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Enjoy landmark classic and cult films from across the decades. Free for 14 days, then £4.99 a month - cancel any time
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Daisiess TEST3 qaDaisiess TEST3 qa
Comedy 1966 73 minsDirector: Věra Chytilová
Two self-confessed hedonists wreak wanton havoc in Věra Chytilová's visually spectacular neo-dadaist farce.
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HeathersHeathers
Comedy 1989 103 minsDirector: Michael Lehmann
Winona Ryder and Christian Slater star in the endlessly quotable cult black comedy that subverted expectations of teen movies forever.
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La dolce vitaLa dolce vita
Drama 1960 175 minsDirector: Federico Fellini
Federico Fellini’s masterpiece depicting seven hedonistic days in the life of a tabloid journalist (Marcello Mastroianni) as he searches for the sweet life.
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Sixth HappinessSixth Happiness
Biopic 1997 94 minsDirector: Waris Hussein
Funny, acerbic and moving story of a young man's sexual awakening as family life crumbles around him.
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Power in Our HandsPower in Our Hands
Documentary 2016 75 minsDirector: Angela Spielsinger
Ground-breaking documentary that uses archive film to tell the story of the British Deaf community’s fight for civil rights.
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This Our Still LifeThis Our Still Life
Documentary 2011 56 minsDirector: Andrew Kötting
23-year-old Eden is shown drawing and painting still lifes in her Pyrenean family home.
Coming soon
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When I Saw YouWhen I Saw You
Drama 2014 94 minsDirector: Annemarie Jacir
Following the Six-Day War in 1967, a young Palestinian refugee boy yearns to be reunited with his father and joins a band of freedom fighters.
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Let the Right One InLet the Right One In
Horror 2008 115 minsDirector: Tomas Alfredson
A twelve-year-old boy befriends a mysterious girl with a dark secret, in Tomas Alfredson’s grownup tale of childhood vampirism.
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Amores perrosAmores perros
Drama 2000 148 minsDirector: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Alejandro González Iñárritu's (Birdman, The Revenant) gripping debut feature is a savagely brilliant triptych around the theme of animalistic desires.
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No Home MovieNo Home Movie
Documentary 2015 118 minsDirector: Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman’s rigorously observational portrait of her late mother takes on a whole new significance in the wake of the director’s own premature passing.
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MauriceMaurice
Drama 1987 140 minsDirector: James Ivory
Merchant Ivory’s landmark adaptation of E M Forster’s classic LGBTQ+ novel and a precursor to the James Ivory-scripted Call Me By Your Name, starring Hugh Grant, James Wilby and Rupert Graves.
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High LifeHigh Life
Science Fiction 2019 113 minsDirector: Claire Denis
The messiness of sex, the mysteries of birth and the moving spectacle of devoted parenting in the face of impending oblivion create a potent atmosphere in Claire Denis’ English-language debut.
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Birthday GirlBirthday Girl
Drama 2023 95 minsDirector: Michael Noer
Heart-pounding Danish drama about a mother’s desperate attempts to unmask her daughter’s attacker on board a cruise ship.
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Les Rendez-vous d'AnnaLes Rendez-vous d'Anna
Drama 1978 128 minsDirector: Chantal Akerman
A quasi self-portrait that was unfairly neglected on its release, this road movie is a profound musing on loneliness, displacement and the long shadow of the war.
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ReawakeningReawakening
Thriller 2024 90 minsDirector: Virginia Gilbert
BAFTA-winner Jared Harris stars as a father wrestling with uncertainty when his daughter reappears a decade after vanishing.
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Saute ma villeSaute ma ville
Drama 1968 13 minsDirector: Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman’s plays a manic heroine in her early, incendiary critique of domesticity and conformity.
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Je Tu Il ElleJe Tu Il Elle
Drama 1974 86 minsDirector: Chantal Akerman
Akerman’s debut feature, with its 10-minute lesbian sex scene, revealed its maker to be a radical and uncompromising force in cinema.
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D'EstD'Est
Documentary 1993 116 minsDirector: Chantal Akerman
A poetic wandering travelogue made in response to the collapse of Soviet communism.
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Avec Sonia Wieder-AthertonAvec Sonia Wieder-Atherton
Documentary 2003 52 minsDirector: Chantal Akerman
A celebration of Akerman’s longtime collaborator, cellist Sonia Wieder-Atherton, showing her artistry as she plays and discusses her life in music.
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Golden EightiesGolden Eighties
Musical 1986 99 minsDirector: Chantal Akerman
Song, dance and romance charge this joyous hair-salon set musical, but Akerman’s take on 80s consumerism is anything but frothy.
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Le DéménagementLe Déménagement
Drama 1993 39 minsDirector: Chantal Akerman
Surrounded by unpacked boxes, a man delivers an extended monologue on indecision and regret.
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Là-basLà-bas
Documentary 2006 79 minsDirector: Chantal Akerman
Akerman’s introspective apartment-bound reflection on isolation and confinement.
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De l’autre côtéDe l’autre côté
Documentary 2002 99 minsDirector: Chantal Akerman
Made over 20 years ago, this exploration of the lives of Mexican migrants and the cruelties of borders makes for equally urgent viewing today.
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La CaptiveLa Captive
Drama 2000 118 minsDirector: Chantal Akerman
Chantal Akerman's adaptation of Marcel Proust’s The Prisoner is a beguiling study of tortured relationships, voyeurism and possessive love.
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SudSud
Documentary 1999 71 minsDirector: Chantal Akerman
A study of the troubled, racist history of the American South and its legacy.
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Hotel MontereyHotel Monterey
Documentary 1973 63 minsSilentDirector: Chantal Akerman
A hypnotic tour of a New York hotel that proves that nighttime is Akerman time.
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Good Bye, Lenin!Good Bye, Lenin!
Drama 2003 121 minsDirector: Wolfgang Becker
After his mother wakes from a coma in 1990, a young man goes to great lengths to pretend East Germany still exists in this wonderfully bittersweet tragicomedy.
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No Home But Cinema: The Spaces of Chantal AkermanNo Home But Cinema: The Spaces of Chantal Akerman
Short documentary 2025 14 minsDirector: Jessica McGoff
This new video essay by writer and critic Jessica McGoff, traces the restless movement in the works of Chantal Akerman, where the concept of home is always slipping just out of reach.
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Drugstore CowboyDrugstore Cowboy
Drama 1989 101 minsDirector: Gus Van Sant
Matt Dillon and his not-so-merry band of junkies rob pharmacies and cheat death.
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ArchitectonArchitecton
Documentary 2024 98 minsDirector: Viktor Kossakovsky
Victor Kossakovsky’s film essay looks at the way we have constructed our built world through a series of breathtaking sequences.
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LaylaLayla
2024 100 minsDirector: Amrou Al-Kadhi
A British-Palestinian drag performer catches the eye of a straightlaced white man in Amrou Al-Kadhi’s stunning, semi-autobiographical debut.
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Traps testTraps test
Comedy 1998 116 minsDirector: Věra Chytilová
Věra Chytilová's dark, post-communist comedy. After a veterinary surgeon is sexually assaulted by two men, she uses her particular expertise in castraton to exact her revenge…
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The Frightened WomanThe Frightened Woman
Drama 1969 86 minsDirector: Piero Schivazappa
A rich sadist kidnaps a woman to subject to his elaborate S&M games, but she soon turns the tables... Piero Schivazappa's erotic thriller explodes with eye-popping psychedelic production design.
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Something DifferentSomething Different
Drama 1963 81 minsDirector: Věra Chytilová
Věra Chytilová's first feature is an important work of women's cinema, which contrasts the parallel stories of a gymnast (filmed as documentary) and a housewife (told as fiction).
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L'avventuraL'avventura
Drama 1960 137 minsDirector: Michelangelo Antonioni
Antonioni’s masterpiece of modern alienation, with Monica Vitti as the young woman searching for her friend who's inexplicably disappeared.
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Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis BaconLove Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon
Biopic 1998 87 minsDirector: John Maybury
Derek Jacobi and Daniel Craig star as artist Francis Bacon and his muse George Dyer in John Maybury’s darkly exquisite biopic.
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SunflowerSunflower
Drama 1969 112 minsDirector: Vittorio De Sica
Sophia Loren searches for the husband she lost at the Russian Front (Marcello Mastroianni) in this sweeping romance epic with echoes of Doctor Zhivago.
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VivaViva
Sex comedy 2008 116 minsDirector: Anna Biller
Anna Biller's outrageous sexploitation satire follows bored housewife Barbi as she searches for adventure in predatory 1970s Los Angeles.
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Female Human AnimalFemale Human Animal
Drama-documentary 2018 74 minsDirector: Josh Appignanesi
Josh Appignanesi's art-world psycho-thriller blends reality and fiction to delirious effect, in its tale of an exhibition curator pursued by a mysterious figure.
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Breathless [À bout de souffle]Breathless [À bout de souffle]
Film noir 1960 90 minsDirector: Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard’s extraordinary debut feature, an insouciant and iconoclastic crime film that paved the way for the French New Wave.
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CaravaggiooCaravaggioo
Biopic 1986 93 minsDirector: Derek Jarman
Derek Jarman’s unique biopic of the 17th century Italian artist Michelangelo da Caravaggio is a powerful meditation on sexuality, criminality and art.
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8½8½
Drama 1963 138 minsDirector: Federico Fellini
Fellini triumphantly conjured himself out of writer's block with this magnum opus about a film director experiencing his own creative crisis.
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VictimVictim
Crime 1961 100 minsDirector: Basil Dearden
This thought-provoking classic stars Dirk Bogarde as a homosexual lawyer who risks his career to hunt down a blackmailer.
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DogtoothDogtooth
Drama 2009 93 minsDirector: Yorgos Lanthimos
Yorgos Lanthimos' scary, witty tale of a dysfunctional Greek family is original, ingenious and sadly relevant as a study of parent-child relationships
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Red DesertRed Desert
Drama 1964 117 minsDirector: Michelangelo Antonioni
Antonioni's mid-career masterpiece stars Monica Vitti as an emotionally anguished young woman embarking on a tentative affair with a businessman (Richard Harris).
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Peeping TomPeeping Tom
Drama 1960 101 minsDirector: Michael Powell
Michael Powell’s dark, disturbing, once controversial tale of a shy camera technician who films women as he kills them is now rightly deemed a classic.
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The Headless WomanThe Headless Woman
Drama 2008 86 minsDirector: Lucrecia Martel
A woman is plagued by paranoia after she hits something – or someone – with her car in Lucrecia Martel’s acclaimed psychological thriller.
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The Third ManThe Third Man
Thriller 1949 105 minsDirector: Carol Reed
Carol Reed's timeless classic, one of the greatest British films, lavishly marries a perfect script, an unforgettable theme tune and the star power of Orson Welles.
Featured collections
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Věra Chytilová
Defiance and compassion: celebrating the work of a true original and a pioneer of Czech cinema.
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British Classics
Tales of war and want, nerve and desire, flavoured with wit and rhythm from some of the greatest filmmakers ever assembled.
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BFI Flare LGBTQ+
Here are the pioneers, the iconoclasts, the brave - from landmark LGBTQ+ portraits to the next generation of gay classics from the BFI Flare festival.
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High GroundHigh Ground
Action and Adventure 2019 105 minsDirector: Stephen Maxwell Johnson
A young Indigenous man teams up with a policeman to track down a warrior outlaw in this piercing exploration of justice and morality within the Australian settlement.
Leaving soon
Leaving soon films
HelenHelen
Thriller 2009 75 minsDirector: Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor
An inventive and acclaimed British feature following the transformation of a teenager who agrees to portray her missing college friend in a highly detailed crime reconstruction.
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Love & FriendshipLove & Friendship
Comedy 2016 93 minsDirector: Whit Stillman
Whit Stillman crosses the Atlantic for this irresistible Jane Austen adaptation, following the delicious and devious exploits of Lady Susan (Kate Beckinsale).
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Mystery RoadMystery Road
Crime 2013 121 minsDirector: Ivan Sen
An Aboriginal cop returns to his hometown to solve the brutal murder of a teenage girl, uncovering a web of corruption and a growing body count, in Ivan Sen's acclaimed Australian riff on the Western genre.
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GoldstoneGoldstone
Drama 2016 110 minsDirector: Ivan Sen
Ivan Sen follows his acclaimed Australian thriller Mystery Road with another distinctive, 'outback noir', with troubled indigenous detective Joe Swan (Aaron Pedersen) again on the trail of murder and corruption.
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The Artist and the ModelThe Artist and the Model
Drama 2012 105 minsDirector: Fernando Trueba
Fernando Trueba's deeply moving meditation on the artistic process and the nature of humanity, with Jean Rochefort as an ageing artist inspired to paint once more.
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The ChambermaidThe Chambermaid
Drama 2018 102 minsDirector: Lila Avilés
Lila Avilés provides an engaging, behind-closed-doors look at the working environment of a chambermaid in one of Mexico City’s most luxurious hotels.
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Cette MaisonCette Maison
Documentary 2022 74 minsDirector: Miryam Charles
An experimental ghost story and docudrama exploring the profound grief stemming from an unsolved murder.
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GirlGirl
Drama 2022 87 minsDirector: Adura Onashile
Le’Shantey Bonsu gives a stunning performance as a young girl deeply connected to her mother (Déborah Lukumuena) in Adura Onashile’s tender drama.
KlokkenluiderKlokkenluider
Comedy 2022 85 minsDirector: Neil Maskell
Edgy, darkly funny and claustrophobic comic thriller, in which a hapless government whistleblower and his partner hide out in a remote Belgian cottage, accompanied by two eccentric bodyguards.
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VarietyVariety
Drama 1984 101 minsDirector: Bette Gordon
Bette Gordon’s groundbreaking, gloriously subversive neo-noir thriller is one of the very best American underground films.
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Banel & AdamaBanel & Adama
Drama 2023 87 minsDirector: Ramata-Toulaye Sy
In this compelling love story set in Senegal, Banel and Adama’s relationship is tested by a devastating turn of events that challenges their village’s way of life.
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HapkidoHapkido
Action and Adventure 1972 98 minsDirector: Huang Feng
Two martial arts schools battle it out in Huang Feng’s action classic (aka Lady Kung Fu), starring long term collaborator and combat master, Angela Mao.
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Project AProject A
Action and Adventure 1983 106 minsDirector: Jackie Chan
Jackie Chan’s rip-roaring action-adventure about a coastguard hot on the trail of a ruthless band of pirates in late 19th century Hong Kong.
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China O'BrienChina O'Brien
Action and Adventure 1991 91 minsDirector: Robert Clouse
Cynthia Rothrock stars as the tough city cop and martial artist on the trail of a local crime boss, in this action classic from the director of Enter the Dragon.
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Two for JoyTwo for Joy
Drama 2018 90 minsDirector: Tom Beard
A visceral, moving exploration of one British family's life following a tragedy, starring Samantha Morton, Daniel Mays and Billie Piper.
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Gone Too Far!Gone Too Far!
Comedy 2014 88 minsDirector: Destiny Ekaragha
Riotous urban comedy adapted from the hit Royal Court play, about a Peckham teen affronted by the arrival of his long-lost Nigerian sibling.
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Lynn + LucyLynn + Lucy
Drama 2019 88 minsDirector: Fyzal Boulifa
A lifelong friendship is tested by tragedy in this atmospheric and intense first feature from acclaimed British shorts director Fyzal Boulifa.
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HeathersHeathers
Comedy 1989 103 minsDirector: Michael Lehmann
Winona Ryder and Christian Slater star in the endlessly quotable cult black comedy that subverted expectations of teen movies forever.
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Something DifferentSomething Different
Drama 1963 81 minsDirector: Věra Chytilová
Věra Chytilová's first feature is an important work of women's cinema, which contrasts the parallel stories of a gymnast (filmed as documentary) and a housewife (told as fiction).
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Island of the Hungry GhostsIsland of the Hungry Ghosts
Documentary 2018 98 minsDirector: Gabrielle Brady
A therapist helps traumatised refugees detained on a remote island where powerful natural and tribal rituals prevail, in this extraordinary mix of fact and fiction.