British Cinema

A family finds a stranger floating naked in their swimming pool in this sensual, sun-baked drama starring Christopher Abbott

Tilda Swinton plays an extra-terrestrial android discussing life’s big questions in this unique sci-fi by influential film theorist Peter Wollen.

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

A key film of the Black Film Workshop movement - this London-set visual mosaic captures the richness and complexity of 1980s Black British life.

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

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

Two deaf-mute dock workers eke out a humble existence in London's East End in Lorenza Mazzetti's striking example of Free Cinema.

Terence Davies’ devastatingly moving, lyrical portrait of the life of celebrated war poet Siegfried Sassoon.

An authentic historical drama about the visionary Gerrard Winstanley who led a group of impoverished 'Diggers' to assert their common rights.

Terence Davies' debut feature is a remarkable evocation of working-class family life in the 40s and 50s and a visionary exploration of memory.

Unsettling, little-seen 1970s psychological thriller – a story of sibling rivalry set on the lonely Scottish coast, with Tom Conti and Gay Hamilton.

Derek Jarman’s unique biopic of the 17th century Italian artist Michelangelo da Caravaggio is a powerful meditation on sexuality, criminality and art.

Artist and filmmaker Steve McQueen made his cinema debut with this provocative portrait of Irish republican prisoners defying the British government.

A novelist’s rural retreat descends into an orgy of violent mayhem, in one of the most notorious shockers in British cinema.

A bouncer is enlisted to fight off a mob boss, in this barmy, shot-on-video cult actioner from famed Mancunian hardman Cliff Twemlow.

Starring Juliette Binoche and Jeremy Irons, this drama follows a British politician whose life unravels when he becomes obsessed with his son’s lover.

A man who was abducted by aliens returns to his family years later with a sinister purpose, in this outrageously bizarre British horror.

The Queen's Silver Jubilee beats to the sounds of Funkadelic, Sylvester and the O'Jays in Isaac Julien’s feature debut.

A major BFI restoration starring Eille Norwood as Sherlock Holmes in an adaptation of three classic Arthur Conan Doyle cases.

Joanna Hogg's enthralling ghost story, featuring an astonishing performance by her regular collaborator Tilda Swinton.

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

A British-Palestinian drag performer catches the eye of a strait-laced white man in Amrou Al-Kadhi’s stunning, semi-autobiographical debut.

The power of kinship is explored in Carol Morley’s drama-documentary, drawn from real life and resonant with the way we live now.

Oscar-winning director Asif Kapadia's unsettling drama-documentary delivers a powerful commentary on the state of the world today… and tomorrow.

Billie Piper stars in her own directorial debut, a no-holds-barred, Fleabag-esque anti-romcom about a modern woman’s struggles in work and love.

Buried passions boil over in a buttoned-up postwar Britain in Terence Davies acclaimed adaptation of Rattigan's play, starring Rachel Weisz.

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.

Thomas Clay’s unflinching story of teen drugs and violence scandalised the British film industry 20 years ago, but is arguably ripe for rehabilitation

The ultimate depiction of coming-of-age awkwardness, Bill Forsyth’s comedy about a teen who falls for the new female footballer on the school team.

A day in the life of an ambitious 18-year-old Iranian-British girl transforms into a universal portrait of youth, hope and fears over the future.

After meeting at a gig, a London couple’s relationship unfolds in Michael Winterbottom’s intimate and controversial portrait of sex and live music.

Peter Strickland’s visually and aurally intoxicating tale of sadomasochistic power-play is a daringly erotic sensory feast.

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

A coming-of-age tale about a father-son relationship that might just be out of this world.

The hunt for a Jersey serial killer sparks a dangerous awakening in a young woman in this astonishing psycho-sexual thriller starring Jessie Buckley.

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

Ben, an innocent immigrant from a remote village in Guyana, arrives in Brixton and falls prey to an assortment of streetwise characters in Anthony Simmons' Palme d’Or nominated comic drama.

Carine Adler’s sexy and dark debut, starring Samantha Morton in her first major feature film role.

In this knockout feature debut from Aleem Khan, Bafta-winner Joanna Scanlan is the woman who discovers her late husband’s secrets.

Robert Carlyle and Ray Winstone are members of a criminal gang that tears itself apart after a heist goes wrong, in Antonia Bird’s stylish thriller.

Discover the unrealised visions and passion projects of revered British filmmaker Michael Powell, in this fascinating documentary featuring Oscar-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker.

Andrew Haigh's internationally acclaimed tale of a brief encounter between two gay men.

This strange, enigmatic and engrossing thriller finds a troubled young man returning to his hometown in the wake of his mother’s disappearance.

Blistering thriller of a teen groomed to work for a brutal, organised drugs network.

In modern Liverpool, a couple meet and begin a transgressive, sexually charged affair set against a background of crime and encroaching danger.

Menelik Shabazz (Burning an Illusion) shines a light on the music genre often dubbed ‘romantic reggae’; a uniquely black British sound that developed in the late 70s and 80s against a backdrop of riots, racial tension and sound systems.

Sally El Hosaini's feature debut tells of the love and disenchantment of two British-Egyptian brothers as gangs, drugs and sexuality come between them.

A schoolteacher juggles everyday life with nights spent cruising for Mr Right in this fascinating landmark in British gay cinema

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.

An evil and enigmatic entity throws a family into turmoil in Lindsey C. Vickers' much sought-after cult horror.

Anna Friel and Michelle Williams star as two troubled girls whose tumultuous friendship takes many twists and turns.

David Thewlis stuns as the motormouth predator of Mike Leigh's divisive masterpiece.

Hettie MacDonald’s 1996 comedy tells the story of two classmates and neighbours who fall in love over one summer in South East London.

The first in Patrick Keiller’s highly imaginative trilogy of films is a photographic trip through London, recounted by our unseen narrator.

Clio Barnard's film about Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar mixes reconstruction, interviews (performed by actors) and scenes from the plays.

Director Alan Clarke examines the grim reality of borstal life in this searing remake of his previously banned television play.

Twenty-five years old and newly restored, Gary Oldman’s BAFTA-winning debut as writer-director remains a magnificent achievement.

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.

Merchant Ivory’s landmark adaptation of E M Forster’s classic LGBTQ+ novel and a precursor to the James Ivory-scripted Call Me By Your Name.

Brilliantly mixing archive film and music, Liverpool-born director Terence Davies reflects with wit and wisdom on a times of change, for good or ill

The Terence Davies Trilogy reaches its astonishing climax as tortured Liverpool clerk Robert Tucker prepares to meet his maker.

1980s borstal drama – billed as the female Scum – featuring Amanda York and Kathy Burke as inmates in a ruthless women’s prison.

Hailed as Britain's first black feature film, Pressure is a hard-hitting, honest document of the plight of disenchanted black youths in 1970s London.

Jessica Hausner’s cool, witty and unsettling sci-fi starring Emily Beecham and Ben Whishaw.

Ken Loach’s passionate war drama follows an idealistic young Liverpudlian (Ian Hart) who fights for the international brigade during the Spanish Civil War.

Derek Jacobi and Daniel Craig star as artist Francis Bacon and his muse George Dyer in John Maybury’s darkly exquisite biopic.

Following a fatal car crash involving a swan outside a zoo, twin-brother zoologists Oliver and Oswald become fascinated by the processes of decay.

A lifelong friendship is tested by tragedy in this atmospheric and intense first feature from acclaimed British shorts director Fyzal Boulifa.

The lives of a London gay rugby team, both on and off the pitch, are explored in this assured feature which reveals the many games that people play.

Riotous urban comedy adapted from the hit Royal Court play, about a Peckham teen affronted by the arrival of his long-lost Nigerian sibling.

An apocalyptic vision pushes a group of rabbits to abandon their warren in search of a new home, in this landmark British animation.

The BFI’s HD remaster of the British sci-fi classic. A journalist discovers that the Earth has been knocked off its axis and is moving ever closer to the sun. Is the Earth doomed?

Ron Peck tests the thin line between pornography and art with his amusing rumination on the difficulties of showing the naked male form.

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

Twelve year old Ella's obsession with her brother's best friend Moses leaves her with a secret to take to the grave.

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

Autobiography as art: the centrepiece of Terence Davies' devastating Liverpool-set Trilogy focuses on his fictional alter-ego in middle age.

The first part of Terence Davies' formidable Trilogy explores the effects of violence on a Liverpool schoolboy, told in a series of flashbacks.

Florence Pugh shines in this exceptional British debut of a young wife's need for freedom, whatever the cost.

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

Groundbreaking music film, coupled with Chloé Raunet’s documentary about the making of the film, offering an insight into the heart of acid house.

Paul Kelly's stirring and acclaimed character study of enigmatic musician Lawrence (Felt, Denim and Go-Kart Mozart).

Jenny Agutter plays the teenage girl reliant on a young Aboriginal for her survival, in Nicolas Roeg's stunning Australian outback drama.

Explicit and controversial drama. An ambitious working girl moves to London hoping to securing wealthier patrons, while her social worker friend fights to change antiquated prostitution laws.

A lesbian couple arouse the interest of their new neighbour in this erotic tale of voyeurism, power dressing and fantasy.

Mia Farrow plays a bereaved mother haunted by the spirit of a child in this supernatural chiller.

A haunting blend of edgy mystery story and existential road movie.

Journey through the collected films of The KLF, one of the most successful, enigmatic and outrageous electronic bands of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

A deliciously dark comedy about social paranoia that will have you joyfully squirming in your seat.