BFI December 2026: Dune in IMAX 70mm, Billy Wilder and Christmas Classics

The BFI’s December programme brings Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Three to IMAX 70mm from 15 December, alongside a month of cinematic classics, director Q&As and festive screenings across BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX.

The biggest draw is undoubtedly Dune: Part Three, which arrives on the UK’s largest screen in an exclusive IMAX 70mm presentation. The film concludes Villeneuve’s adaptation of Frank Herbert’s universe, with Dune (2021) and Dune: Part Two (2024) returning to IMAX from 11 December. For anyone who prefers their cinema on an appropriately enormous scale, December’s looking promising.

Away from Arrakis, the BFI continues Almost Perfect: The Films of Billy Wilder, with screenings including Sabrina (1954), The Seven Year Itch (1955), Witness for the Prosecution (1957) and The Apartment (1960). A separate season marks 50 years of Artificial Eye, celebrating the distributor’s contribution to arthouse cinema with films including Beau Travail, Holy Motors and The Great Beauty.

The festive programme covers familiar favourites and less predictable choices. Love Actually returns on 15 December, followed by a Q&A with director Richard Curtis, while The Red Shoes, The Polar Express 3D and Tokyo Godfathers screen at BFI IMAX. BFI Southbank’s £9.50 Big Screen Classics programme takes a colder turn, with The Thing, Doctor Zhivago, Let the Right One In and Snowpiercer among the selections.

There are also reunions and previews, including Coupling: The Reunion on 6 December, a preview of Doctor Foster: The Final Series on 8 December, and Mark Gatiss’s new A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Bride’s Chamber on 12 December.

The programme runs from 1–31 December 2026. Full listings and tickets are available via the BFI website.