BFI LFF 2025: Hamnet (2025)
★★★★☆
The story of the marriage between Agnes and William Shakespeare and how unthinkable tragedy helped the playwright create Hamlet is told in Chloe Zhao’s emotional adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel Hamnet.
Americas
BFI LFF 2025: The Testament of Ann Lee (2025)
★★☆☆☆
Amanda Seyfried portrays the founder of the Shaker movement in director Mona Fastvold’s historical drama The Testament of Ann Lee, co-written by Brady Corbet.
Good Boy (2025)
★★★★☆
A man beset by illness heads to his grandfather’s rural home which may be plagued by mysterious spirits, as acutely observed through the eyes of the man’s loyal dog Indy in Good Boy.
The Librarians (2025)
★★★★☆
Oscar-nominated The Librarians, directed by Kim A Snyder and executive produced by Sarah Jessica Parker, is a documentary about the unlikely defenders of intellectual freedom in schools in Trump’s changing USA.
Solo (2023)
★★★★☆
The rush of a new love turns sour for young drag queen Simon, whilst also dealing with the return of his absent mother, in writer-director Sophie Dupuis’s excellent drama Solo.
Mistress Dispeller (2024)
★★★☆☆
Mistress Dispeller, an intimate documentary with extraordinary access by Elizabeth Lo, shows a unique Chinese practice.
BFI Flare: The Pleasure is Mine (2024) (El Placer es Mío)
★★★☆☆
Young bisexual Antonio drifts through life lying, stealing, and using people while feeling incapable of love in writer-director Sacha Amaral’s Buenos Aires-set character study The Pleasure Is Mine.
BFI Flare: Cherub (2024)
★★★★☆
Lonely scientist Harvey lives a solitary life but discovering Cherub, a magazine for larger men and their admirers, leads to unexpected confidence and joy in writer-director Devin Shears’ Cherub.
Berlinale: The Message (El Mensaje) (2025)
★★★☆☆
The Message is a beguiling, opaque film in Competition at the Berlinale.
A Complete Unknown (2024)
★★★★☆
A Complete Unknown is an excellently written and acted, star-studded (Timothée Chalamet) biopic directed by James Mangold of four crucial early years in the life of iconoclastic genius, musician and poet, Nobel Prize-winning Bob Dylan.
Maria (2024)
★★★★☆
Maria, an emotional biopic, directed by Pablo Larrain, starring an incredible performance by Angelina Jolie as the iconic Maria Callas.
Oscars Shortlist 2025
★★★★☆
Oscars 2025 Shortlist
The Taste of Mango (2023)
★★★★☆
The Taste of Mango is an impressionistic collage of female abuse through three generations bound by enduring love.
Conclave (2024)
★★★★☆
After the death of the Pope, Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with leading the conclave to recruit a successor with rumour and conflict threatening to overtake the Vatican’s battle for power in Edward Berger’s thriller Conclave.