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The best new, cult and classic cinema all in one place

High Life
The messiness of sex, the mysteries of birth and the moving spectacle of devoted parenting in the face of impending oblivion create a potent atmosphere in Claire Denis’ English-language debut.
- Science Fiction
-
2019
- 113 mins
- Claire Denis

All We Imagine as Light
Payal Kapadia’s Cannes Grand Prix-winning portrait of three women is a transcendent tale of love and sisterhood.
- Romance
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2024
- 118 mins
- Payal Kapadia

War Pony
The lives of two Oglala Lakota boys interlock in this coming-of-age drama set against the backdrop of South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation.
- Drama
-
2022
- 115 mins
- Gina Gammell and Riley Keough

Paterson
Adam Driver excels in this effortlessly charming tale of a bus driver poet in New Jersey, filmed with typically groovy elan by Jim Jarmusch.
- Comedy
-
2016
- 118 mins
- Jim Jarmusch
Chocolat
Claire Denis' fully formed debut offers a child’s-eye-view of racial and sexual tension that bubbles with unspoken desires.
- Drama
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1988
- 100 mins
- Claire Denis

Pornomelancholia
Soulful docufiction featuring real-life porn actor Lalo Santos.
- Drama
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2022
- 94 mins
- Manuel Abramovich

Architecton
Victor Kossakovsky’s film essay looks at the way we have constructed our built world through a series of breathtaking sequences.
- Documentary
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2024
- 98 mins
- Viktor Kossakovsky

Reawakening
BAFTA-winner Jared Harris stars as a father wrestling with uncertainty when his daughter reappears a decade after vanishing.
- Thriller
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2024
- 90 mins
- Virginia Gilbert

Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Chantal Akerman's magnificent epic of experimental cinema offering a feminist perspective on recurrent events of everyday life.
- Drama
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1975
- 202 mins
- Chantal Akerman

Let the Right One In
A twelve-year-old boy befriends a mysterious girl with a dark secret, in Tomas Alfredson’s grownup tale of childhood vampirism.
- Horror
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2008
- 115 mins
- Tomas Alfredson

Wilding
A dying landscape is healed against all odds, going on to thrive in astonishing ways, in this hopeful story of ecological regeneration.
- Documentary
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2024
- 75 mins
- David Allen

Starve Acre
Dark and sinister forces invade a couple’s home in this wildly eerie British folk horror, with unflinching performances from Matt Smith and Morfydd Clark.
- Horror
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2023
- 98 mins
- Dan Kokotajlo
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Movies to rent, including premieres fresh from cinemas

Driving Mum
Jon drives his mums corpse across Iceland in Hilmar Oddsson’s darkly comic odyssey of self-discovery and acceptance, beautifully filmed in crisp black and white.
- Comedy
- Drama
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2022
- 113 mins
- Hilmar Oddsson

William Tell
A peaceful huntsman is thrust into the heart of the resistance following an Austrian Empire invasion, in this gripping retelling of a timeless legend.
- Action and Adventure
- Biopic
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2024
- 133 mins
- Nick Hamm

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat
Johan Grimonprez’s involving film essay, anchored by the rhythm of American jazz, reveals disturbing truths about the decolonial struggle between global political powers.
- Documentary
-
2024
- 150 mins
- Johan Grimonprez

A Sudden Glimpse to Deeper Things
A striking portrait of an artist deserving of greater recognition, directed by Mark Cousins (A Story of Film).
- Biopic
- Documentary
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2024
- 88 mins
- Mark Cousins

Black Dog
An ex-con is sent to catch stray dogs in the Gobi Desert in Guan Hu’s picturesque, Cannes prize-winning, canine caper.
- Thriller
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2024
- 110 mins
- Guan Hu

Who We Love
Bullied for her sexuality, Dublin schoolgirl Lily turns to her gay best friend for support in this vibrant coming-out, coming-of-age drama.
- Drama
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2021
- 94 mins
- Graham Cantwell

Love Lies Bleeding
Rose Glass’s gripping and gory follow-up to Saint Maud finds a lesbian couple drawn into a web of violence in 1980s small-town New Mexico.
- Romance
- Thriller
-
2023
- 104 mins
- Rose Glass

Only the River Flows
Shujun Wei's slow-burn noir draws us inexorably into its mysterious psychological journey.
- Crime
- Drama
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2023
- 102 mins
- Shujun Wei

Kneecap
Fantastically outlandish biopic about the anarchic Belfast rap trio and their fight to save the Irish language.
- Drama
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2024
- 105 mins
- Rich Peppiatt

The Critic
Ian McKellen is in delicious form as London's most vicious critic, who strikes a Faustian pact with a struggling actor (Gemma Arterton).
- Period drama
- Thriller
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2023
- 101 mins
- Anand Tucker

No Other Land
This powerful documentary from a Palestinian-Israeli collective might be one of the most important films of this year.
- Documentary
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2024
- 92 mins
- Basel Adra, Rachel Szor & 2 others

Night Courier (Mandoob)
A desperate delivery driver gets caught up in the dark underworld of Riyadh in Ali Kalthami’s gripping, pitch-black satire.
- Comedy
- Thriller
-
2023
- 112 mins
- Ali Kalthami
Rentals
1000s of films restored by the BFI National Archive and our partners

Wait, Wait, Now!
A Maori and a Kiwi teen buddy up to raid their mum’s wardrobe and pucker their lips with red.
- Drama
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2024
- 13 mins

Dragfox
A child struggling with their identity and a charismatic fox (voiced by Sir Ian McKellen) learn to embrace their differences in this heart warming stop-motion animation.
- Animation & Artists Moving Image
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2024
- 8 mins

We’ll Go Down in History
Two years in the life of TRUK United FC, a beacon for positive change and trans inclusivity in football.
- Documentary
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2025
- 25 mins

If I Make It To The Morning
A Chinese teenager dreams of living with her cool aunt in New York, until tensions boil over during a crab dinner.
- Drama
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2024
- 9 mins

Wrong Bathroom
A trans high-schooler is tempted by toxic masculinity in the boys’ bathroom.
- Drama
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2024
- 9 mins

NGGAK!!!
‘I pronounce you wife and wife.’ A young couple design their perfect wedding online, but then mum dials in.
- Drama
- Romance
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2024
- 8 mins

Jack Johnson Paying a Visit to Manchester Docks
The legendary world heavyweight boxing champion, John Arthur 'Jack' Johnson, visits Manchester.
- Non-Fiction
- 2 mins

Life in Her Hands
Kathleen Byron - of Black Narcissus fame - stars in one of the most ambitious recruitment films ever made.
- Instructional
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1951
- 55 mins

Poet Goes North
A long-lost BBC documentary of John Betjeman reflecting, in his unhurried manner, his sense that something vital was being lost and singling out what should be preserved.
- Documentary
- Instructional film/TV programme
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1968
- 26 mins

LFF Trailer 1995
Aardman turn the cinema screen into a mirror and offer this delightful portrait of the typical film festival audience
- Animation & Artists Moving Image
- Documentary
-
1995
- 1 mins
Outlying
A documentary on one of Scotland’s most isolated and breathtaking islands, where all 35 residents prepare for the remarkable roll-out of fibre-optic broadband.
- Documentary
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2019
- 11 mins

Everywhere is a Wildlife Park
No need to queue, and nothing to pay. All you need is a good pair of eyes ... because ‘everywhere is a wildlife park’.
- Amateur film
-
1970
- 19 mins
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Critics' picks
Revealing the stories behind the films
In depth and on point. Film critic Mark Kermode provides weekly must-watch movie recommendations.
