Chris Flackett
We’re only halfway through 2025, but cineastes and David Lynch lovers in the UK will already looking forward to the new year, as the BFI (British Film Institute) has announced an entire David Lynch season for January 2026!
Announced by BFI Chief Executive Ben Roberts at a special screening of the pilot of Twin Peaks (the 35mm print from the BFI National Archive that was used for the original UK screening on the BBC in 1990, no less!) to close their BFI Film on Film Festival, the season will see a variety of Lynch’s work screened at their iconic Southbank venue in London.
But it won’t just be the usual suspects being screened (as great as it will be to see them). According to the BFI website, “The BFI’s David Lynch season will include screenings of a wide spectrum of Lynch’s features, shorts, music videos and other works, celebrating him as an artist who, in addition to working in film and television, pushed boundaries in other creative mediums as well. The season will offer personal responses and reflections from those who both worked with him and were influenced by him at special Q&As, as well as a space for audiences to share their reflections 12 months on from his passing, through salon events, discussions and transcendental meditation sessions. Furthermore, the season will feature playful and engaging events, from DJ nights and VJ sets to quizzes and social mixers, complete with Lynchian cocktails. Full details will be revealed in the autumn.”
It would be exciting enough if it were just the feature films being shown, but with a promised mix of his other filmic work (can we hope for a screening of The Grandmother? Or even an episode or two of The Return?), as well as social events to bring the Lynch community together, and even meditation (I’m sure Lynch would approve!), the BFI’s David Lynch season promises to be an exciting, varied and communal celebration of a director that means so much to so many people.
Keep an eye on Film Obsessive, as we will bring you more details of the David Lynch season as we get them.
