December 2025 programme at BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX: James Cameron, melodrama, Richard Burton and more

The programme for BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX this December includes a season dedicated to visionary filmmaker James Cameron supported by Rolex. Few directors have mounted films as ambitious as the multi-Academy Award-winning mastermind behind the biggest films in the history of cinema. James Cameron’s ability to tell engaging stories on the largest possible scale, employing state-of-the-art visual and special effects, has left audiences gasping in wonder at a body of work that fires the imagination as much as it thrills the senses. 

This season, curated by BFI IMAX Programme Manager Madeleine Mullett, kicks off on 1 December with The Worlds of James Cameron, a richly illustrated discussion that will consider the breadth and depth of Cameron’s work. Invited speakers will trace the trajectory of his career, his thematic preoccupations across a variety of genres, his most memorable characters and his impact on Hollywood filmmaking. 

Films playing throughout the month at BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX will include The Terminator (1984), Aliens (1986), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), True Lies(1994), Titanic (1997), Avatar (2009) and Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), while Cameron returns with Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025), the third instalment of his visually dazzling adventure playing at BFI IMAX from 19 December. Cameron’s brilliance is once again on full display as Jake Sully, Neytiri and their family protect their home of Pandora from corporate greed, melding the work of an army of VFX artists with heart-stopping action sequences.

The second part of our sweeping survey of a century of the genre, Too Much: Melodrama on Film continues through December presented by the BFI at BFI Southbank and by the BFI Film Audience Network (BFI FAN) using funds from the National Lottery, at cinemas and venues across the UK. Reaching across the borders of space and time in search of universal truths, whilst the stories of melodrama have earned a weepy reputation much of the genre’s power lies in restraint and the repression of emotion. 

This final month of our programme finds ghosts unable to leave behind emotional entanglements, families decimated by external forces and women ‘ruined’ by their own and others’ behaviour. Films playing throughout December at BFI Southbank, curated by BFI Programme Development Manager Ruby McGuigan, will include Way Down East (D. W. Griffith, 1920), Imitation of Life (John M. Stahl, 1934), New Women (Cai Chusheng, 1935), The Seventh Veil (Compton Bennett, 1945), La Otra (Roberto Gavaldón, 1946), Portrait of Jennie(William Dieterle, 1948), The Heiress (William Wyler, 1949), Pandora and the Flying Dutchman (Albert Lewin, 1951), Floating Clouds (Mikio Naruse, 1955), Lola Montès (Max Ophüls, 1955), Beyond Oblivion (Hugo del Carril, 1956), Tea and Sympathy (Vincente Minnelli, 1956), The Cloud-Capped Star (Ritwik Ghatak, 1960), Rouge (Stanley Kwan, 1987) and The Silences of the Palace (Moufida Tlatli, 1994). 

We also celebrate the 75th anniversary re-release of Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950) with an extended run, while as part of new BFI Fellow Laura Mulvey’s Big Screen Classics selection we screen Morocco (Josef von Sternberg, 1930) and Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk, 1959). Special events include a look at how “women’s pictures” have been part of queer culture for decades in Beyond Camp: The Queer Life and Afterlife of the Hollywood Melodrama on 3 December, including a rare screening of Douglas Sirk’s last film, Bourbon Street Blues (1979), a Tennessee Williams adaptation starring Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Meanwhile, in honour of the heartbreak and devotion that fuels our melodrama season, Brief Encounters: Cinematic Speed Dating on 6 December will be a laid-back evening for the romantically cursed featuring film themed ice-breakers and old-Hollywood cocktails in the BFI Bar.

Ferocity and vulnerability collide in Richard Burton: Man of Fire, our celebration of the commanding and charismatic performer. A century on from his birth in South Wales, the genius of Richard Burton remains entangled in his complex public and private personas. Dogged by restlessness, alcoholism and the unprecedented scrutiny of his personal life with Elizabeth Taylor, he faced accusations of squandered talent and selling out to Hollywood. This season, curated by James Bell, Jo Botting and Simon McCallum of the BFI National Archive, features a selection of classics and rarities that reflect Burton’s formidable acting range and the magnetic, multifaceted characters he portrayed. 

Our season launches on 2 December with the illustrated panel discussion Look Back at Richard Burton, which will explore Burton’s contribution to film both through his performances and his stardom, while Philosophical Screens: 1984 on 15 December will see our regular panel of film philosophers Lucy Bolton, Ben Tyrer and Catherine Wheatley consider the themes of Burton’s final film and assess their contemporary relevance. 

Films playing throughout the month will include The Last Days of Dolwyn (Emlyn Williams, 1949), introduced by Burton’s daughter Kate Burton on 2 December, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (Martin Ritt, 1965) and Boom! (Joseph Losey, 1968), both introduced by Burton’s granddaughter Charlotte Frances Burton on 8 December, plus Now Barabbas Was a Robber… (Gordon Parry, 1949), My Cousin Rachel (Henry Koster, 1952), Look Back in Anger (Tony Richardson, 1959), A Subject of Scandal (Tony Richardson, 1960), The Night of the Iguana (John Huston, 1964), Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, 1966), The Comedians (Peter Glenville, 1967), Where Eagles Dare (Brian G. Hutton, 1968), Villain (Michael Tuchner, 1971), Equus (Sidney Lumet, 1977), Exorcist II: The Heretic (John Boorman, 1977) and 1984 (Michael Radford, 1984) – many with introductions.

It wouldn’t be December at BFI Southbank without a jam-packed programme of Christmas films. This year we celebrate the season with classics old and new, from the best of Japanese anime and contemporary drama to the finest films from Hollywood’s golden age, including Meet Me in St Louis (Vincente Minnelli, 1944), It’s a Wonderful Life(Frank Capra, 1946), Scrooge (Brian Desmond Hurst, 1951), The Apartment (Billy Wilder, 1960), Tokyo Godfathers(Satoshi Kon, 2003) and Carol (Todd Haynes, 2015), while Reece Shearsmith will introduce a screening of the darkly comic Christmas fable Gremlins (Joe Dante, 1984) on 11 December. 

Meanwhile, BFI IMAX will be playing The Wizard of Oz in IMAX 3D (Victor Fleming, 1939), Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988) and The Polar Express in IMAX 3D (Robert Zemeckis, 2003) on the UK’s largest screen, along with a special Ghibliotheque intro to Tokyo Godfathers(Satoshi Kon, 2003) from Michael Leader and Jake Cunningham on 1 December. 

Families can enjoy festive fun too with screenings of Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), including a themed Funday workshop on 14 December, and A Muppet Christmas Carol (1992). Meanwhile, Mark Gatiss returns to BFI Southbank on 14 December with a preview of his much-anticipated new ghost story for Christmas, The Room in the Tower (Mark Gatiss, 2025), followed by a Q&A with the director and members of the cast. A Christmas television tradition, Gatiss has again assembled a stellar cast including Dame Joanna Lumley, Tobias Menzies and Polly Walker for a spine-chilling adaptation of the E.F. Benson ghost story.

Mesmerising, bizarre and dreamlike, the inner worlds of Lucile Hadžihalilović are not for the faint-hearted. Yet it’s impossible to not be drawn into the surreal cinema of this French Bosnian filmmaker. To accompany the BFI Distribution release of The Ice Tower (Lucile Hadžihalilović, 2025), playing on extended run at BFI Southbank from 21 November, we are also screening the filmmaker’s earlier work in December – Innocence (2004), Evolution (2015) and Earwig(2021). 

Elsewhere, with a groundbreaking career spanning seven decades, Frederick Wiseman is one of the great American documentary storytellers and our celebration of his work continues in December as we turn our attention to five films that convey a strong sense of place. Exploring different forms of community, these immersive, multi-layered works also map the subtle shifts in Wiseman’s approach, with screenings of Central Park (1989), Aspen (1991), Belfast, Maine (1999), At Berkeley (2013) and In Jackson Heights (2015) shown in new digital restorations, which were overseen by Wiseman himself. The season will culminate in January with a group of films about cultural life, including the director’s most recent film, Menus-Plaisirs, Les Troisgros (2023) released by BFI Distribution, in cinemas in the UK and Ireland on 2 January ahead of a planned BFI Player collection and BFI Blu-ray release.

Special events taking place in December will include Will Arnett in Conversation on 4 December. Gifted with one of cinema’s greatest voices, Will Arnett (Arrested Development, The Lego Batman Movie) will join us at BFI Southbank to discuss his eclectic career as well as his breakout lead performance in Is This Thing On? (Bradley Cooper, 2025), which we will preview on the same evening. Bradley Cooper once again proves himself to be an expert at crafting smart, adult-orientated dramas that mine the human heart to deliver big screen magic. 

Meanwhile, with a career spanning decades, genres and media, Academy Award winner Brendan Fraser (The Mummy, The Whale) comes to BFI Southbank for Brendan Fraser in Conversation on 9 December to discuss his body of work and his latest film Rental Family (HIKARI, 2025), which we will preview on the same evening. HIKARI’s drama, which features an outstanding ensemble cast, is a profoundly moving and tenderly optimistic exploration of our need for connection. 

To mark the start of its extended run at BFI Southbank, Dreamers (Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, 2025) will play on 5 December followed by a Q&A with director Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor (Blue Story, Champion). This assured feature debut, from the previous BFI Flare x BAFTA mentorship alumni and BAFTA Breakthrough participant, weaves a tender love story through the harsh realities of Britain’s asylum system, marking an exciting new chapter for the producer-turned-director.

TV previews in December will include An Evening With Radio Times presenting a preview of Run Away (Nimer Rashad, 2025) on 1 December, followed by a Q&A with cast and creatives. This latest adaptation of bestselling novelist Harlan Coben’s work is an acute portrayal of a family in freefall. An outstanding cast including James Nesbitt, Ruth Jones and Minnie Driver bring Coben’s characters thrillingly to life, presenting a chilling portrait of addiction and an underworld barely concealed beneath the veneer of a seemingly civilised world. 

Meanwhile, we preview Black Ops (Akaash Meeda, 2025) on 8 December followed by a Q&A with cast and creatives. The hugely popular series returns for a second season to find that Dom and Kay have moved up in the world, though working life is more bland than Bond. Things quickly change when they encounter a charismatic and somewhat secretive colleague. 

Other special events this month will include The Inertia Variations (Johanna St Michaels, 2017), followed by a Q&A with Matt Johnson and director Johanna St Michaels on 16 December. This rarely seen film examines The The frontman Matt Johnson’s troubled relationship with celebrity, the complexity of his creative process, and how bereavement informed his work and worldview. This event will also feature music videos by The The that exist as a result of this film.

Missing Believed Wiped’s annual showcase returns on 13 December with another bumper crop of once-thought-lost rediscoveries to share. Session One includes an episode of Vendetta (Max Varnel, 1966), a tough, uncompromising thriller series featuring lawmen who often act as ruthlessly as the Mafia they pursue. Agent Angelo James is hot on the trail of a villain who has taken hostage an innocent housewife. Criticised for its all-too-real depiction of violence, very little of this series has survived so this recovery of a particularly gripping episode is doubly welcome. Session Two, Recent Returns includes a sketch from Alan Bennett’s long lost 1960s series On the Margin! as well as coverage from The Guild of Television Producers and Directors Merit Awards presentation for 1968. A fascinating snapshot of television at the time, the event’s broadcast was compromised by the death of host Kenneth Horne half-way through the ceremony, leading to some deft editing and last-minute cover from the unflappable Michael Aspel. With thanks to Film is Fabulous, Kaleidoscope, University of York and Francis Niemczyk.

Woman With a Movie Camera presents a screening of Mansfield Park (Patricia Rozema, 1999) on 12 December, followed by a Q&A with director Patricia Rozema and actor Frances O’Connor. Rozema’s original take on Jane Austen imbues Fanny Price with a sense of the author’s own tenacity, resulting in an adaptation that continues to inspire.

An illustrated conversation, Supermarionation Memories – In Conversation With Dee Anderson on 7 December will see Sylvia Anderson’s daughter Dee Anderson tell the story of Thunderbirds and many other beloved Gerry and Sylvia Anderson shows. She will also give the lowdown on her new venture featuring a favourite character (originally voiced by her mother): Lady Penelope Investigates.

Author Sir Christopher Frayling will introduce Lust for Life (Vincente Minnelli, 1956) on 1 December, before signing copies of his new book The Hollywood History of Art. Minnelli’s award-winning biopic presents a complex and empathetic depiction of Vincent Van Gogh’s deteriorating mental health, giving Kirk Douglas the opportunity to flex his considerable talents, capturing the painter’s brilliance and anguish.

Composer and broadcaster Neil Brand will read from one of Conan Doyle’s classic Holmes stories before a screening of Silent Sherlock: Three Classic Cases, featuring three episodes from Stoll Pictures’ popular 1920s series starring Eille Norwood, recently restored by the BFI National Archive with funding from Iron Mountain and featuring a newly recorded commissioned score composed by Neil Brand, Joseph Havlat and Joanna MacGregor, supported by The Charles Skey Charitable Trust and Cockayne – Grants for the Arts: a donor advised fund held at The London Community Foundation.

Finally, Mark Kermode Live in 3D returns on 15 December with surprise guests and discussion of upcoming releases, cinematic treasures, industry news and even some guilty pleasures.

Tickets for BFI Southbank screenings are on sale to BFI Patrons on 3 November, BFI Members on 4 November, and to the general public on 6 November.