southbank daily screenings of classic movies for just £9 look back on global Black cinema, showcasing films that have responded through corrective representation. Films playing throughout the month will include BLACK GIRL (Ousmane Sembène, 1966), PRESSURE (Horace Ové, 1975), THE PASSION OF REMEMBRANCE (Maureen Blackwood, Isaac Julien, 1986), DAUGHTERS OF THE DUST (Julie Dash, 1991), MANGROVE (Steve McQueen, 2020), SAINT OMER (Alice Diop, 2022) and more. The full details of our line-up can be found here. In addition to our £9 ticket offer for BIG SCREEN CLASSICS, audience members aged 25 and Under can buy tickets for BFI Southbank screenings (in advance or on the day) and special events and previews (on the day only) for just £4, through our ongoing ticket scheme for young audiences.
