Programme announced for late October and November 2023 at BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX

The programme for late October and November 2023 at BFI Southbank will include the start of Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger, a major BFI UK-wide film celebration of one of the greatest and most enduring filmmaking partnerships in the history of cinema. 

Michael Powell (1905 to 1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902 to 1988) made masterpieces together such as The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), I Know Where I’m Going! (1945), A Matter of Life and Death (1946), Black Narcissus (1947) and The Red Shoes (1948). A central part of the nationwide big screen programme, which is the most comprehensive celebration of Powell and Pressburger‘s work ever undertaken, will be a BFI Southbank retrospective running from 16 October to 31 December. The season includes special events and Q&As, new BFI restorations and remasters of Powell’s early films, work they made independently of one another, and a major exhibition drawn from the collections of the BFI National Archive and key third-party loans.

Highlights of the programme in October and November will include Thelma Schoonmaker In Conversation on 26 October; The Red Shoes: Beyond the Mirror, a free exhibition running from 10 November to 7 January featuring over 100 previously unseen items, including an original pair of Moira Shearer’s iconic red ballet shoes featured in the film; a screening of Matthew Bourne’s The Red Shoes (Ross MacGibbon, 2020) on 11 November followed by a Q&A with choreographer Matthew Bourne and dancer Ashley Shaw; a UK-wide BFI Distribution re-release of heady romantic masterpiece I Know Where I’m Going! (1945), restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation in association with ITV and Park Circus with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation with additional support provided by Matt Spick, screening from 19 October, with a special screening introduced by Thelma Schoonmaker on 26 October; plus further talks and discussions from experts including film historian Ian Christie, writer Marina Warner and production designer Sarah Greenwood.

Also in September will be Power to the People: Horace Ové’s Radical Vision, a celebration of the work of Sir Horace Ové, the celebrated photographer, painter and writer, best-known as a pioneering filmmaker. The centrepiece of the season will be the 4K restoration of Pressure (1975), Ové’s groundbreaking exploration of the anxieties of an emerging second-generation of West Indians in Britain. Originally funded by the BFI Production Board, Pressure has been restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation, with funding provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation, with additional thanks to the BFI Philanthropy ‘Pioneers of Black British Filmmaking consortium’. Following its simultaneous restoration world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express and at the New York Film Festival on 11 October, the film will be re-released by BFI Distribution in cinemas and on BFI Player from 3 November. A preview screening and discussion of Pressure on 23 October hosted by academic Dr Clive Nwonka, with producers Annabelle Alcazar and Robert Buckler, writer and academic Caryl Phillips and filmmaker Rhea Storr, will herald the re-release.

An illustrated discussion, Horace Ové: Reflecting the People – A Career Retrospective will kick off the season on 23 October, including a Q&A with actor Lennie James, producers Annabelle Alcazar, Peter Ansorge, Tara Prem and Marcus Ryder, chaired by Samira Ahmed, with films screening in the season including The Black Safari (1972), King Carnival (1973), Playing Away (1985), Dabbawallahs (1985), Baldwin’s N***** (1969) including a Q&A with author Colin Grant and additional guests on 4 November plus some titles which influenced Ové’s work, Bicycle Thieves (1948), Pather Panchali (Satyajit Ray, 1955), and a seniors’ matinee of La dolce vita (Federico Fellini, 1960).

With the arrival of BFI Distribution’s The Eternal Daughter (2022) in cinemas from 24 November, following its special presentation at the 66th BFI London Film Festival in 2022, there’s no better time to look back on the filmography of Joanna Hogg and the cinematic influences that made her than with the season Internal Reflections: The Films of Joanna Hogg. Special events will include Joanna Hogg in Conversation on 15 November where the filmmaker will talk about her career so far, as well as a preview of The Eternal Daughter (2022) on 10 November, followed by a Q&A with Joanna Hogg and actor Tilda Swinton.

Other titles playing in the season will include Unrelated (2007), Hogg’s exceptional feature debut, Exhibition (2013), a hypnotising portrait of two creatives attempting to coexist, and The Souvenir (2019) and The Souvenir Part II (2021), a tour de force of autobiographical cinematic storytelling.

Alongside the retrospective we invite our audiences to dive deeper with Joanna Hogg: Influences, a selection of films chosen by the filmmaker which reflect where her interests lie right now, including Suspicion (Alfred Hitchcock, 1941), Journey to Italy (Roberto Rossellini, 1954), The Killers (Don Siegel, 1964), Ticket of No Return (Ulrike Ottinger, 1979) and Margaret (Kenneth Lonergan, 2011).

The endless possibilities of time travel on screen will be explored in Destination Time Travel: Playing with Time in Film and TV, a season that mixes old and new titles, some well-known and others more obscure, including The Time Machine (George Pal, 1960), Planet of the Apes (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1968), The Terminator (James Cameron, 1984) and Terminator 2: Judgement Day (James Cameron, 1991), Run Lola Run (Tom Tykwer, 1998), Donnie Darko (Richard Kelly, 2001), Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (Junta Yamaguchi, 2020) and the Back to the Future trilogy.

The season will also include a preview of The Lazarus Project (Carl Tibbets, 2023) series two on 24 October, followed by a Q&A with actors Paapa Essiedu, Caroline Quentin, Anjli Mohindra and writer Joe Barton. There will also be a Comedy Time-Travel Special on 5 November featuring a screening of Red Dwarf: Backwards (Ed Bye, BB, 1989) and the first episode of Timewasters (George Kane, ITV, 2017), with onstage guests: Red Dwarf writer Rob Grant, exec producer Paul Jackson, actor Robert Llewellyn and director Ed Bye; and creator and star of Timewasters, Daniel Lawrence Taylor.

Other special events at BFI Southbank this month will include a preview of Time series two. Written by multi-award-winning Jimmy McGovern (Broken, Cracker) and Helen Black (Life and Death in the Warehouse), the new series is told from the perspective of three very different inmates. Arriving at a prison on the same day, Kelsey (Bella Ramsey), Orla (Jodie Whittaker) and Abi (Tamara Lawrance) are thrown together to face an unfamiliar world. A preview of episode one on 18 October will be followed by a Q&A with writers Jimmy McGovern and Helen Black, and actors Jodie Whittaker, Tamara Lawrance, Bella Ramsey and Siobhan Finneran.

With half of the original episodes missing, except for their audio, Doctor Who: The Underwater Menace [Animated] (Julia Smith/AnneMarie Walsh, 1967/2023) is a newly animated version presenting the complete story 56 years after it first screened. It world premieres at BFI Southbank on 21 October. The Doctor, Polly, Ben and Jamie arrive in the city of Atlantis where they discover a plot to drain the earth’s oceans.

Following its premiere at this year’s BFI London Film Festival, a preview of Girl (Adura Onashile, 2023) is this month’s Woman with a Movie Camera pick, in which we celebrate women’s contribution to cinema and spotlight female stories. Migrant Grace’s carefully built world of safety and routine is tested when her daughter Ama must return to school. A tender exploration of the impact of trauma, Girl is backed by the BFI Filmmaking Fund, awarding National Lottery funding, and the screening on 7 November will be followed by a Q&A with feature debut director Adura Onashile.

Meanwhile, journey through the collected music videos and short features produced and directed by Bill Butt in collaboration with Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond in their various guises as The JAMs, The KLF and The Timelords, one of the most successful, subversively creative and enigmatic electronic bands of the early 90s, with 23 Seconds to Eternity (Bill Butt, 2023). The KLF became the biggest selling singles act in the world with a series of international acid house anthems, and this is the first time all of their films and music videos have been compiled and presented together. A screening on 6 November to mark the film’s release on dual-format BFI DVD and Blu-ray will be followed by a Q&A with the director.

Is There Anybody Out There? (Ella Glendining, 2023) is a sensitive, thought-provoking and funny debut feature documentary in which Ella Glendining interrogates ableism as she sets out to find others with the same rare disability as herself. A preview of the film, which is backed by the BFI Doc Society Fund, awarding National Lottery funding, on 11 November will be followed by a Q&A with the director hosted by acclaimed writer Jack Thorne, before it plays an extended run from 17 November. 

Journey to Italy (Roberto Rossellini, 1954) is an influential and devastating study of a marriage on the rocks, centring on Ingrid Bergman and George Sanders’ English couple holidaying in Italy. To mark the publication of Jeremy Cooper’s recent novel Brian, an event on 13 November will bring together Cooper in conversation with filmmaker Ben Rivers as they introduce Rossellini’s masterpiece and discuss the novel, and cinephilia, more broadly. The film will also be available to stream on BFI Player. A monthly conversation between you (the audience) and one of the nation’s favourite and most respected film critics, Mark Kermode Live in 3D at the BFI will take place on 16 October and 20 November. Joined by surprise guests from across the film industry, Kermode explores, critiques and dissects current and upcoming releases, cinematic treasures, industry news and even some guilty pleasures.

Audiences can thrill their senses this Halloween with two classic chillers playing on 31 October. A plastic surgeon becomes obsessed with trying to restore his daughter’s face after a car accident leaves her disfigured, in Eyes Without a Face (Georges Franju, 1960). Georges Franju’s chilling horror is a nightmarish, yet lyrical, fable of identity, guilt and obsession, in which visceral frights blend with atmospheric cinematography. Meanwhile, aspiring writer Jack Torrance travels to a remote Colorado hotel with his wife and son in The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980). In a place haunted by ghosts from the past, Jack gradually loses his sanity. Stanley Kubrick’s ambition to make ‘the world’s scariest movie’ was realised when he read Stephen King’s novel. The result, subject to years of critical discourse, is as visually stunning as it is terrifying.

Returning for its 18th edition from 2 – 16 November, the largest Korean film festival outside of Korea showcases a variety of films, ranging from new releases to independents to special strands, including the Women’s Voices strand. Screenings and events will include Phantom(Lee Hae-young, 2023) on 4 November,

in which writer-director Lee Hae-young seamlessly moves between a stylised murder mystery, noirish melodrama and adventure; Innocent Witness (Lee Han, 2019) on 5 November, a tense and involving legal drama which features a superb central performance by Jung Woo-sung, plus more titles soon to be announced.

The career of Tara Prem, one of the first Asians to work in mainstream British TV, spans three decades. Her vitally important work at BBC Birmingham cemented her growing reputation, challenging the status quo and supporting stories of underrepresented people in Britain. She championed diverse talent, working with writers such as Michael Abbensetts and actors Norman Beaton, Carmen Munroe and Dev Sagoo, as well as giving early career breaks to Toyah Willcox, Phil Daniels and Julie Walters. BFI Southbank will host a celebration of her work, with four screenings and events in October and November including A Touch of Eastern Promise (Michael Lindsay-Hogg, 1974) on 21 October, followed by a Q&A with Tara Prem, a triple bill of Black Christmas (Stephen Frears, 1977), Second City Firsts: Jack Flea’s Birthday Celebration (Mike Newell, 1976) and Second City Firsts: Glitter (Tony Bibcat, 1976) including an introduction by Tara Prem on 21 October, plus Play for Today: Vampires (John Goldschmidt, 1979), Play for Today: Thicker than Water (Alan Grint, 1980) and Resurrected (Paul Greengrass, 1989).

Other new releases at BFI Southbank this month include a remarkably assured directorial debut screening from 3 November, How to Have Sex (Molly Manning Walker, 2023), which is backed by the BFI Filmmaking Fund, awarding National Lottery funding and picked up the Un Certain Regard award for best first feature at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Manning Walker accurately captures the giddy freedom of a coming-of-age summer, and a very distinct British youth culture. However, among the buzz and nostalgia, she unpacks the joys and horrors of the teenage-girl experience. Mia McKenna-Bruce is sensational as Tara, her facial expressions conveying more than words as Tara’s holiday becomes formative, but not in the way she wished for.

Screening at BFI IMAX this month is Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, 2023), showing from 20 October. The blistering adaptation of David Grann’s non-fiction bestseller tells the story of corruption, coercion and murder among the Oklahoma Osage Native American community which, for a brief spell in the 1920s, was the wealthiest in the US. With oil discovered on their land, all manner of vested interests sought control of it and Scorsese’s film – epic in every way – tells the riveting story of those whose greed eclipsed their humanity. 

Napoleon (Ridley Scott, 2023) tells the story of Napoleon Bonaparte’s rise to power through the prism of his volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine. It’s the perfect platform for Ridley Scott to be reunited with his Gladiator star Joaquin Phoenix and shows Scott at the height of his powers, telling an intimate story against the vast canvas of a turbulent Europe. Audiences can expect extravagant action and intense combat in this historical epic on the UK’s largest screen from 22 November.

A centrepiece of the Sci-FiMAX: Into the Future, Now! season, and celebrating its tenth anniversary, Alfonso Cuarón’s dazzling space epic Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron, 2013) echoes 2001: A Space Odyssey, Solaris, Alien and the rich history of IMAX space documentaries. There’s no better place than the largest screen in the UK to see this extraordinary vision in 3D, playing at BFI IMAX from 19 October.

BFI Southbank’s regular programme strands have something for everyone – whether audiences are looking for silent treasures, experimental works or archive rarities.

The Suspect (Robert Siodmak, 1945) will be the first screening of a new strand highlighting masterpieces and recent discoveries from around the world – Restored. Charles Laughton is on tremendous form as the mild-mannered office manager in Siodmak’s drama, which was inspired by the notorious Dr Crippen case. It’s the perfect way to kick off this new regular strand in the programme, restored in 4K by Universal Pictures from the original 35mm nitrate negative and a 35mm fine grain nitrate composite. The screening on 17 October will be introduced by Justin Johnson, BFI lead programmer. 

Meanwhile, recently unearthed by connoisseur label Second Run and presented in a 4K restoration supervised by cinematographer Miklós Gurbán, Twilight (György Fehér, 1991) may be the most transcendent cinematic discovery of the year. Based on a novel by Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt, it’s a harrowing psychological drama in which a veteran detective allows his hunt for a child murderer to become an obsession. Incredibly haunting and atmospheric, it plays on 21 November and will be introduced by Jason Wood, BFI director of public programmes and audiences.

Screenings for families will include a preview of Leo (Robert Marianetti, Robert Smigel, David Wachtenheim, 2023), a Netflix animated comedy musical full of energy and humour, which follows a 74-year-old pet lizard who has lived in a school classroom for decades and features the comic talents of Adam Sandler. This Funday screening on 12 November will include arts and crafts, DIY animation and other activities in the foyer, free for ticketholders.

Celebrating 16 years of inspirational films by and about the people of Africa, this month’s African Odysseys screening is Mami Wata (C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi, 2023). Obasi’s third feature, a winner at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, cements his position at the forefront of a new wave of Nigerian filmmaking. Vividly shot in black-and-white, it features an incredible oceanic soundscape and hypnotic score. A screening on 18 November will include a Q&A and panel discussion with director C.J. ‘Fiery’ Obasi and producer Oge Obasi.

Erase and Forget (Andrea Luka Zimmerman, 2017) and What Can I Do with a Male Nude? (Ron Peck, 1985) are this month’s Experimenta offering, with a screening on 25 October followed by Andrea Luka Zimmerman and James Mackay in conversation with BFI National Archive curator William Fowler. Two films from the BFI National Archive that explore the charged, homoerotic and imagistic power of the 1980s Hollywood action hero, these bold artefacts return us to an era that celebrated and visually pawed gun-toting, oiled, muscular hunks, yet feared male flesh and close homosexual connection.

Art in the Making, which celebrates diverse artistic forms, movers and makers, presents a screening of Buildings Who Cares? (David Thompson, 1985) on 17 October. Developed from an original idea by architect Donald Insall, this film examines the concept of architectural conservation, explores the changing criteria which defines ‘heritage’ and highlights the implications inherent in the conflicting demands of new building and preservation. The screening will include an introduction by Adrian Steel, Director of Collections and programmes at RIBA, as well as a showing of Jim Stirling’s Architecture (Ron Parks, 1973).

Tickets for screenings in late October and November are on sale to BFI Patrons and Champions on 18 September, BFI Members on 19 September and to the general public on 21 September.