Discover your August on-screen film and TV essentials
Afire
A musing on art, misery and love from one of Germany’s greatest auteurs, Christian Petzold. Two friends escape to the Baltic coast for a creative retreat, resulting in a comedic quartet of entanglements, which plays out against a more uneasy backdrop of climate catastrophe.
Where to Watch: UK cinemas
When: 25 August
Scrapper
Charlotte Regan’s feature debut follows a fiercely independent 12-year-old girl whose life takes an unexpected turn when her absent father comes back home. Sundance Festival’s 2023 Grand Jury Prize winner masterfully navigates tricky family terrain with honesty and elegance.
Where to Watch: UK cinemas
When: 25 August
The Innocent
Trouble brews in Louis Garrel’s fourth directorial excursion. When Abel’s mum marries an ex-convict, he suspects all is not as it seems. This French drama is a deft cocktail of genres – one part heist thriller, two parts romantic comedy.
Where to Watch: UK cinemas
When: 25 August
A Murder at the End of the World
Emma Corrin plays detective in this forward-thinking crime caper – where the tech-savvy sleuth makes use of their generational wisdom to outsmart a killer.
Where to Watch: Disney+
When: 29 August
Picturehouse Picks
A spectacular season spotlights top female directors in the lead up to the opening of Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper
Blue Jean
Cambridge-based filmmaker Georgia Oakley’s debut homes in on PE teacher Jean in 1988: the year Section 28 legislation is being debated. When Jean runs into a student at a gay bar, her job is on the line.
6 August
Aftersun
In this heart-meltingly tender, melancholy debut from Charlotte Wells, a woman reminisces on a holiday taken with her father, where his struggles with mental health bubble just beneath the surface.
13 August
Rye Lane
Perhaps creditable with rehabilitating the rom com, Raine Allen-Miller’s love letter to Peckham is a day in the life of two London teens. The film is peppered with celebrity cameos, including Colin Firth as a taco man.
20 August
