Billy Wilder at BFI Southbank: 30+ Films From 19 October

More than 30 films will return Billy Wilder’s sharp dialogue, compromised heroes and Hollywood satire to the big screen in London this autumn. Almost Perfect: The Films of Billy Wilder runs at BFI Southbank from 19 October to 31 December 2026, with tickets available through the venue.

The BFI has not supplied a general season price in its announcement. However, An Introduction to Billy Wilder on 9 November is included in BFI Southbank’s £4 ticket offer for audiences aged 16 to 25. The wider programme is aimed at film enthusiasts, casual Wilder fans and aspiring screenwriters.

Familiar classics sit beside Wilder’s early collaborations

The two-month film season spans major works including Some Like It Hot, Sunset Boulevard and The Apartment. It also reaches beyond the films Wilder directed to examine formative collaborations with other leading filmmakers of the period.

Those selections include Bluebeard’s Eighth Wife, directed by Ernst Lubitsch; Ball of Fire, directed by Howard Hawks; and People on Sunday, credited to Robert Siodmak and Edgar G. Ulmer. Together, the programme traces Wilder’s development from a European screenwriter into one of the defining writer-directors of the Hollywood studio system.

Wilder grew up in Vienna and reached Hollywood through the community of Jewish creatives escaping Nazism. Although he wrote in his second language, his command of dialogue and character helped him advance through the studio system. His European experience remained visible in stories about cultural collision, postwar masculinity and the contradictions of American capitalism.

Four themes reveal the arguments beneath the jokes

Rather than presenting the films solely in chronological order, BFI curator Ruby McGuigan has organised the season around four recurring concerns in Wilder’s work.

Billy Liar focuses on false identities, deception and characters who manipulate rigid systems. Class Warfare follows people attempting to cross social boundaries, while A Crisis of Masculinity considers Wilder’s flawed anti-heroes and their relationship with modern patriarchy. In Pursuit of Fame and Fortune turns toward Hollywood, media manipulation and the personal costs of ambition.

The structure gives returning viewers another way into familiar titles. It also connects Wilder’s comedies, noirs and dramas through the tensions that repeatedly shaped his characters: dissatisfaction, dishonesty, desire and the possibility of redemption.

Talks and writing exercises extend the screenings

The first highlighted contextual event is Billy in Berlin on 27 October. A screening of the rarely seen Wilder-scripted noir The Man in Search of His Murderer, directed by Robert Siodmak, will be followed by a talk from Dr Jon Hughes of Royal Holloway University about the émigré generation that later helped transform Hollywood.

Billy Wilder: America’s Witness follows on 4 November. Season curator Ruby McGuigan, film writer Christina Newland and novelist Jonathan Coe, author of Mr Wilder & Me, will discuss Wilder’s affinity for Hollywood and the critical perspective he brought to its myths.

The 9 November introductory event maps Wilder’s journey from Vienna to Hollywood and back, with attention to his stylistic signatures and best-known characters. It is intended for audiences aged 25 and under, while the advertised £4 offer applies to those aged 16 to 25.

On 25 November, Thou Shalt Not Bore: How to Write Like Billy Wilder shifts the emphasis from viewing to participation. Casual fans and aspiring screenwriters will work through playful exercises involving character histories, narrative arcs and comic dialogue, accompanied by cocktails and a jazz soundtrack.

Booking details to check before attending

Almost Perfect: The Films of Billy Wilder takes place at BFI Southbank on London’s South Bank from 19 October through 31 December. Tickets are available through BFI Southbank, but the announcement does not provide individual start times, general ticket prices, transport guidance or accessibility information. Visitors should check the venue’s listings for the chosen screening or event before booking.

Source: British Film Institute News