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

The BFI Southbank programme for late October and November 2024 begins with Echoes in Time: Korean Films of the Golden Age and New Cinema, a major new season running from 28 October to 31 December. Programmed by Young Jin Eric Choi and Goran Topalovic, Echoes in Time will focus on two groundbreaking periods in the Korean cinema timeline, when huge technical, stylistic and thematic innovations took place: the golden age of the 1960s and the New Korean Cinema movement (1996 to 2003). 

Both periods gave birth to seminal works across a wide range of genres, successfully combining genre thrills with arthouse sensibilities. Although South Korean cinema didn’t break out into the global mainstream until the Cannes and Oscar success of Parasite (and on the small screen with Squid Game), it had been producing remarkable films for decades, despite unique historic and socio-economic challenges, and this season will serve as a perfect entry point and introduction for audiences to the rich legacy of Korean cinema.  

Titles screenings in October and November will include Aimless Bullet (Yu Hyun-mok, 1961), A Woman Judge (Hong Eun-won, 1961), The Marines Who Never Returned (Lee Man-hee, 1963), Let’s Meet at Walkerhill (Han Hyeong-mo, 1966), A Swordsman in the Twilight (Chung Chang-wha, 1967), Nowhere to Hide (Lee Myung-se, 1999), The Contact (Chang Yoon-hyun, 1997), Shiri (Kang Jae-gyu, 1999), Joint Security Area (Park Chan-wook, 2000), Take Care of My Cat (Jeong Jae-Eun, 2001) and Save the Green Planet! (Jang Joon-hwan, 2003). A screening of Save the Green Planet! on 30 October will be followed by Q&A with director Jang Joon-hwan, while programmers Young Jin Eric Choi and Goran Topalovic will also introduce several films in October. 

This landmark season, which features many titles rarely screened in the UK, was prepared in collaboration with the Korean Film Archive (KOFA), which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year; featured in the programme are 12 digital restorations and 5 digital remasters supervised by KOFA, as well as unique 35mm prints from its archival collection. The season is also presented in partnership with the Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK) and the Korean Film Council. The KCCUK hosts the annual London Korean Film Festival, which returns for its 19th edition from 1 to 13 November. 

Ranging from new releases to independents to special strands, the London Korean Film Festival is the largest Korean film festival outside of Korea and to complement the Echoes in Time season, the festival will present two strands of films at BFI Southbank – Women’s Voices, showcasing 15 years of Korean female directors, and Cinema Now, celebrating contemporary voices in Korean cinema. 

This special programme is curated by Anton Bitel and Eunji Lee and will include numerous intros and Q&As, as well as a special event the Women’s Voices Forum on 11 November, with directors Kim Hye-young (It’s Okay!) and Kim Da-min (FAQ) in conversation with Professor Jinhee Choi. Both It’s Okay! (Kim Hye-young, 2023) and FAQ (Kim Da-min, 2023), will have screenings during the festival followed by Q&As with their respective directors, while other titles screening will include Sisters on the Road (Boo Ji-Young, 2008), A Girl at My Door (Jung July, 2014), The Truth Beneath (Lee Kyoung-Mi, 2015), Concerning My Daughter (Lee Mi-Rang, 2023), Following (Kim Se-Hwi, 2023), Mother’s Kingdom (Lee Sang-Hak, 2023) and The Tenants (Yoon Eun-Kyung, 2023).  

As previously announced, this autumn the BFI will present a new season celebrating the artistry of real action choreography that has kept film audiences on the edge of their seats since the early days of cinema with, as its centrepiece, a BFI Distribution re-release of Kathryn Bigelow’s kinetic action masterpiece Point Break (1991) starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze. Presented by the BFI Film Audience Network (BFI FAN) using funds from the National Lottery, Art of Action will take place at cinemas across the UK from October to December 2024, with the chance to get behind-the-scenes insights from those working in the action and stunt communities, via special events, demonstrations, talks and screenings. 

BFI Southbank’s contribution to Art of Action will focus on several themes alongside stunts, from the women of action (including Run Lola Run, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, The Woman King and Yes, Madam) and Hong Kong master John Woo (including Face/Off, Broken Arrow, Hard Target and the Red Cliff films) to the unbridled cinematic power of Bollywood (featuring RRR, Main Hoon Na and Dhoom:2).  

Special events during the BFI Southbank season will include a screening, presented in partnership with the London Action Festival, of John Frankenheimer’s The Train (1964), which will be introduced by director Christopher McQuarrie and editor Eddie Hamilton, who have collaborated on many Mission: Impossible films; they will discuss why they love this thrilling tale of the French resistance protecting their national treasures, and how it has influenced their own work. 

There will also be a TV preview of series two of Steven Knight’s SAS Rogue Heroes (BBC, 2024), followed by a Q&A with Knight and members of the cast and a screening of Nida Manzoor’s hugely enjoyable directorial debut Polite Society (2023) about an aspiring stuntwoman, followed by a Q&A with Manzoor. Further one-off events will include Stunt Saturday – a day dedicated to the art of the stunt where audiences can and meet some of the unsung stars of the stunt world and discover how their craft has developed over the years – with talks, panel events, screenings and workshops; an event to celebrate famed action trailers, and BFI IMAX All-Nighters dedicated to the Mission: Impossible and John Wick franchises. 

Also taking place from 21 October to 30 November will be Tear This Building Down: James Baldwin on Film, a season exploring James Baldwin’s many interests in film, which he explored through his book-length 1976 essay, The Devil Finds Work. Novelist, playwright and essayist Caryl Phillips is our season advisor for Tear This Building Down, and has selected films about Baldwin, films that feature work by close friends such as Lorraine Hansberry and Sidney Poitier, and two adaptations of his own novels. 

The season will begin with a screening of the evocative drama ’Round Midnight (Bertrand Tavernier, 1986) on 22 October, presented by BFI African Odysseys, and followed by a discussion with writers Gary Younge and Caryl Phillips who will discuss the film in light of Baldwin’s connection to the US and the time he spent in France. Also screening will be Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro (2017), which reflects on the Civil Rights struggle told entirely through the words of James Baldwin, A Raisin in the Sun (Daniel Petrie, 1961), which Lorraine Hansberry adapted from her own stage play, and which was garlanded with praise by Baldwin, and two fiction adaptations of Baldwin’s own works – Go Tell It on the Mountain (Stan Latham, 1985) and If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins, 2018). 

Completing the line-up will be documentaries James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket (Karen Thorsen, 1989) featuring rarely seen archival footage and reportage of Baldwin’s funeral alongside intimate and revealing interviews, and I Heard It Through the Grapevine (Dick Fontaine, Pat Hartley, 1981) which follows Baldwin and his brother David as they travel to key sites in Atlanta, Selma, Birmingham, St Augustine, Florida and New York to explore the legacy of the Civil Rights movement.  

Completing the line-up of seasons will be Hidden Truths: John Pilger and the Power of Documentary, running from 26 October to 30 November. Over the course of 50 years, the Australian-born, British-based journalist John Pilger’s documentaries shone a light on the world’s upheavals, its power politics, injustices and the struggle of peoples. Pilger’s remarkable body of work gave a fresh eye to history in the making – from the US war in Vietnam, the aftermath of Pol Pot’s Cambodia (Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia), and repression in East Timor (Death of a Nation: The Timor Conspiracy) and Burma, to the post-9/11 world (Breaking The Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror) and discrimination against Indigenous Australians in his homeland (Lousy Little Sixpence, Utopia). 

From his first television film in 1970, Pilger challenged the establishment. While ruffling feathers, he showed the power of the documentary in exploring complex issues and eliciting public and political reactions. The season features some of his most powerful documentaries, alongside similarly incisive films from around the world that he personally chose before he sadly passed away in 2023, with his family continuing to work with the BFI since then to ensure his remarkable legacy is properly commemorated. 

The season will also include a special event – The Pilger Effect – on 28 October, where author Anthony Hayward (In the Name of Justice: The Television Reporting of John Pilger) will present an illustrated overview of Pilger’s career, followed by a panel discussion with special guests including film director Ken Loach, Christopher Hird of Dartmouth Films and Richard Creasey, former head of documentaries at ATV and Central Independent Television, who will discuss the global influence of John Pilger’s work and his rich legacy.  

Released by the BFI in cinemas UK-wide on 29 November, and playing at BFI Southbank on extended run, will be All We Imagine as Light (2024), the sublime second feature from Payal Kapadia, who became the first Indian filmmaker to win the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival for this poetic portrait of three women navigating life in Mumbai. Soulful yet melancholic, graceful and generous, with lush cinematography and a swooningly romantic jazz piano score, All We Imagine as Light is gorgeous, magical cinema. 

Other special events in late October and November will include a preview of No Other Land (Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, 2024) on 30 October, which sees the unlikely pairing of a Palestinian filmmaker and an Israeli journalist set out to record life in Palestinian villages that are subject to Israeli army occupation. This award-winning documentary offers vital insight into the troubled area, while offering a compelling account of two men similar in age and spirit, whose connection runs deep despite growing up on opposite sides of the conflict. 

Meanwhile, to celebrate the centenary of legendary Armenian director Sergei Parajanov and Armenian cinema, on 29 October we present an evening of early Armenian shorts featuring Parajanov’s 1967 film Hakob Hovnatanyan, and Hamo Bek-Nazaryan’s 1927 silent comedy Shor & Shorshor, with live electric cello accompaniment by celebrated musician Artyom Manukyan. 

Elsewhere, a Woman with a Movie Camera preview of Black Box Diaries (Shiori Ito, 2024) on 22 November will include a Q&A with director Shiori Ito. Investigative journalist Ito documents her own against-the-odds journey to justice after she was sexually assaulted by a high-profile and well-connected public figure. Her quest becomes a landmark case, exposing Japan’s outdated judicial and societal systems.  

A special celebration of the hugely popular TV series, Vera: End of an Era will feature a Q&A with Brenda Blethyn, Ann Cleeves and further guests to be announced. It was 25 years ago that Ann Cleeves’ first Vera Stanhope novel was published and in 2011, the best-selling series was adapted into a brilliant ITV crime drama. On 5 November we will highlight memorable scenes from earlier series and exclusively screen some sequences from the final season. 

Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band: Still Barking – Colour Me Pop (Steve Turner, 1968) on 14 November will present rare and precious footage featuring eccentric art-rock group Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, followed by a Q&A with band members and special guests, hosted by Samira Ahmed. Research for a massive new box set has unearthed fascinating archive material, some of which will be screened at this event for the first time in decades. 

Meanwhile, we celebrate the spooky season with screenings of Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978) on 26, 27, 30 and 31 October, John Carpenter’s classic that created the new blueprint for the modern slasher horror. One of the first films to make use of the recently developed Steadicam technology, it features a terrific score, by Carpenter, that adds immeasurably to the unbearable suspense in the film. 

The Royal African Society will present their annual Festival Film Africa from 25 October to 3 November, one of the most anticipated and celebrated showcases of African cinema in Europe, which returns for its 2024 edition. This year’s festival promises an exhilarating array of films, virtual events, director Q&As, panel discussions, professional workshops, master classes, school screenings and family activities. 

Finally, Mark Kermode Live in 3D returns on 18 November. Joined by surprise guests from across the film industry, Mark Kermode explores, critiques and dissects current and upcoming releases, cinematic treasures, industry news and even some guilty pleasures. 

In addition to the previously mentioned BFI Distribution releases of All We Imagine as Light (Payal Kapadia, 2024) and Point Break (Kathryn Bigelow, 1991), films playing on extended run throughout the month at BFI Southbank will include The Room Next Door (Pedro Almodóvar, 2024), Layla (Amrou Al-Kadhi, 2024), Anora (Sean Baker, 2024) and Bird (Andrea Arnold, 2024), as well as the BFI re-release of Watership Down (Martin Rosen, 1978).

New releases screening at BFI IMAX in late October and November will include Joker: Folie à Deux (Todd Phillips, 2024) and Gladiator II (Ridley Scott, 2024), plus The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980) and Swan Lake filmed in IMAX at the Paris Opera.

Tickets for BFI Southbank screenings in late October and November are on sale to BFI Patrons on 24 September, BFI Members on 25 September, and to the general public on 27 September.