BFI Southbank programme announced for July 2021

The newly announced July programme at BFI Southbank will include a long-anticipated season dedicated to the World of Wong Kar Wai, presented in partnership with Janus Films and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA). This complete retrospective of the Hong Kong master filmmaker, which will take place at BFI Southbank and the ICA, features seven brand-new 4K restorations (five overseen by Wong Kar Wai himself), and will include titles such as the offbeat love story Chungking Express (1994) and breathtaking romance In the Mood for Love (2000). 

Also in July is But Where Are You Really From?, a season curated by  T A P E Collective that explores the nuances of being mixed heritage. The season will launch with a week-long takeover of the BFI’s online channels from 28 June, before the month-long season at BFI Southbank throughout July. 

This month’s programme also includes a season of films by acclaimed Hungarian filmmaker Márta Mészáros, the first woman to win the Golden Bear at the Berlinale for her intergenerational story of female empowerment Adoption (1975). Mészáros, who turns 90 in September, will take part in a number of pre-recorded introductions during the season. 

Completing the line-up of seasons in July is the culmination of the BFI’s major Robert Altman retrospective, which looks at the latter part of Altman’s career, from his impressive account of Van Gogh’s final years Vincent and Theo (1990) through to his cinematic swansong A Prairie Home Companion (2006). 

The events programme in July will include the return of the hugely popular event Mark Kermode Live in 3D at the BFI on 5 July (special guests to be announced soon) and a Woman with a Movie Camera powered by Jaguar preview of Prano Bailey-Bond’s Censor (2020), a sensational debut feature about a young woman working for the censorship board who is caught up in ‘video nasty’ hysteria of the 1980s. Censor, which was developed and produced with the support of the BFI, using funds from the National Lottery, will preview on 1 July, followed by a Q&A with Bailey-Bond, before playing on extended run from 2 July. 

There will also be a family preview of The Croods: a New Age (Joel Crawford, 2020) on 11 July, the sequel to the hugely popular DreamWorks Animation about a stone age family. 

Partner festivals this month include the Chinese Visual Festival, which returns to BFI Southbank for their annual celebration of the amazing cinema and filmmakers of Hong Kong and China from 15 to 25 July. Screenings at BFI Southbank will include UK premieres of opening night film Drifting (Jun Li, 2021), Love Poem (Wang Xiaozhen, 2020) and closing night film Shadows (Glenn Chan, 2020). 

Also in July will be the opening night of the Black Lens Film Festival, in partnership with the Black Cultural Archives and Alt Africa. The festival opens at BFI Southbank on 16 July with the UK premiere of How to Stop a Recurring Dream (Ed Morris, 2021) followed by a Q&A with director Ed Morris and actor Ruby Barker. 

Alongside Censor, extended runs in July will include Ultraviolence (2020), Ken Fero’s follow-up to his groundbreaking film Injustice, which tragically feels as timely as ever. Also screening will be Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round (2020), which won best film at the BFI London Film Festival, Zoé Wittock’s disarmingly enchanting take on objectophile love Jumbo (2020) and the beautifully absurd and deadpan delight Deerskin (Quentin Dupieux, 2019). 

Re-releases will include the BFI re-release of the 4K restoration of Robert Altman’s masterpiece Nashville (1975), Claudia Weill’s achingly funny and brilliantly well observed Girlfriends (1978) and the sharp-witted drama Mandabi (1968), the second feature from master filmmaker Ousmane Sembène.