Programme announced for September 2023 at BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX

A Family Affair: The Films of Yasujiro Ozu coincides with the 120th anniversary of the birth of the Japanese master filmmaker. Focusing on the theme of family life which dominated his films, this extensive season covers Ozu’s earliest work such as I Flunked, But… (1930) and I Was Born, But… (1932), through to his much-acclaimed late period, culminating in his final film An Autumn Afternoon (1962). 

The centrepiece of the season will be a beautifully restored 70th anniversary re-release of the masterpiece Tokyo Story (1953), which ranked 4th in Sight and Sound’s Greatest Films of All Time poll in 2022. The film will be re-released by BFI Distribution in select cinemas nationwide from 1 September, with a special screening at BFI IMAX on 24 September. The season will also be accompanied by an extensive collection of films, which are already available on BFI Player. 

Yasujiro Ozu has influenced countless filmmakers, and one such contemporary voice in Japanese cinema is Koji Fukada, whose new film Love Life (2022) will screen extended run when it is released by BFI Distribution on 15 September. In Fukada’s quietly devastating drama, a family tragedy makes clear the fault lines in a young couple’s relationship. Fukada has previously explored the complexity of human affairs, but here, the gravitational density of tragedy adds significant heft to this understated portrait of human frailty. 

To celebrate the release of Love Life and further explore the domestic space in Japan that lies at the heart of the Ozu season, there will also be screenings of three key titles so far in Koji Fukada’s career – Hospitalité (2010), Au revoir l’été (2013) and Harmonium (2016). 

Also in September will be Acting Hard, a season which explores representations of working-class masculinity in British cinema from the Thatcher era to the present day. Special events will include Danny Dyer in Conversation on 25 September, with season curator Nia Childs speaking to the eclectic actor about his wide-ranging career before a screening of The Football Factory (Nick Love, 2004), and Dead Man’s Shoes (Shane Meadows, 2004) on 11 September followed by a Q&A with director Shane Meadows. Other titles playing at BFI Southbank in the season will include Scum (Alan Clarke, 1979), My Beautiful Laundrette (Stephen Frears, 1985), Beautiful Thing (Hettie MacDonald, 1996), Sexy Beast (Jonathan Glazer, 2000), Sweet Sixteen (Ken Loach, 2002), Bullet Boy (Saul Dibb, 2004) and Muscle (Gerard Johnson, 2019).

Love, Pain and Cinema: The Films of Jean Eustache brings the hard-to-view films of one of France’s greatest filmmaker to BFI Southbank, beautifully restored in 4K. Screenings will include Eustache’s Cannes Grand Prix winner The Mother and the Whore (1973), My Little Loves (1974), A Dirty Story (1977), Numéro zéro (1977) and The Lost Sorrows of Jean Eustache (Angel Diaz, 1979), an extremely personal portrait of the troubled director. 

Meanwhile Lorenza Mazzetti’s three deeply poetic, avant-garde London-based works, The Country Doctor (1953), K (1953) and Together (1956) are all newly remastered by the BFI National Archive and stand testament to her radical vision. They play at BFI Southbank this month as part of a mini-season – Together: The London Films of Lorenza Mazzetti – which will also include screenings of films which put Mazzetti’s London films in context. 

Special events this month will include Brian Cox: 50 Years on Screen. One of the most gifted actors of his generation, Brian Cox will join Mark Kermode on stage at BFI Southbank on 5 September to celebrate his remarkable career and exceptional body of work, from an early role in the controversial The Year of the Sex Olympics, to the unforgettable Logan Roy in Succession and his charismatic Hannibal Lector in Michael Mann’s Manhunter (1987) – which will also be screening on 5 September. 

A preview of The Old Oak (Ken Loach, 2023), which is backed by the BFI Filmmaking Fund, awarding National Lottery funding, takes place on 26 September, followed by a Q&A with director Ken Loach and writer Paul Laverty who will discuss the film’s themes and issues. Purported to be Loach’s final narrative feature, and grappling with issues of immigration, social and economic inequality, the film charts the reactions of a northern former mining town to the arrival of Syrian refugees. Following the preview, the film will play on extended run at BFI Southbank from 29 September.

Following the success of the recent BFI Film on Film Festival, on 8 September BFI Southbank will screen a 78-year-old original release nitrate print of Mildred Pierce (Michael Curtiz, 1945), the great noir-meets-woman’s-picture, starring Joan Crawford in an Academy Award-winning performance. 

Meanwhile, award-winning composer Jung Jae-il has created some of South Korea’s most popular scores, from Kore-eda Hirokazu’s Broker and Hwang Dong-hyuk’s Squid Game series, to Bong Joon Ho collaborations Okja and Parasite. He joins us on 30 September to discuss the growing appeal of Korea’s cultural output overseas, as well as his critically acclaimed career. 

The BBC series Boiling Point, the first episode of which previews on 14 September, picks up six months after the end of the film of the same title, which premiered to critical acclaim at the BFI London Film Festival in 2021. Reuniting many of the original cast, sous chef Carly, now head chef at her own restaurant, begins to feel the magnitude of responsibility as the pressure mounts. 

BFI Southbank will also celebrate the fifth and final series of the hugely popular BBC show Ghosts with a preview of the first two episodes on 19 September and will be joined by most of the creative team who made it all happen including Lolly Adefope, Mathew Baynton, Simon Farnaby, Martha Howe-Douglas, Jim Howick, Laurence Rickard, Charlotte Ritchie and Ben Willbond. Following the destruction of their B&B in the gatehouse fire at the end of series four, Alison and Mike look towards other means of income and contemplate a new chapter that could have a huge effect on the ghosts’ (after)lives.

Also screening this month, in anticipation of the 60th anniversary of Doctor Who in November, is Doctor Who: The Five Doctors (Peter Moffat, 1983), a special feature-length episode produced for the show’s 20th anniversary, which now has updated effects and a new 5.1 sound mix. The Five Doctors brought together some of the show’s most treasured characters, including his previous incarnations and companions. Among those companions were Tegan and Nyssa, played by Janet Fielding and Sarah Sutton, both of whom will be onstage alongside fellow actor David Banks for a Q&A following the screening on 16 September. 

Joe Cornish’s 2011 sci-fi comedy Attack the Block (2011), about a group of youths defending their south London housing estate against an extraterrestrial attack, has achieved cult status. To mark the publication of Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka’s forthcoming book Black Boys: The Social Aesthetics of British Urban Cinema (Bloomsbury), a special event on 28 September will look at how the film remains a powerful narrative exploration of race and class, social stigma, housing, Black British identity and nationhood. 

The fifth annual S.O.U.L. FEST, in partnership with ABFF Global, returns to the BFI Southbank from 1 to 3 September. Expect the usual combination of exclusive preview feature films, a programme of masterclasses, panel discussions and practical sessions to support emerging talent in their journey through the film industry, with more details to be announced soon.

A monthly conversation between you (the audience) and one of the nation’s favourite and most respected film critics, Mark Kermode Live in 3D at the BFI takes place on 18 September. 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. This month, the event is followed by a screening of The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) with an introduction by Kermode.

Science fiction can be one of the most visually stunning and dynamic genres in cinema. It can prompt wonder and reflection, and bring both fear and hope. Exploring countless worlds, futuristic visions, dystopian societies, space and time, SCI-FIMAX: Into the Future, Now! brings together the biggest sci-fi classics from a century of cinema, many screening in IMAX large format. The programme will be announced soon. 

Also screening at BFI IMAX this month is The Creator (Gareth Edwards, 2023) from 29 September. In a future war between the human race and artificial intelligence, ex-special forces soldier Joshua is recruited to hunt down and kill the Creator, the elusive architect of the advanced AI, who has developed a weapon that threatens all human life. Rogue One and Monsters director Gareth Edwards delivers a high-octane action sci-fi thriller with an all-star cast that begs to be seen on the UK’s largest screen.

Tickets for screenings in September are on sale to BFI Patrons and Champions on 7 August, BFI Members on 8 August and to the general public on 10 August.