The BFI has announced programme highlights for April 2026 at BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX. These highlights feature major seasons. They include topics such as boxing on film, Australian filmmaker Peter Weir, and a deep dive into trash cinema. Throughout the month, audiences can anticipate a packed lineup. There will be previews, Q&As, and special events featuring filmmakers, actors, and cultural figures on stage in London.
Guests and on-stage events
Special guests will appear at BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX in April, work permitting. The guests will include actors Ray Winstone and Johnny Harris. ROSE OF NEVADA director Mark Jenkin and members of the cast will join them. Moreover, cult icon Mink Stole and drag impresario-filmmaker Peaches Christ will also be present. Filmmakers Mike Figgis, Shane Meadows, Christian Petzold, Gerald Fox, and Ryan Pickard are part of the lineup. Former World Champion boxers Darren Barker and Barry McGuigan will join the event. D IS FOR DISTANCE directors Emma Matthews, Chris Petit, and their son Louis Petit will attend. THE MAGIC FARAWAY TREE director Ben Gregor and producer Pippa Harris will be there. SURVIVING EARTH director Thea Gajić will join. The cast and creators of new series MINT will participate. Broadcaster and athlete Jeanette Kwakye will be present. Boxing writer Ruth Rapper will attend. Former boxers and coaches Jimmy Tibbs and Mark Tibbs will join. MY FERAL HEART director Jane Gull, writer Duncan Paveling, and producer James Rumsey will be there too.
SEP/OKT. 2024 DEUTSCHLAND MIROIRS No 3 by Christian Petzold with Paula Beer, Barbara Auer Matthias Brandt und Enno Trebs Photo by Christian Schulz/ Schrammfilm Die junge Klavierstudentin Emily aus Berlin wird in einen Autounfall verwickelt, bei dem ihr Freund ums Leben kommt. Wunderbarerweise überlebt Emily den Unfall unverletzt und wird von einer fremden Familie aufgenommen. Bei ihnen verbringt sie einige Zeit und findet Trost und Unterstützung, um ihr Leben wieder auf die Reihe zu bekommen. Doch mit der Zeit bemerkt sie, dass etwas mit der Familie nicht stimmt. Emily beginnt, sich zu fragen, wer diese Menschen wirklich sind und welche dunklen Geheimnisse sie verbergen. 
Picture Shows: Shannon (EMMA LAIRD) 
The Cinematic Life of Boxing
Running from 30 March to 30 April, THE CINEMATIC LIFE OF BOXING delves into the relationship between boxing and cinema. It highlights how boxing has shaped cinema and vice versa. The event brings together classics, cult titles, and underseen works spanning drama, comedy, and documentary. The season includes screenings of Best Picture winners ROCKY (John G. Avildsen, 1976), marking its 50th anniversary, RAGING BULL (Martin Scorsese, 1980), MILLION DOLLAR BABY (Clint Eastwood, 2004) and documentary Oscar-winner WHEN WE WERE KINGS (Leon Gast, 1996), as well as CREED (Ryan Coogler, 2015) and 35mm screenings of BODY AND SOUL (Robert Rossen, 1947), THE HURRICANE (Norman Jewison, 1999), ALI (Michael Mann, 2001) and THE FIGHTER (David O. Russell, 2010).
More stories
Curated by Dr. Clive Chijioke Nwonka, the season examines how boxing films tell stories about love. Dr. Nwonka is the BFI Professor in Practice and Associate Professor of Film Culture and Society at UCL. They reveal triumph and struggle while exploring themes of racial injustice and politics. They also highlight class, disability, and the human spirit. It launches on 31 March with the World Premiere of documentary LEARNING THE ROPES (2026). The premiere is introduced by Dr Nwonka and followed by a Q&A session. Participants include director Ryan Pickard, narrator Ray Winstone, and former World Champion Darren Barker. The focus is on London’s legendary Repton Boxing Club and its long-time coach Tony Burns.
Events across April will include: a Q&A with Barry McGuigan on 14 April following THE BOXER (Jim Sheridan, 1997); a Q&A with Johnny Harris on 16 April after JAWBONE (Thomas Q. Napper, 2017); director Shane Meadows in conversation on 21 April following TWENTYFOURSEVEN (1997); Jimmy and Mark Tibbs on 28 April after FIGHTERS (Ron Peck, 1991); and a discussion on gender in boxing with Jeanette Kwakye and Ruth Rapper on 15 April following MILLION DOLLAR BABY. More films are also part of the event. These include ROCCO AND HIS BROTHERS (Luchino Visconti, 1962) and FAT CITY (John Huston, 1972). THE HAPPIEST DAY IN THE LIFE OF OLLI MÄKI (2016) and JOURNEYMAN (Paddy Considine, 2017) will be featured. There will also be the UK Premiere of faux-documentary THE FEATHERWEIGHT (2023).
Finding Your Way: The Films of Peter Weir
FINDING YOUR WAY: THE FILMS OF PETER WEIR features new prints and restorations. It celebrates one of cinema’s most humane and versatile auteurs. The season spans Australian New Wave landmarks and Hollywood successes. It highlights how Weir’s characters confront the unknown. They face challenges from war, cultural collision, and artistic awakening. The films balance emotional intensity, visual beauty, and a refusal of easy sentimentality.
Events include a discussion on 9 April about Weir as an Australian director. This event features curator Elena Lazic, academic Dr Stephen Morgan, and critic Tim Robey. It follows a screening of THE PLUMBER (1979). Films playing throughout April include a new BFI 35mm print of PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (1975).
Other films
Other films are THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS (1974), THE LAST WAVE (1977), GALLIPOLI (1981), THE YEAR OF LIVING DANGEROUSLY (1982), WITNESS (1985), THE MOSQUITO COAST (1986), DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989), GREEN CARD (1990), FEARLESS (1993), THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998), MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD (2003), and THE WAY BACK (2010). MASTER AND COMMANDER will also screen on the UK’s largest screen at BFI IMAX on 19 April.
TRASH! The Wildest Films You’ve Ever Seen
BFI Southbank’s April programme also unleashes TRASH! THE WILDEST FILMS YOU’VE EVER SEEN. It is a season that celebrates low-budget, transgressive and defiantly “bad taste” cinema. This cinema is recognized as a proudly subversive art form. The season embraces camp, DIY aesthetics, and radical ideas about gender, sex, and identity. It traces trash cinema’s roots in sideshows, drive-ins, midnight movies, and alternative art spaces. It also explores how these films blur lines between art and exploitation, parody and homage.
The centrepiece is IDOL WORSHIP – AN EVENING WITH MINK STOLE & PEACHES CHRIST on 10 April. This intimate cabaret-style show includes stories, clips, and live songs with John Waters regular Mink Stole. San Francisco drag impresario-filmmaker Peaches Christ also features in the show. It is pitched as an uncensored, hilarious, and revealing celebration of cult cinema and drag history. Other highlights include the premiere of a new 35mm print of Ed Wood’s PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE (1957). The premiere is scheduled for 7 April. This print was created from original elements in the BFI National Archive. There is also an opening talk, SOME FILMS ARE TRASH, SOME HAVE TRASH-NESS THRUST UPON THEM, on 1 April. The talk will feature curators Will Fowler and Justin Johnson. Guests Helen de Witt, Elena Gorfinkel and Dominic Johnson will also attend.
More features
The season features work by John Waters (MULTIPLE MANIACS, PINK FLAMINGOS), George and Mike Kuchar (SINS OF THE FLESHAPOIDS, HOLD ME WHILE I’M NAKED), Jack Smith (NORMAL LOVE), Herschell Gordon Lewis (BLOOD FEAST), Russ Meyer (FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!), Paul Morrissey (TRASH), Curt McDowell (THUNDERCRACK!), Beth B (SALVATION!), Bruce LaBruce (SUPER 8 ½) and more, in a mix of archive prints, restorations and titles also available UK-wide on BFI Player.
Previews, documentaries, special screenings
April at BFI Southbank also includes an extensive slate of previews and special events. Highlights include:
- KINAESTHESIA (2025) – Gerald Fox’s stylised documentary on dreams in silent cinema will be previewed on 17 and 19 April. There will be Q&As during these previews. Fox will also introduce METROPOLIS (1926) and a SILENT DREAMS shorts programme. There will be related screenings of A PAGE OF MADNESS (1926) and THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER (1928).
- ROSE OF NEVADA (2025) – a BFI Distribution preview will be held on 23 April. It includes director Mark Jenkin and cast (TBC). An In Conversation with Mike Figgis will take place on 28 April. This is part of Jenkin’s Big Screen Classics choices. The event includes a screening of Figgis’ TIMECODE (2000).
- D IS FOR DISTANCE (2025) – preview on 2 April. A Q&A with directors Emma Matthews, Chris Petit, and Louis Petit follows. They explore memory, epilepsy, bureaucracy, and resilience via family archive footage.
- THE MAGIC FARAWAY TREE (2026) – family film preview on 1 April. The preview features director Ben Gregor and producer Pippa Harris. They are adapting Enid Blyton’s beloved stories.
- SURVIVING EARTH (2025) – preview on 13 April with director Thea Gajić. It is about a Yugoslav refugee who became a Bristol counsellor and band leader.
- MIROIRS NO. 3 (2025) – There will be a preview on 15 April. It will be followed by a Q&A with director Christian Petzold. This film is a metaphysical drama about grief, doubling, and reinvention.
- MINT (2026) – TV preview on 9 April with cast and creators (TBC). This is the series debut from SCRAPPER director Charlotte Regan. It is set inside a crime family and told from the daughter’s perspective.
- MY FERAL HEART (2016) – Enjoy a relaxed screening on 30 March. Celebrate the 10th anniversary with a Q&A featuring Jane Gull, Duncan Paveling, and James Rumsey.
- COTTON QUEEN (2025) – There will be a preview on 23 April in the Woman with a Movie Camera strand. The film follows a Sudanese village confronting genetically modified cotton and its future.
- 25th anniversary screening of AMELIE (2001) will be on 31 March. A HARD DAY’S NIGHT (1964) will be on 8 April. Both events will be introduced by broadcaster and author Samira Ahmed.
- MARK KERMODE LIVE IN 3D returns on 13 April. There will be surprise guests. The conversation will cover new releases, hidden gems, and “guilty pleasures.”
Tickets for April screenings and events go on sale to BFI Patrons on 9 March. They are available to BFI Members on 10 March. The general public can purchase them on 12 March.
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