YNOT at the Movies

The Mostly British Film Festival returns to the Vogue Theatre for a week-long run from February 5-12, 2026, presenting 26 films drawn primarily from the UK while also embracing voices from across the Commonwealth and beyond. Blending recent releases with classic titles, the festival offers both discovery and rediscovery, giving audiences a chance to see acclaimed films on the big screen even if they have already played theatrically or on the festival circuit. Several selections are also upcoming releases, making the festival an early opportunity to see films before their wider U.S. theatrical runs. The festival also serves as a fundraiser for the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation, whose work has helped preserve neighborhood movie houses, including the Vogue itself.

The festival opens on Thursday, February 5 with "Mr. Burton" (UK 2025 | 124 min.), a British drama that traces the early life of Richard Burton and the mentorship that shaped one of the great acting careers of the 20th century. Closing Night on Thursday, February 12, features "Inside" (Australia 2024 | 104 min.) and "I Swear" (UK 2025 | 120 min.), followed by a Valentine-themed dessert after-party at the theater, bringing the week to a warm and communal close.

Recent films form the backbone of this year's program, many of them award winners and festival standouts from events such as Cannes and other major international showcases. Here are a few highlights (click on a film's title for showtime and ticket information).

• The History of Sound (USA/UK/Sweden/Italy 2025 | 128 min.)

  "The History of Sound" unfolds as a profoundly sad and tender queer love story set in the early 20th century, following two men brought together by a shared devotion to music and the act of listening. As they travel to collect folk songs, their connection deepens into a romance shaped by circumstance, distance, and the unspoken limits of their era. The mesmerizing music becomes both a shared language and a vessel for memory, while the gorgeous cinematography captures landscapes and faces with a hushed, elegiac beauty. Brought to life by terrific performances from Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor, the film lingers on love, longing, and what survives after separation.

  

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• Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight (South Africa 2024 | 98 min. | My review)

  Through the eyes of a child raised in a broken system, the film shows how the personal and political become inseparable, and how understanding begins when inherited narratives start to crack. One of my top ten films of 2025, "Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight" is not a coming-of-age tale in the traditional sense, it's a confrontation with legacy. Through the narrow lens of a child, it paints a vast canvas of colonialism, displacement, and identity.

  

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• My Father's Shadow (UK/Nigeria/Ireland 2025 | in English/Yoruba | 93 min.)

  As the UK's submission for the Best International Feature Oscar, "My Father's Shadow" is a terrific and deeply moving film set against the turmoil of Nigeria's 1993 presidential election, seen through the eyes of two young brothers who believe their father is larger than life. Sope Dirisu delivers a commanding performance as a man who takes his sons, played by real-life siblings Godwin Egbo and Chibuike Marvelous Egbo, on what they think will be a simple day trip to Lagos, only for fragments of adult reality to intrude. As the boys encounter strangers, they begin to sense that their father may be involved in dangerous political activity. The children's natural presence gives the story of family and political uncertainty an intimate, human scale, and as myth finally gives way to truth, the film lands with devastating force.

  

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• Urchin (UK/USA 2025 | 100 min.)

  Winning the FIPRESCI Prize in the Un Certain Regard section at Cannes, with Frank Dillane also taking Best Actor, "Urchin" is an impressive directorial debut from the multi-talented Harris Dickinson, offering a bracing yet compassionate portrait of life on the margins in contemporary Britain. Focusing on Mike (Frank Dillane), a homeless addict drifting through East London, Dickinson refuses the easy distance we often keep from people like Mike, fixing the film's attention on his desperation, volatility, and daily fight to survive. Frank Dillane is exceptional, drawing us in with a performance that balances raw vulnerability with flashes of charm beneath violence, deceit, and cycles of self-destruction. The film feels urgent and unflinching, even if its depiction of homelessness appears more contained than the harsher realities visible on the streets.

  

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• Grand Tour (Portugal/Italy/France/Germany/Japan/China 2024 | in Portuguese/Burmese/Vietnamese/English/Thai/Mandarin/French/Spanish/Japanese | 129 min.)

  "Grand Tour" offers a unique cinematic experience, traveling across Asia in both time and space, unfolding as much through mood, rhythm, and movement as through narrative. Written and directed by Miguel Gomes, whose boundary-pushing work earned him Best Director at Cannes in 2024, the film starts in 1917 Rangoon under British rule. Englishman Edward (Gonçalo Waddington), a remarkably swift runner, flees from his fiancée Molly (Crista Alfaiate), carrying him through Singapore, Burma, Vietnam, Thailand, China, the Philippines, and Japan. In the film's second movement, Molly follows his trail with equal determination. Visually enchanting, the film reflects on human longing, persistence, and the forces that drive us forward, reinforcing Miguel Gomes's reputation as one of contemporary cinema's most adventurous storytellers.

  

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• Call Me Dancer (USA 2023 | in English/Hindi | 84 min. | Documentary)

  The documentary "Call Me Dancer" offers an intimate portrait of Manish, a young Indian dancer driven by discipline and raw talent. The film is engaging in its close access to his daily grind, but it stops short of fully reckoning with a harder truth: without money and institutional support, talent alone rarely leads anywhere. Manish's breakthrough comes only after financial backing from arts organizations and a private patron, and his success is ultimately measured by entry into a Western dance company. The documentary gestures toward systemic barriers, but its uplifting spirit softens the reality that access, not just ability, determines who gets to move forward.

  

In retrospect, the festival turns to landmark works that reward being revisited in a theatrical setting. Screenings of "Tom Jones" (UK 1963 | 129 min.) and "Chariots of Fire" (UK 1982 | 125 min.), both Academy Award winners for Best Picture, highlight different eras of British cinema while reminding audiences of their lasting cultural impact. The pairing of "Girl with Green Eyes" (UK 1964 | 91 min.) with the documentary "Blue Road: The Edna O'Brien Story" (UK 2024 | 99 min.) creates a thoughtful dialogue between classic fiction and contemporary reflection, underscoring the festival's interest in context, legacy, and artistic lineage rather than nostalgia alone.

Tickets can be purchased at Mostly British Film Festival Web Site or at the Vogue Theatre box office, located at 3290 Sacramento Street, San Francisco.