The BFI today announces its upcoming cultural programme highlights for audiences across the UK, in cinemas at BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX, and around the UK/Ireland through BFI Distribution, on BFI Player and on BFI Blu-ray.
The BFI today announces its upcoming cultural programme highlights for audiences across the UK, in cinemas at BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX, and around the UK/Ireland through BFI Distribution, on BFI Player and on BFI Blu-ray. From highly anticipated premieres and new releases, archive restorations, curated seasons and film festivals on the big screen, to the most exciting names in film and television live on stage, plus free archive film material in libraries and at home as well distinctive online collections, the BFI’s 2026 cu
The BFI’s 2026 programme will include:
-
Film and TV seasons at BFI Southbank including retrospect
ives on filmmakers David Lynch, Kathryn Bigelow, Andrzej Wajda, Peter Weir, Ritwik Ghatak, Guillermo del Toro (recently announced as our next BFI Fellow), Peter Watkins, Sir John Akomfrah and Billy Wilder as well as Marilyn Monroe as part of her centenary celebrations, an extensive two month season on Brazilian Cinema, as part of the UK/Brazil Season of Culture 2025-26, plus a range of thematic seasons looking at boxing, Trash Cinema, skateboarding, British Postwar Cinema (1945-1960), the history of the UK’s multicultural TV units, Constructed, Told, Spoken: A Counter History of Britain on TV, films from the UK’s influential Black and South Asian Workshops remastered in 4K by the BFI National Archive, Puppetry on screen, a season programmed by Kazuo Ishiguro about films set on trains, celebratory weekenders looking back at the Festival of Britain 75 years on, and much more.
-
BFI Distribution UK and Ireland cinema releases of new features including MENUS-PLAIS
IRS – LES TROISGROS, THE CHRONOLOGY OF WATER, D IS FOR DISTANCE, ROSE OF NEVADA, ISH and SUPER NATURE, plus classics including STRONG ROOM and CRONOS.
-
Annual BFI Festivals celebrate significan
t milestones in 2026, with the 40th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival (19–30 March) and the 70th BFI London Film Festival returning in October.
-
Major releases and event cinema screenings on the UK’s largest screen, BFI IMAX, including NARNIA (Greta Gerwig), THE BRIDE! (Maggie Gyllenhaal), PROJECT HAIL MARY (Phil Lord and Chris Miller), THE MANDALORIAN & GROGU (Jon Favreau), and Christopher Nolan’s THE ODYSSEY shot entirely with IMAX cameras and playing on an IMAX 70mm print, plus seasons on David Lynch and Guillermo del Toro with screenings at BFI IMAX.
-
New releases, classic titles and curated collections on BFI Player including subscription collections on Br
azilian Cinema, boxing, trash cinema, skateboarding, and Fre derick Wiseman.
-
BFI Blu-ray releases including Cinema Expanded: The Films of Frederick Wiseman 3-disc Blu-ray collection, Mark Jenkin’s ROSE OF NEVADA, a BFI remaster of Vernon Sewell’s STRONGROOM (1962), 3-
disc Blu-ray/DVD Dual Format Edition set of Daniel Farson’s Guide to Britain Volume 1 and Children's Film Foundation Bumper Box: Volume 6.
-
UK-wide releases of films made with the support of the BFI Filmmaking Fund, awarding National Lottery funding, including Akinola Davies Jr’s MY FATHER’S SHADOW starring Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù,
Aneil Karia’s HAMLET starring Riz Ahmed and Morfydd Clark (both released 6 February), Mark Jenkin’s ROSE OF NEVADA starring George MacKay and Callum Turner (released 24 April) and Imran Perretta’s IS H (released spring/summer). Also recently in production and expected in 2026, hotly anticipated new features from Shane Meadows with CHORK, his first feature in 17 years, and Clio Barnard with I SEE BUILDINGS FALL LIKE LIGHTNING starring Anthony Boyle, Joe Cole, Jay Lycurgo and Daryl McCormack, as well as directorial feature debuts from Ashley Walters, with ANIMOL staring Tut Nyuot, Vladyslav Baliuk and Stephen Graham, and Thea Gajić, with SURVIVING EARTH starring Slavko Sobin and Olive Gray.