Programme highlights for May 2025: Tom Cruise, Mai Zetterling and the early works of Black women filmmakers

As previously announced, the programme for May 2025 at BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX starts with a season dedicated to Tom Cruise, celebrating Cruise being recognised with the BFI’s highest honour, a BFI Fellowship. 

A highlight of the season, which is programmed by the BFI’s Kimberley Sheehan and will include 28 films from his career, will be Tom Cruise in Conversation on 11 May, where the Academy Award-nominated actor, producer and all-round hero of cinema will join us at BFI Southbank to reflect on his incredible career, sharing insights into his craft and his approach to making such awe-inspiring films. 

Cruise will also introduce a screening of one of the Mission: Impossible films at BFI IMAX, the UK’s largest screen, which Cruise has frequented numerous times. The choice of film will be down to audiences, with a public vote open now and closing on Sunday night (30 March); the winning film will be announced before tickets for the season go on sale to the public on 10 April. 

Also taking place in May is a season celebrating the centenary of Mai Zetterling, who left a dazzlingly varied and unique filmography after a remarkable journey through the industry beset with challenges and frustrations. Stardom in post-war Britain brought unfulfilling parts in a stifling system and Zetterling’s determination to get behind the camera and bring her personal vision to the screen, by whatever means necessary, became the driving force in her life. 

From visceral television documentaries to hard-hitting features, she was an auteur from day one, demanding control of every stage of the filmmaking process. Often taking women’s lives as her focus, she refused to be limited or pigeonholed by her gender, fighting stereotypes both on set and on screen. 

This season curated by Josephine Botting and Kajsa Hedström highlights the immense passion and talent that she brought to everything she did, both as an actor and director. A screening of Zetterling’s award-winning short film The War Game (1962) on 6 May will be followed by a Q&A with her son, Louis Lemkov, who will talk about his mother’s life and work. 

Other films playing at BFI Southbank in May will include Zetterling’s on screen performances Sunshine Follows Rain (Gustaf Edgren, 1946), Frieda (Basil Dearden, 1947), The Romantic Age (Edmond T. Gréville, 1949), Jet Storm (Cy Endfield, 1959) and The Witches (Nicholas Roeg, 1990), as well as directorial work including Loving Couples (1963), Night Games (1964), The Girls (1968), Scrubbers (1981) and Amorosa (1982). 

Completing the line-up of seasons in May, Black Debutantes celebrates the Black women and femme filmmakers past and present whose remarkable work and impact is often underseen and under-discussed. Conceived in response to the lack of Black women directors with filmographies robust enough to support a month-long solo programme, this season uncovers a number of familiar early works by respected filmmakers alongside films new to UK audiences. 

Several of the directors featured, such as Cauleen Smith and Bridgett M. Davis, have only made one traditional feature throughout their careers. Nevertheless, their powerful voices and unique perspectives remain as fresh and relevant as ever. Recurring themes of love, motherhood, ancestral trauma, the relationship to one’s body, racial violence and filmmaking itself all emerge from these remarkable films in a range of genres, from coming-of-age and historical dramas to dystopian epics and contemporary independents. 

A highlight of the programme will be Exhibiting Black Cinema on 22 May, when season curator Rógan Graham will lead a panel discussion on the processes and challenges in archiving, restoring and exhibiting Black-led films to audiences with industry professionals Isra Al Kassi (T A P E Collective), Ashley Clark (Criterion Collection) and Carmen Thompson (We Are Parable). 

A richly illustrated 25 & Under Introduction to Black Debutantes on 1 May will also focus on selected films and filmmakers featured in the season, as well as themes emerging from the works and Graham’s journey of programming the season, from the initial idea to the realised programme. 

Films playing throughout the month will include the UK premiere of 4K restorations of Will (Jessie Maple, 1981) and Compensation (Zeinabu Irene Davis, 1999), a screening of Losing Ground (Kathleen Collins, 1982) with a pre-recorded intro by Nina Lorez Collins, plus Sugar Cane Alley (Euzhan Palcy, 1983), Naked Acts (Bridgett M. Davis, 1996), Welcome II the Terrordome (Ngozi Onwurah, 1995), What My Mother Told Me (Frances-Anne Solomon, 1995), Drylongso (Cauleen Smith, 1998), A Way of Life (Amma Asante, 2004), Pariah (Dee Rees, 2011), and the UK premieres of Test Pattern (Shatara Michelle Ford, 2019) and Mountains (Monica Sorelle, 2023). 

On the day of the BFI Distribution release of The Extraordinary Miss Flower (2024), 9 May, there will be a special screening of the film followed by a Q&A with Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard and Caroline Katz, and including a live performance by Emiliana Torrini. Telling the story of Geraldine Flower, whose vast trove of letters from the 1960s and 70s details a fascinating life, these letters form the basis of Icelandic singer and composer Torrini’s song cycle, which drives the film. 

Meanwhile, a preview of Bogancloth (Ben Rivers, 2025) on 2 May will be followed by a Q&A with director Ben Rivers, who captures the daily life of modern-day hermit Jake Williams on 16mm film in Scotland’s vast Highland forests. A follow-up to River’s previous portrait of Jake, this latest work is a dreamlike mediation on nature, solitude, music and one individual’s singular approach to life. 

A special event on 4 May, Doctor Who: 20 Years On will explore what it is about this TV phenomenon that connects with different types of audiences and the themes essential to the show, twenty years on from its triumphant relaunch. Alongside a screening of episodes from the first series, we discuss the impact of the show over 60 years since the original programme first hit the screens. 

We celebrate the 20th anniversary of Bullet Boy (Saul Dibb, 2004) on 6 May followed by a Q&A with actor Ashley Walters, director Saul Dibb and producer Ruth Caleb, led by Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka. A landmark film exploring the impact of gun crime upon a Black family in Hackney, it features a breakout performance by Walters. 

Elsewhere, Apocalypse Now: The Final Cut (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979) will play on 7 May, with an extended introduction by editor and sound designer Walter Murch. Coppola’s hallucinatory vision of Hell on Earth lures us into its insanity through groundbreaking sound design and an audacious level of ambition. War has never been so spectacular in cinema, or quite so grotesque. 

The UK Asian Film Festival returns to BFI Southbank from 1 to 10 May, with screenings set to include the opening night gala My Melbourne (Onir, 2024), an anthology film featuring four short narratives that explore diverse experiences of life in Australia, and closing night gala The Glassworker (Usman Riaz, 2024). 

Other previews at BFI Southbank in May will include Riefenstahl (Andres Veiel, 2024) on 6 May, which uses archive materials from German actor and director Leni Riefenstahl’s estate – private films, photos, recordings and letters – to dissect the life and actions of this controversial figure best known for her Nazi propaganda films. Though they glamourised the Nazi’s rise to power, Riefenstahl spent much of her life denying having close ties to the regime. 

Meanwhile, kaleidoscopic, cyber-feminism documentary Seeking Mavis Beacon (Jazmin Jones, 2024) sees filmmaker Jazmin Jones team up with cyber doula Olivia McKayla Ross to conduct an investigation to track down the icon from their childhood who taught millions of people touch typing in the late 80s through the 90s.

Finally, Mark Kermode Live in 3D returns on 7 April. 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.