David Farnor | On 03, Aug 2020

BFI Player, the BFI’s streaming platform, is a gateway to global film, offering a collection of arthouse and world cinema to subscribers, alongside its pay-per-view rental releases and free archive titles and silent movie shorts.

This month, it continues its focus on Japan, with a major season originally planned for BFI Southbank spanning a wealth of the country’s finest filmmakers. After Kurosawa and Ozu comes a collection of anime and indie films. Closer to home, BAIT director Mark Jenkin releases an exclusive collection of shorts, while BFI continues its run of online Q&As and panel discussions.

Here’s what’s coming to BFI Player’s subscription service this month:

BFI Japan: Anime – 31st July

A small, but perfect formed, collection of anime classics from directors Mamoru Oshii and Mamoru Hosoda, including Ghost in the Shell, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars and Wolf Children.

Mark Jenkins Shorts – 3rd August

Four short films from the director of BAIT (also available on BFI Player), including 2019’s ghost story HARD, CRACKED THE WIND, 2018’s DAVID BOWIE IS DEAD, 2016’s visual poem ENOUGH TO FILL UP AN EGGCUP and 2015 drama BRONCO’S HOUSE.

Don’t Look Down – 3rd August

Olivier Ducastel and Jacques Martineau (directors of Théo and Hugo), serve up a deliciously enigmatic chamber piece.

The Whalebone Box – 3rd August

On their latest jaunt, Iain Sinclair and Andrew Kötting set out to return a whalebone box to its place of origin in the Outer Hebrides.

BFI at Home: Saint Frances – 4th August

Girls On Film is a film review podcast that looks at film from a female perspective. Podcast host, critic and broadcaster Anna Smith joins writer and actor Kelly O’Sullivan and critic Rhianna Dhillon to discuss female bodies in this special episode to talk about O’Sullivan’s new film, Saint Frances.

BFI at Home: Perfect 10 – 9th August

Director Eva Riley and actors Frankie Box and Alfie Deegan talk to film programmer and writer Anna Bogutskaya about Perfect 10, a coming-of-age drama in which an aspiring teen gymnast’s world is turned upside down by the arrival of the half-brother she never knew she had.

One Deadly Summer – 10th August

Isabelle Adjani plays Elle, a provocative nineteen-year-old who returns home to rural Provence with her mother and sick father. Her arrival turns heads in the sleepy village where the male inhabitants are mesmerised by her looks.

BFI Japan: Independence – 21st August

The sixth collection as part of the BFI’s epic Japan season, to be followed in September and October by 21st-century Japanese cinema and J-Horror.

 

A BFI Player subscription costs £4.99 a month, with a 14-day free trial.

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