Announced: Terence Davies celebration including a complete retrospective

One of British cinema’s most singular filmmakers, Terence Davies will be celebrated with an extensive BFI Southbank season from 20 October to 30 November, programmed by BFI Chief Executive Ben Roberts. Love. Sex. Religion. Death. The Complete Films of Terence Davies will provide a comprehensive journey through Davies’ body of work, alongside a free exhibition curated by Edge Hill University from 1 to 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 and BFI Blu-ray release of one of Davies’ most acclaimed features, The House of Mirth (2000) – newly remastered by the BFI.

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. From his most deeply autobiographical work to his luscious interpretations of Edith Wharton, Terrence Rattigan and Emily Dickinson, Davies brought a poetic intensity to each of his films, layering sound, silence, portrait, landscape and music that takes the breath away.

“Terence Davies was a uniquely uncompromising independent filmmaker and a true hero of mine,” said Ben Roberts, BFI Chief Executive. “It was an honour to know him, to support his work during his lifetime and to continue championing his legacy now with this UK-wide celebration. A major figure of British cinema and an inspiration to independent filmmakers at every level, his work consistently speaks to the universal nature of the human experience while always remaining deeply personal. I am thrilled we have the chance to share his films with BFI audiences in cinemas and on BFI Player.”

A celebration of his heroism and quiet radicalism, tracing the evolution of an artist who gave cinema his soul, the BFI Southbank season launches on 28 October with Remembering Terence Davies, when close collaborators and special guests who knew the filmmaker best will share memories and stories of working with him. Hosted by Mark Kermode in NFT1, this will be a perfect window into the director for both lifelong fans and those new to his work. Meanwhile, the free exhibition curated by Edge Hill University, who hold and care for the Terence Davies Archive, 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. 

The exhibition at BFI Southbank from 1 to 30 November will include materials from both Davies’ personal life and film career, including family letters and belongings, behind-the-scenes photos, props and handwritten draft scripts, highlighting his career long connection to the BFI, his deep love of music, and a glimpse of his creative space with an interactive recreation of his working desk.

A newly discovered short film, Boogie (c.1980), found among items donated to Edge Hill University at the end of Davies’ life will screen for the first time during the season. A student production from Davies’ time at the National Film and Television School, the story of a coerced sexual encounter is told through a series of close ups. Recently scanned and digitised by the North West Film Archive, who preserve the original element, it will play at BFI Southbank alongside the BFI’s 4K remaster of Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988) released in 2018, with other highlights of the season set to include a brand new 35mm print of The Long Day Closes (1992), made by the BFI with funding from the National Lottery and the additional support of donors supporting the BFI Keep Film on Film campaign.

A centrepiece of the BFI’s celebration, Davies’ BAFTA-nominated drama The House of Mirth (2000), newly remastered by the BFI, will receive a theatrical release in the UK and Ireland from 24 October in addition to screening at BFI Southbank throughout the season. Adapted from Edith Wharton’s classic novel, the film features an acclaimed performance by Gillian Anderson as a young woman looking to make a good marriage, drawn into a downward spiral when her honour and her love for another prevent her from accepting the advances of a wealthy banker. The film proved Davies a master of period filmmaking – and literary adaptation – and deserves to be regarded as one of the best British features of its era. 

Previously announced, the BFI’s remaster of The House of Mirth will also be released on BFI Blu-ray for the first time on 24 November and will come to BFI Player in the New Year. Other titles coming to BFI Player, available to stream with a subscription from 6 October, will include The Long Day Closes (1992), The Deep Blue Sea(2011), Sunset Song (2015) and Benediction (2021), in addition to Distant Voices, Still Lives (1988), Of Time and the City (2008) and the Terence Davies Trilogy of shorts, Children (1976), Madonna and Child (1980) and Death and Transfiguration (1983) which are available to stream now.