‘The Fly’ and ‘Crash’ Lead David Cronenberg Season at the BFI

Few filmmakers have made transformation, technology, violence and desire feel quite as dangerously intertwined as David Cronenberg, and the BFI is preparing to spend more than two months inside his singular cinematic world with David Cronenberg: Mind, Body, Reality, a major new season running from 1 January to 16 March 2027.

Programmed by journalist and podcaster Mike Muncer, the retrospective will take over BFI Southbank with more than 20 films, while selected titles will also screen at BFI IMAX and stream through BFI Player. The season is arranged around three thematic strands examining fractured identity, unstable realities and physical collision.

January begins with “Mutated Identities” and “Diseased Realities”, bringing together some of Cronenberg’s defining examinations of bodies and minds under pressure. Shivers explores parasitic infection inside a luxury apartment complex, while Videodrome fuses flesh and technology and Dead Ringers places Jeremy Irons at the centre of a disturbing story of identical twins and collapsing identity.

The programme also includes M. Butterfly, Spider, Maps to the Stars and Crimes of the Future, alongside The Brood, The Dead Zone, Naked Lunch, eXistenZ, Cosmopolis and Cronenberg’s 2024 feature The Shrouds.

The season broadens further with films connected to Cronenberg as an actor, including Clive Barker’s Nightbreed, in which he plays Dr Decker, as well as Jason X, featuring a cameo from the filmmaker.

From February into March, “Bodies in Collision” shifts attention towards the director’s more physical and confrontational work. Rabid, Scanners and The Fly sit alongside his crime thrillers A History of Violence and Eastern Promises, while Fast Company and Crash explore the filmmaker’s longstanding fascination with cars, machinery and physical danger. A Dangerous Method completes the strand with a very different examination of repression and desire.

Several titles will receive the full-scale treatment at BFI IMAX, with Crash, The Fly, Videodrome and Dead Ringers all programmed for screenings on the UK’s biggest cinema screen. BFI Player will meanwhile host a dedicated Cronenberg collection including The Brood, Naked Lunch and The Shrouds.

The retrospective will also go beyond screenings. Muncer will host a free Introduction to David Cronenberg event for members of the BFI’s 25 and Under scheme on 11 January, before bringing his The Evolution of Horror podcast to BFI Southbank for a live recording on 13 January with filmmaker Prano Bailey-Bond and critic Jamie Graham.

A David Cronenberg Sip and Paint follows on 21 January, while the BFI’s Philosophical Screens series will examine A History of Violence on 9 February. Fans confident in their knowledge of exploding heads, organic weaponry and troublesome television signals can also put themselves to the test at a Cronenberg quiz hosted by Muncer on 5 March.

“Few filmmakers have examined the complexities of the mind and body with the same innovation and audacity as David Cronenberg,” said Muncer, describing the director’s films as a cinematic experiment that places humanity “under a microscope”.

David Cronenberg: Mind, Body, Reality runs at BFI Southbank from 1 January to 16 March 2027, with selected screenings at BFI IMAX and a complementary collection available on BFI Player. For tickets and full programme details, visit the BFI: whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp