Ralph Fiennes Leads The Choral as the 2025 Russell Hobbs British Film Festival Takes Flight
By Mitchell Peters
When the lights go down on November 5, the 2025 Russell Hobbs British Film Festival will open in Brisbane at the Palace Cinemas with a wave of U.K. creativity that feels equal parts classic and forward-looking. This year’s lineup is stacked: sweeping dramas, cutting comedies, bracing documentaries, and the kind of performances that remind you why British cinema still owns the art of understatement.
A Wartime Chorus with Ralph Fiennes
The festival opens with The Choral, a moving wartime ensemble piece that pairs Ralph Fiennes with director Nicholas Hytner. Set in a small English town as young men face conscription, the film finds warmth and humanity in a community’s shared voice—literally, through its choir. Roger Allam, Mark Addy, and Amara Okereke co-star in what’s being called a portrait of resilience as much as music.
Music, Memory, and Romance
The Special Presentation belongs to The History of Sound, Oliver Hermanus’ lush period drama starring Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor. It’s a story of love, loss, and the way recorded sound can preserve a heart’s echo. Then comes the most talked-about comeback in years: Daniel Day-Lewis returns to the screen in Anemone, co-writing the script with his son and director, Ronan Day-Lewis. The family dynamic spills onto the screen in a meditation on fathers, sons, and the ties that bind too tightly to break.
Chloé Zhao closes the festival with Hamnet, her adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s novel starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal as the Shakespeares. It’s a tender study of grief and creation—how love can turn pain into art, and how tragedy can spark one of literature’s greatest plays.
Icons, Rebels, and Reinvention
The festival doubles as a pop-cultural mixtape of British icons. John Cleese Packs It In trails the legendary comic on what could be his last European tour, as witty and self-effacing as ever. Borrowed Time – Lennon’s Last Decade revisits John Lennon’s post-Beatles transformation into activist and artist, while Twiggy celebrates the 1960s fashion firebrand who defined an era. To pair with it, Ken Russell’s The Boy Friend—Twiggy’s dazzling film debut—returns to the big screen in all its glitzy, tap-dancing glory.
From Bollywood Carolers to Tourette’s Truth
Gurinder Chadha, the filmmaker who gave us Bend It Like Beckham, brings a new twist on Dickens with Christmas Karma, a Bollywood-inflected musical starring Hugh Bonneville, Billy Porter, Eva Longoria, and Boy George. The spirit of redemption has rarely looked this colorful.
Kirk Jones’ I Swear, fresh from Toronto, tells the true story of John Davidson’s fight to understand and live with Tourette’s syndrome. Robert Aramayo leads a cast that includes Maxine Peake and Peter Mullan in a story that balances humor, heartbreak, and hope.
Dark Corners, Quiet Triumphs
Jimmy Carr brings absurdist flair to Fackham Hall, a riotous parody of upstairs-downstairs costume dramas. Harris Dickinson makes his directing debut with Urchin, a gritty portrait of a man scraping for redemption on the streets—already a Cannes prize-winner for Frank Dillane’s raw lead turn.
Adventure meets introspection in The North, a tale of two old friends trekking 600 kilometres across the Scottish Highlands. Emma Thompson chills in Dead of Winter as a lone traveller caught in a snowbound kidnapping plot. And Moss & Freud dives into the unlikely friendship between Kate Moss and painter Lucian Freud—art, obsession, and the strange intimacy of a portrait sitting.
Hitchcock fans get a double-dose: Becoming Hitchcock – The Legacy of Blackmail traces the master’s early evolution, followed by screenings of Blackmail and a retrospective series, Hitchcock: The Beginning, showcasing ten rarely seen silent-era gems.
New Voices and Old Masters
Alan Cumming and Brian Cox star as estranged brothers in Glenrothan, a Highland homecoming steeped in family tension. Benedict Cumberbatch headlines The Thing with Feathers, a story of grief and grace adapted from the acclaimed novella. Jim Sheridan returns with Re-Creation, a taut courtroom drama about memory, guilt, and truth itself.
Elsewhere, Dev Patel and Rosy McEwen bring haunted energy to Bryn Chainey’s Rabbit Trap, a chilling folk-horror built around music and myth. Bill Nighy, Johnny Flynn, and Dominic West headline & Sons, about a dying novelist trying to reconnect with his estranged children.
Brenda Blethyn and Andrea Riseborough shine in Dragonfly, a powerful story of inter-generational friendship, while Four Mothers offers comic chaos as a group of middle-aged women crash a friend’s life on their way to a Pride festival. Lollipop follows a mother fighting to rebuild after prison; Islands and Words of War turn the lens on darker modern conflicts—from a noir tennis thriller to the story of journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s courage in Putin’s Russia.
Looking Back, Leaning Forward
Under the banner British Brilliance, the festival re-screens six Academy Award Best Picture winners—Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Shakespeare in Love, The English Patient, and The King’s Speech—each a reminder of just how potent British storytelling can be.
The documentaries keep that momentum going: The Golden Spurtle celebrates Highland porridge-making champions, while I Am Martin Parr profiles the photographer who finds poetry in the everyday.
There’s nostalgia, too—25 years on, Billy Elliot returns to the screen with its irresistible mix of ballet, rebellion, and small-town grit. And for families, the festival offers Grow, an Australian premiere that promises giant pumpkins, madcap charm, and a breakout performance from a very determined little girl.
The Spirit of the Festival
Since 1952, Russell Hobbs has brought British style and a proper cup of tea to kitchen counters worldwide. As the festival’s naming partner, the company’s back again to celebrate innovation and tradition in cinematic form. “We’ve always embraced that mix,” says Dean Hammerton, Russell Hobbs’ Asia Pacific marketing manager. “It’s a real pleasure to once again celebrate the best of British culture—on screen and beyond.”
Across genres, eras, and accents, that’s exactly what the Russell Hobbs British Film Festival does: reminds us that British cinema—like a great song or a cup of tea—keeps evolving while staying unmistakably itself
The Russell Hobbs British Film Festival opens on Wednesday 5 November in Sydney,
Melbourne, Ballarat, Adelaide, Perth, Byron Bay, Canberra and Brisbane, concluding on
Sunday 7 December in all cities.
Tickets are now on sale www.britishfilmfestival.com.au
The Russell Hobbs British Film Festival presented by Palace from NOV 5 – DEC 7:
Brisbane: Palace Barracks, Palace James Street
To be in the running to win one of 5 in-season double cases to the festival, follow ‘timeoff’ on instagram at “timeoffmagazine” then send an email to with “BFF25” in the subject line. Winners will be notified by return email. QLD addresses only. One entry per person. No entries via third party sites. Comp closes November 07, 2025.
Ticket Guidelines:
These are general admission to attend a film of their choice screening during the 2025 Russell Hobbs British Film Festival (any location in Aust), this does not include special events or the opening or closing nights.
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