What we're watching

Edward II

Christopher Marlowe's 16th century play is radically adapted by Derek Jarman in one of his most powerful films, starring Tilda Swinton.

Drama
Historical drama
1991
90 mins
Derek Jarman

Burning an Illusion

Menelik Shabazz’s pioneering first feature traces the emotional and political growth of a young black couple in Thatcher’s London.

Drama
1982
102 mins
Menelik Shabazz

Ish

A friendship is capsized in this blistering British drama, told with power and rage, from a filmmaker to watch.

Drama
2025
88 mins
Imran Perretta

Rose of Nevada

Mark Jenkin’s time-travelling odyssey about a long-lost fishing boat that mysteriously returns to harbour, starring George MacKay and Callum Turner.

Drama
Science Fiction
2025
114 mins
Mark Jenkin

Surviving Earth

Thea Gajic’s feature debut follows Yugoslavian refugee Vlad as he embraces a new life in Bristol and battles addiction and past traumas.

Drama
2025
96 mins
Thea Gajic

Being Blacker

Molly Dineen’s acclaimed documentary about renowned Brixton-based music producer Blacker Dread.

Documentary
Current affairs
2018
89 mins
Molly Dineen

Citizen Kane

Given extraordinary freedom by Hollywood studio RKO for his debut film, boy wonder Orson Welles created this notoriously brilliant portrait of a media giant.

Drama
1941
119 mins
Orson Welles

Le Boucher

Chabrol’s most celebrated film sees a friendship between a teacher and local butcher darken as a series of murders unsettles life in their village.

Drama
1970
93 mins
Claude Chabrol

Irreversible

Gaspar Noé's retina-searing shocker about an assault and its revenge, told in reverse chronology and starring Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel.

Drama
2002
93 mins
Gaspar Noé

The Glass Shield

The first black recruit in his squad, rookie cop J.J. Johnson struggles to adapt to life on the force, in this thrilling drama from Charles Burnett.

Drama
1994
110 mins
Charles Burnett

Recently added

View all

Kinaesthesia

A kaleidoscopic documentary exploring the relationship between film and dreams, and inspired by the film historian and theorist Vlada Petrić.

Documentary
2026
101 mins
Gerald Fox

La Femme Infidèle

The first of Chabrol’s great run of bourgeois psychological thrillers follows the fall-out from a husband discovering his wife’s affair.

Drama
Thriller
1969
99 mins
Claude Chabrol

Primavera

Damiano Michieletto’s enthralling Venetian drama inspired by the life of Baroque composer Antonio Vivaldi.

Drama
Historical drama
2025
111 mins
Damiano Michieletto

The Glass Shield

The first black recruit in his squad, rookie cop J.J. Johnson struggles to adapt to life on the force, in this thrilling drama from Charles Burnett.

Drama
1994
110 mins
Charles Burnett

Surviving Earth

Thea Gajic’s feature debut follows Yugoslavian refugee Vlad as he embraces a new life in Bristol and battles addiction and past traumas.

Drama
2025
96 mins
Thea Gajic

Riefenstahl

Captivating insight into the controversial filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, who became world-famous for her Nazi propaganda.

Documentary
2024
115 mins
Andreas Veiel

Sex

Part of the Oslo Stories trilogy, a casual confession is an explosive catalyst in Dag Johan Haugerud's frank and engaging drama.

Drama
Romance
2024
118 mins
Dag Johan Haugerud

Love

A chance encounter on a ferry crossing leads inspires a doctor and nurse to reflect on their experiences of casual intimacy in Haugerud's Oslo story.

Drama
Romance
2024
120 mins
Dag Johan Haugerud

Le Boucher

Chabrol’s most celebrated film sees a friendship between a teacher and local butcher darken as a series of murders unsettles life in their village.

Drama
1970
93 mins
Claude Chabrol

Heart of a Dog

Multimedia artist Laurie Anderson’s cinematic journey through love, death and language, centred around memories of her beloved terrier Lolabelle.

Documentary
2015
76 mins
Laurie Anderson

Being Blacker

Molly Dineen’s acclaimed documentary about renowned Brixton-based music producer Blacker Dread.

Documentary
Current affairs
2018
89 mins
Molly Dineen

L' enfer (Torment)

A husband's jealousy and suspicion of his wife drive him to appalling extremes in Claude Charbrol’s unsettling psychological thriller.

Drama
1994
102 mins
Claude Chabrol

Subscription exclusives

Only available on BFI Player subscription

View all

The Ice Tower

Marion Cotillard brings a thrilling magnetism to this snowbound tale of obsession and wish fulfilment between an actress and a young runaway.

Fantasy
2025
117 mins
Lucile Hadzihalilovic

The Voice of Hind Rajab

Emergency workers receive a call from five-year-old Hind Rajab. Using real-life audio recordings, this film recreates the desperate mission to save her.

Drama-documentary
Crime
2025
89 mins
Kaouther Ben Hania

Sister Midnight

A genre-bending comedy about a frustrated and misanthropic newlywed who discovers certain feral impulses that land her in unlikely situations.

Comedy
2024
107 mins
Karan Kandhari

Nouvelle Vague

Richard Linklater recreates the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s seminal feature debut, Breathless.

Drama
2025
106 mins
Richard Linklater

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

Rose Byrne gives a mesmerising, Oscar-nominated performance as an overwhelmed mother, in Mary Bronstein’s nerve-shredding comedy-thriller-horror.

Drama
2025
113 mins
Mary Bronstein

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat

Grimonprez’s Academy Award-nominated film reveals the connections between post-war jazz, US imperialism and the Pan-African decolonisation movement.

Documentary
2024
150 mins
Johan Grimonprez

Palestine 36

Acclaimed Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir’s most ambitious work is a powerful exploration of the events leading up to the Arab Revolt of 1936.

Period drama
2025
120 mins
Annemarie Jacir

Islands

A mysterious disappearance sets off this noirish thriller with echoes of Hitchcock and Highsmith, starring Sam Riley and Stacey Martin.

Drama
Thriller
2025
121 mins
Jan-Ole Gerster

The Chronology of Water

A woman battles addiction and abuse in Kristen Stewart’s uncompromising depiction of love, trauma and artistic self-expression.

Drama
2025
128 mins
Kristen Stewart

A New Kind of Wilderness

A tragedy shatters the idyllic world of a family living off-grid in the Norwegian wilderness.

Documentary
2024
84 mins
Silje Evensmo Jacobsen

I'm Still Here

Fernanda Torres ignites this Oscar-winning drama from Walter Salles, a triumph of hope over tyranny.

Drama
Biopic
2024
138 mins
Walter Salles

Dreamers

Two Nigerian migrants dare to imagine a vibrant future outside of their confinement at a British immigration removal centre.

Drama
2025
79 mins
Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor

Mark Kermode Introduces

The UK's best-known film critic gives exclusive introductions

View all

BFI Restoration

Slade in Flame

This incendiary Glam-rock cult classic is described by critic Mark Kermode as ‘the Citizen Kane of British pop movies’.

Drama
1975
90 mins
Richard Loncraine

The Chronology of Water

A woman battles addiction and abuse in Kristen Stewart’s uncompromising depiction of love, trauma and artistic self-expression.

Drama
2025
128 mins
Kristen Stewart

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Céline Sciamma’s BAFTA-nominated film about the tentative love between a painter and her subject in 18th-century France.

Romance
2019
121 mins
Céline Sciamma

Currently unavailable

The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Mohammad Rasoulof's powerful, vital, Oscar and BAFTA-nominated thriller about a bureaucrat torn between loyalty to his family and the Iranian regime.

Thriller
2024
167 mins
Mohammad Rasoulof

The Extraordinary Miss Flower

Hugely creative biographical film full of charm and intrigue, uncovering the remarkable story of Geraldine Flower and a suitcase of love letters.

Drama-documentary
Performance
2024
73 mins
Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard

The Party

Following some unexpected revelations, a celebration quickly takes a turn for the worse in Sally Potter's razor-sharp comedy.

Comedy
Drama
2017
71 mins
Sally Potter

BFI Restoration

Strongroom

A bank robbery turns into a race against time to save two innocent people trapped in an airtight vault in this Tarantino-championed British thriller.

Crime
1962
79 mins
Vernon Sewell

Les Amants du Pont-Neuf

A homeless addict (Denis Lavant) and a young painter (Juliette Binoche) with failing eyesight forge a bond on the streets of Paris.

Drama
Romance
1991
126 mins
Léos Carax

I'm Still Here

Fernanda Torres ignites this Oscar-winning drama from Walter Salles, a triumph of hope over tyranny.

Drama
Biopic
2024
138 mins
Walter Salles

Leaving soon

Witchfinder General

A witchfinder traverses 17th-century England executing those he suspects of witchcraft.

Horror
1968
87 mins
Michael Reeves

The Thing with Feathers

Benedict Cumberbatch gives a powerful performance in this visually striking fantasy drama about grief, family, and healing.

Drama
2025
98 mins
Dylan Southern

The Wind That Shakes the Barley

Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winning tale of two brothers joining the fight for Irish independence in the 1920s, starring Cillian Murphy and Pádraic Delaney

Drama
Historical drama
2006
122 mins
Ken Loach

Claude Chabrol

A cinema of corrosive irony, wicked wit and simmering violence.

View all

The Beast Must Die (Que la Bete Meure)

Chabrol’s gripping thriller sees a grieving father set out to murder his son’s killer, only to find the moral ground constantly shifting beneath him.

Drama
Thriller
1969
113 mins
Claude Chabrol

Inspector Lavardin

Claude Chabrol’s slippery thriller sees the eponymous detective investigating a murder involving a former lover.

Crime
Drama
1986
100 mins
Claude Chabrol

Betty

A mysterious young woman finds refuge with a stranger in Chabrol’s unsettling psychological drama based on the book by Georges Simenon.

Drama
1992
103 mins
Claude Chabrol

Breaking the rules: the films of Claude Chabrol

In this video essay, critic Elena Lazic argues that Claude Chabrol’s genius was often defined by the rules he chose to challenge.

Documentary
2026
17 mins

The Swindle (Rien ne va plus)

Isabelle Huppert is on sparkling form as one of a pair of con artists grifting their way across France, cheating gamblers out of their winnings.

Comedy
Thriller
1997
105 mins
Claude Chabrol

Le Boucher

Chabrol’s most celebrated film sees a friendship between a teacher and local butcher darken as a series of murders unsettles life in their village.

Drama
1970
93 mins
Claude Chabrol

Merci Pour Le Chocolat (Nightcap)

Chabrol’s deliciously icy mystery stars Isabelle Huppert as the wife of a concert pianist who uncovers some unusual secrets about her husband’s past.

Thriller
2000
101 mins
Claude Chabrol

L' enfer (Torment)

A husband's jealousy and suspicion of his wife drive him to appalling extremes in Claude Charbrol’s unsettling psychological thriller.

Drama
1994
102 mins
Claude Chabrol

The Colour of Lies (Au cœur du mensonge)

When a girl is found murdered in a coastal town, a community begins to devour itself, in this thriller about the social poison that a crime unleashes.

Drama
1998
113 mins
Claude Chabrol

Drama

View all

Irreversible

Gaspar Noé's retina-searing shocker about an assault and its revenge, told in reverse chronology and starring Monica Bellucci and Vincent Cassel.

Drama
2002
93 mins
Gaspar Noé

The Woman Next Door

Happily married Bernard (Gérard Depardieu) has his life is thrown into turmoil when Mathilde (Fanny Ardant) - an old flame - moves into the house opposite.

Drama
Romance
1981
105 mins
François Truffaut

Twentynine Palms

A young couple take a road trip through the Californian desert towards a shocking climax in Bruno Dumont’s stripped-back horror.

Drama
Horror
2003
119 mins
Bruno Dumont

Spider

Cronenberg directs Ralph Fiennes in this chilling psychological drama about a mentally-disturbed man confronting his horrifying childhood memories.

Drama
Thriller
2003
94 mins
David Cronenberg

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry

A fiercely independent woman’s tranquillity is disturbed by an unexpected affair, in this wry, tender and understated drama from Georgia.

Drama
2023
110 mins
Elene Naveriani

Bait

Simmering tensions between locals and newcomers in a modern-day Cornish fishing village reach boiling point in this hugely acclaimed British independent film.

Drama
2019
89 mins
Mark Jenkin

Burning an Illusion

Menelik Shabazz’s pioneering first feature traces the emotional and political growth of a young black couple in Thatcher’s London.

Drama
1982
102 mins
Menelik Shabazz

The Piano Teacher

Isabelle Huppert’s turn as a woman disturbed yet consumed by her own desires has lost none of its gut-punching torment, in Haneke’s unsettling drama.

Drama
2001
131 mins
Michael Haneke

The Silence

Two sisters check into a hotel in a foreign city readying itself for war, in Ingmar Bergman's nightmarish vision of emotional isolation.

Drama
1963
95 mins
Ingmar Bergman

Islands

A mysterious disappearance sets off this noirish thriller with echoes of Hitchcock and Highsmith, starring Sam Riley and Stacey Martin.

Drama
Thriller
2025
121 mins
Jan-Ole Gerster

Skate Kitchen

A timid Long Island skater-girl befriends a New York City-based skateboarding crew in Crystal Moselle's Sundance-nominated coming-of-age tale.

Drama
2018
105 mins
Crystal Moselle

Comedy

Side-splitting cinema, from slapstick legends to today's anarchic voices.

View all

Chicken Town

Two old schoolfriends join forces with an elderly neighbour to fence a shed full of weed, in this sprightly, easy-going British comedy.

Comedy
2025
90 mins
Richard Bracewell

Kontinental '25

Prolific Romanian provocateur Radu Jude’s sharp social satire on our materialistic society, blending dark comedy, drama and giant, plastic dinosaurs.

Comedy
Drama
2025
109 mins
Radu Jude

Palindromes

Todd Solondz’s casting of eight different actors of varying ages, genders and races to play the lead role of Aviva, makes for a truly original film.

Comedy
Drama
2004
100 mins
Todd Solondz

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

Rose Byrne gives a mesmerising, Oscar-nominated performance as an overwhelmed mother, in Mary Bronstein’s nerve-shredding comedy-thriller-horror.

Drama
2025
113 mins
Mary Bronstein

Stolen Kisses

Naively idealistic and largely inept both in his dealings with women and in any job, Antoine clumsily courts Christine while working for a private detective agency.

Comedy
Drama
1968
91 mins
François Truffaut

Four Mothers

Hilarious, uplifting tale of an Irish son juggling four very different mothers over one chaotic weekend in Dublin.

Comedy
Drama
2023
89 mins
Darren Thornton

The Love Witch

A modern-day witch uses spells and magic to get men to fall in love with her, in Anna Biller's outrageous tribute to 1960s Technicolor melodramas.

Comedy
Horror
2016
121 mins
Anna Biller

Swan Song

Udo Kier enchants as the flamboyant hairdresser pulled out of retirement for one last bob in a hugely enjoyable comedy featuring Jennifer Coolidge.

Drama
2021
105 mins
Todd Stephens

Good Morning

Yasujiro Ozu's cheerful comedy about the silliness of everyday chatter.

Comedy
1959
94 mins
Yasujirō Ozu

20th Century Women

Annette Bening stars as a mum enlisting two friends (Greta Gerwig and Elle Fanning) to help her son navigate adolescence in Mike Mills’s comedy-drama.

Drama
Comedy
2016
118 mins
Mike Mills

Love and Death on Long Island

John Hurt stars in Richard Kwietniowski’s comedy of fame and obsession about an older man (Hurt) who becomes infatuated with a young Hollywood actor (Jason Priestley), and proceeds to track him down.

Comedy
1997
89 mins
Richard Kwietniowski

Stan & Ollie

Steve Coogan and John C Reilly give delightful performances as Laurel & Hardy - comedy’s most famous double act - as they enter their twilight years.

Biopic
2019
98 mins
Jon S. Baird

Thriller

View all

The Kingdom

A teenager is taken to a Corsican villa where her fugitive mob boss father is hiding, before an assassination attempt forces them to go on the run.

Crime
Thriller
2024
111 mins
Julien Colonna

Hyena

In this stylish, dark crime thriller, a policeman’s complex web of underworld relationships is threatened by an internal affairs investigator.

Crime
Thriller
2015
112 mins
Gerard Johnson

Before the Devil Knows You're Dead

Philip Seymour Hoffman and Ethan Hawke star as criminal brothers whose botched heist leads to escalating turmoil, in Sidney Lumet's twisty thriller.

Thriller
2008
117 mins
Sidney Lumet

The Secret in Their Eyes

A retired legal investigator revisits an unresolved case that still haunts him, in Juan José Campanella’s taut, Academy Award winning, thriller.

Thriller
2009
129 mins
Juan José Campanella

Merci Pour Le Chocolat (Nightcap)

Chabrol’s deliciously icy mystery stars Isabelle Huppert as the wife of a concert pianist who uncovers some unusual secrets about her husband’s past.

Thriller
2000
101 mins
Claude Chabrol

Red Road

Andrea Arnold’s highly acclaimed film, winner of top prizes at Cannes and the BFI London Film Festival, is a haunting drama about a woman confronting past demons.

Thriller
2006
110 mins
Andrea Arnold

The Housemaid

An enigmatic housemaid and her wealthy, totalitarian employer begin an affair that will have disastrous consequences for them both.

Thriller
2010
107 mins
Im Sang-soo

Crimes of Passion

Ken Russell's second Hollywood film is a deliriously excessive erotic thriller with Kathleen Turner as an imperilled prostitute.

Thriller
1984
107 mins
Ken Russell

Documentaries

A selection of the finest stories from the real world

View all

Hotel Monterey

A hypnotic tour of a New York hotel that proves that nighttime is Akerman time.

Documentary
1973
63 mins
Chantal Akerman

Dig! XX

Ondi Timoner’s cult music documentary returns after 20 years, remastered and extended, to explore rock’s most volatile friendship.

Documentary
2024
147 mins
Ondi Timoner

Desire: The Carl Craig Story

An intimate portrait of legendary techno producer, DJ and record label creator Carl Craig and an ode to his beloved city, Detroit.

Documentary
2024
91 mins
Jean-Cosme Delaloye

Memory: The Origins of Alien

The untold origin story behind Ridley Scott’s Alien, one of Hollywood’s most beloved and iconic shockers.

Documentary
2019
93 mins
Alexandre O. Philippe

The Look of Silence

Joshua Oppenheimer’s documentary follows an optician reckoning with the legacy of Indonesia’s 1965-66 mass killings, in which his brother was killed.

Documentary
2014
99 mins
Joshua Oppenheimer

BFI Restoration

The Epic of Everest

Premiere. A breathtaking and poignant account of the valiant 1924 British assault on the awe-inspiring peak, beautifully restored by the BFI.

Non-Fiction
1924
87 mins
J.B.L. Noel

The Gleaners & I

Agnès Varda’s award-winning study of those living on the margins of French society at the turn of the millennium.

Documentary
2000
79 mins
Agnès Varda

BFI Restoration

Dance Craze

Legendary film that brilliantly captures the cultural phenomenon that was the 2 Tone movement, and showcases the very best of the British Ska revival.

Documentary
Performance
1981
89 mins
Joe Massot

Cameraperson

Existence is laid bare in Kristen Johnson’s soul-stirring portrait of human life, told through the eyes of a filmmaker's trusty camera.

Documentary
2016
102 mins
Kirsten Johnson

Getting It Back: The Story of Cymande

The incredible story of a band you may never have heard of but whose sound has influenced generations with their irresistible rhythms and message of peace.

Documentary
2022
90 mins
Tim MacKenzie-Smith

Architecton

Victor Kossakovsky’s film essay looks at the way we have constructed our built world through a series of breathtaking sequences.

Documentary
2024
98 mins
Viktor Kossakovsky

SCALA!!!

Engrossing tribute to London’s legendary Scala cinema, aptly subtitled.

Documentary
2023
96 mins
Jane Giles and Ali Catterall

Coming soon

View all

Coming soon

The Stendhal Syndrome

Argento’s dizzying and gut-wrenching drama about a young policewoman (Asia Argento) on the hunt for a serial killer who becomes obsessed with her.

Crime
Horror
1996
120 mins
Dario Argento

Coming soon

Opera

Boasting quite possibly Argento's most iconic single image, almost certainly his most spectacular death, and indisputably his most insane ending.

Horror
1987
107 mins
Dario Argento

Coming soon

Shiraz: A Romance of India

The ravishing, romantic story behind the Taj Mahal, has been newly restored with a sumptuous new score from Anoushka Shankar.

Historical drama
Romance
1928
106 mins
Franz Osten

Coming soon

The Shrouds

Cronenberg directs Vincent Cassel as a widower channelling his grief into a new technology that lets people observe the decaying bodies of the dead.

Horror
2024
120 mins
David Cronenberg

Coming soon

Piccadilly

The glitter of Jazz Age clubland meets the Far East (of London) in this stunningly restored silent classic, starring Anna May Wong.

Crime
1929
109 mins
E.A. Dupont

Coming soon

A Cottage on Dartmoor

Anthony Asquith's tale of love and revenge, played out against the bleak Dartmoor landscape

Drama
1930
88 mins
Anthony Asquith

Coming soon

The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands

This dramatic reconstruction of two decisive naval battles from the First World War is one of the finest films of the British silent era.

War
1927
106 mins
Walter Summers

Coming soon

Shiraz: A Romance of India

The ravishing, romantic story behind the Taj Mahal, has been newly restored with a sumptuous new score from Anoushka Shankar.

Historical drama
Romance
1928
106 mins
Franz Osten

Featured collections

View all

Soundtracks

Films with formidable scores.

Instant Film School

Essential viewing for cinephiles.

Japanese Cinema

From the samurai thrillers of Kurosawa to Koreeda's beautiful domestic dramas, this collection celebrates the extraordinary diversity of Japanese cinema.

3 You Must See

Your time is precious, so we've done some of the hard work for you. 3 of the best from the world's greatest filmmakers, themes and cinematic movements.