June 2023 at BFI Southbank: the women of Howard Hawks, Michel Piccoli, the BFI Film on Film Festival and more

BFI Southbank today announces the programme for June 2023, beginning with a season dedicated to the tough-talking, single-minded and impeccably dressed women who starred in the films of Howard Hawks. Razor Sharp: The Fabulous Women of Howard Hawks will be a month-long season celebrating the screen legends who brought these women to life, from Carole Lombard in Twentieth Century (1934) and Katharine Hepburn in Bringing Up Baby (1938) to Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday (1940) and Lauren Bacall in The Big Sleep (1946). 

Also taking place in June, Michel Piccoli: A Fearless Talent will celebrate the long and prolific career of undoubtedly one of the finest actors of modern times. The season will demonstrate how Piccoli was prepared to play any character, however disreputable or unsympathetic, in any kind of film, however potentially controversial – as long as the role held artistic worth. Films screening will include a BFI Distribution re-release of Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963), as well as Belle de jour (Luis Buñuel, 1967), Vincent, François, Paul et les autres (Claude Sautet, 1974), Passion (Jean-Luc Godard, 1982) and Habemus Papam (Nanni Moretti, 2011) along with many more. 

This month will also see the inaugural BFI Film on Film Festival, from 8 to 11 June, the programme for which will be revealed at a press launch on 21 April. 

Special events taking place at BFI Southbank in June will include Dexter Fletcher in Conversation on 4 June. As he celebrates over 50 years in the business, and the release of his latest directorial outing Ghosted (Dexter Fletcher, 2023), Fletcher will talk about his rich and varied career. A screening of the explosive, high-octane, big-budget treat, Ghosted, starring Chris Evans, Ana de Armas and Adrien Brody, will take place on 4 June, and will be preceded by an introduction from the filmmaker.

A love letter to Black British music, Champion (BBC One, 2023) is a celebration of a sound that has long been the beating heart of our culture. The show, which is the first TV project from the bestselling author of Queenie, Candice Carty-Williams, features an album’s worth of original music, written and produced by some of the UK’s leading artists, from singer-songwriter Ray BLK to grime pioneer Ghetts. A preview of episode one takes place on 19 June and will be followed by a Q&A with Candice Carty-Williams and members of the cast.

On World Refugee Day, 20 June, there will be a preview of the forthcoming BFI Distribution release Name Me Lawand (Edward Lovelace, 2022), in cinemas on 7 July, followed by a discussion with director Edward Lovelace and Steve Crump, OBE, founder and chair of Deaf Kidz International. This powerful documentary, which was backed by the BFI Doc Society Fund awarding National Lottery money and premiered at last year’s BFI London Film Festival, follows a Kurdish family who, convinced of the potential of their deaf son Lawand, leave Iraq and arrive in Derby, where he joins the Royal School for the Deaf Derby. Empowered with British Sign Language, Lawand reveals himself to be a witty and popular student, while his family navigate a new common language and fight to remain in the community that has embraced them. The event is presented in partnership with Counterpoints Arts, who produce and co-ordinate Refugee Week UK which runs 19 to 25 June 2023. Also taking place in Refugee Week is the UK premiere of the arresting and mysterious cinematic experience, The Woodman (2021), on 19 June; Koutaiba Al-Janabi’s latest feature is an allegory about the universal experience of otherness and the fearful plight displaced peoples so frequently experience.  

Weekender (Wiz 1992), the seminal and innovative music video for indie band Flowered Up’s track of the same name, is an 18-minute long portrait of the British acid house and rave scenes of the late 80s and early 90s. Its provocative depiction of drug taking and the euphoric escape from the banal realities of life, earned the film a UK wide ban from mainstream television, but it became a touchstone for a generation and is now widely acknowledged as an important cultural artefact. Now fully restored from the original negative, Wiz’s film is the subject of a new feature length documentary, I Am Weekender (Chloé Raunet, 2023), which charts the making of Weekender and explores its enduring impact. Presented as part of the BFI’s ongoing Sonic Cinema series, a special preview on 15 June will be followed by a Q&A and live DJ set to launch the BFI Blu-ray release of both films on 19 June.

Other previews this month include War Pony (Gina Gammell, Riley Keough, 2022) on 7 June. This beautiful and blistering portrait of young Native American life was developed out of co-directors Keough and Gammell’s involvement on Andrea Arnold’s 2016 film American Honey, during which they connected with extras whose own lives informed their screenplay for this film. 

The London Indian Film Festival, the UK and Europe’s largest South Asian film festival, returns to BFI Southbank over two parts this year. The first runs from 22 to 29 June and includes previews of international festival successes alongside the ever-popular Too Desi Too Queer and new Brit-Asian Shorts programmes. A highlight among the Q&As and discussions is a 100th-birthday conversation with Pam Cullen, who has dedicated her life to championing Indian cinema. The festival’s second part will return in September and full details of the June programme will be announced soon. 

BFI Southbank’s monthly event, Mark Kermode Live in 3D at the BFI, will take place on 5 June. A conversation between the audience and one of the nation’s favourite and most respected film critics, Mark Kermode will be joined by surprise guests from across the film industry to explore, critique and dissect current and upcoming releases, cinematic treasures, industry news and more. 

New releases screening on extended run at BFI Southbank will include the BFI Distribution feature Pretty Red Dress (Dionne Edwards, 2022) from 16 June. Dionne Edwards’ film, which is backed by the BFI Film Fund with National Lottery money and received its world premiere at last year’s BFI London Film Festival, crafts an uplifting family drama soundtracked by Tina Turner hits that will instantly fall into the canon of iconic London films. A skilful exploration of Black masculinity and family structures, the screening on 16 June will be followed by a Q&A with director-writer Dionne Edwards, producer Georgia Goggin and other members of the filmmaking team.

Also screening from 12 June is the smart, scintillating single-shot delight Medusa Deluxe (Thomas Hardiman, 2022), which is backed by the BFI Film Fund with National Lottery money. Scandal is afoot at a hairdressing competition: one of the competitors has been found scalped. The event is shut down and the venue locked, leaving rival stylists and models to dramatically speculate and squabble on who is guilty, why they did it and which one of them might be the next victim. Fabulous costumes and spectacular hair create a visual feast, while the hilarious and dedicated ensemble cast don’t miss a snip.

As well as the previously mentioned BFI Distribution release of Le Mépris (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963), which opens from 2 June, BFI Southbank celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy, 1973), the chilling British horror that just gets better with age, with screenings from 30 June courtesy of a new re-release from Studio Canal. Five decades after its first release, this story of a police sergeant investigating a missing schoolgirl on the Hebridean island of Summerisle continues to thrill. Its plausibility is what makes the film so unsettling, while its eccentricities and folklore roots provide a chilling delight.

Tickets for screenings in June are on sale to BFI Patrons and Champions on 2 May, BFI Members on 3 May and to the general public on 5 May.