The season will take place from the 1st January until the 16th March 2027.
The BFI has unveiled details of its David Cronenberg: Mind, Body, Reality season at the BFI Southbank alongside selected films at the BFI IMAX and on BFI Player.
This two month season dedicated to the maestro of body horror, will be programmed by journalist and podcaster Mike Muncer and feature more than twenty of the Canadian auteur’s films, programmed thematically across three strands. Furthermore, a collection of David Cronenberg’s films will be available to stream on BFI Player including The Brood, The Shrouds and Naked Lunch.
Meanwhile, the BFI IMAX will host screenings of Crash, The The Fly, Videodrome and Dead Ringers.
In January, the season will primarily focus on ‘mutated identities’ and ‘diseased realities’ – chilling, challenging films that present bodies in transition, unstable minds and dark visions of the world. Meanwhile, in February and the first half of March the season will then change its foocus to ‘bodies in collision’ – the visceral films that pack a punch and deliver guttural thrills. This will include films such as Rabid, A History of Violence and Eastern Promises.
There will be several contextual events taking place as part of the season, beginning with an Introduction to David Cronenberg for members of the BFI’s 25 and Under scheme. This free talk, taking place on 11 January, will see season curator Mike Muncer unpack the Canadian filmmaker’s extraordinary body of work. It will chart Cronenberg’s journey from cinematic outlier and purveyor of body horror to his position as one of contemporary cinema’s most provocative, intelligent and thrilling filmmakers.
In addition, Mike Muncer’s award-winning podcast The Evolution of Horror will also come to BFI Southbank for a special live recording devoted to David Cronenberg’s cinema on 13 January. Together with filmmaker Prano Bailey-Bond and film critic Jamie Graham, Muncer will discuss Cronenberg’s thematic and stylistic preoccupations, key collaborators and influence on contemporary cinema.
Mike Muncer, David Cronenberg: Mind, Body, Reality season curator said, “Few filmmakers have examined the complexities of the mind and body with the same innovation and audacity as David Cronenberg. For over 50 years, the Canadian filmmaker has consistently pushed the envelope of genre filmmaking with confrontational movies that combine pulpy thrills with big, intellectual and philosophical ideas. To watch a David Cronenberg film is to observe a scientific experiment, to look at humanity under a microscope, and we invite audiences to join us in that sweaty, cinematic petri dish at BFI Southbank, experiencing Cronenberg’s extraordinary films on the big screen.”