Born in Brussels in 1950 and the daughter of Holocaust survivors, Chantal Akerman has directed more than 40 films (short, medium and feature films) in nearly 50 years, ranging from fiction to documentary, including musicals and literary adaptation. Today, she is considered one of the most important and influential directors of her generation.

Akerman’s personal, non-conformist work has become increasingly relevant since his death in 2015, resonating with film fans around the world as well as filmmakers including Joanna Hogg (The Eternal Daughter), Payal Kapadia (All We Imagine as Light), Céline Sciamma (Petite Maman), Sean Baker (Anora), Alice Diop (Saint Omer), Jacques Audiard (Emilia Pérez) and Charlotte Wells (Aftersun) citing his radical and experimental approach to cinema as a source of inspiration direct.

Although best known for her second landmark feature film, Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), which topped the Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time poll in 2022 (becoming the first film directed by a woman to win the number one spot since the poll’s inception in 1952), Akerman never stopped rebelling, continually experimenting throughout her career to challenge the formal and narrative boundaries of cinema.

In February 2025, the BFI celebrates Akerman’s extraordinary impact on contemporary cinema with a major season of (almost) complete two-month retrospectives at BFI Southbank, including feature-length fiction, documentaries, short films and archival interviews, a BFI Distribution UNITED KINGDOM-cinema release of Jeanne Dielman freshly restored (February 7) as well as a UNITED KINGDOM touring cinema ensemble of its key films and curated BFI Collection of subscriptions for players coinciding with that of Chantal Akerman BFI Southbank season.

BFI Blu-ray will also release a two-volume collector’s edition of her work, with Chantal Akerman Collection Volume 1: 1967-1978 released on February 24 and Chantal Akerman Collection Volume 2: 1982-2015 scheduled for release on June 16, with many films available. for the first time on any format in the UNITED KINGDOM.

“In Chantal Akerman’s debut short film, the darkly comic Jump My Town, she barricades herself in her kitchen and sets out to blow it up,” said Isabel Stevens, editor-in-chief of Sight and Sound and BFI curator of the retrospective. “That’s exactly what she’s done in cinema throughout her career: blow it up. His films about women, domestic spaces, anxiety, loneliness and displacement, broke the rules of cinematic form and language, fundamentally altered our conception of what constitutes epic cinema and, with his mostly women, our understanding of who could make films.

“She always had a surprise up her sleeve. She was a restless, uncompromising experimenter, as comfortable with melodrama and musicals as she was with minimalism. Her radical feature film, Jeanne Dielman, is only a slice of her story. To adapt a quote from Laura Mulvey, in the history of cinema, there is a before and an after Chantal Akerman.

The Chantal Akerman Foundation at CINEMATEK added: “We, at the Chantal Akerman Foundation, are very honored and delighted that the BFI will celebrate the work and genius of Chantal Akerman next year by making her films and restorations available (many for the first time) in the UNITED KINGDOM and Ireland. It is important to us that Chantal Akerman’s work can continue to touch people around the world, and we thank the BFI for helping make this happen.

Akerman’s singular films broke the status quo, navigating between genres and between fiction and non-fiction. She has demonstrated incredible diversity, directing comedies like Golden Eighties (1986) and A Couch in New York (1996) and literary adaptations including The Captive (2000) and Almayer’s Folly (2011), as well as documentaries, including the East trilogy (1993), South (1999) and On the other side (2002). His work changed perceptions of what topics and stories were worth filming, as well as the style in which a film could be made, not to mention who could direct them.

Ahead of its time, Akerman’s observations of the everyday, reframing how we look at domestic spaces and women’s experiences, her resistance to formal boundaries, what to film and how to film it, questioning the perspective of viewer about space and time and the subversion of cultural conventions. continue to resonate with modern audiences, critics, and scholars. The reflections that run through his films tap into broader discussions about gender representation and diversity, identity, belonging, feminism, gender, sexuality as well as themes of migration, displacement, exile, memory and generational trauma.

What continues to make Akerman’s films so relevant today is that they are so personal. Akerman directed numerous films inspired by her own life, such as Les Rendez-vous d’Anna (1978), and often turned her camera on herself, starring in her own films such as Je tu il elle (1974 ), as well as making herself the subject, Chantal Akerman by Chantal Akerman (1997), the confessional style exploring the artist’s inner world, her personality traits and her concerns of melancholy reflection.

Akerman joined the Brussels film school (INSAS) in 1967, but immediately left school, rejecting the school’s rigid framework. At 18, she directed her first short film Jump My Town (1968) before moving to Paris and then New York, where she joined the world of underground and experimental cinema, discovering first-hand the films of Michael Snow, Jonas Mekas and Andy. Warhol. It’s also the city in which she made The Room (1972), Hotel Monterey (1972), Hang Out Yonkers (1973), and News from Home (1976) (now available in 2K restoration). Back in Europe, she directed her first feature film Je tu il elle (1974).

A cornerstone of feminist cinema, her second feature film Jeanne Dielman was presented at the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 1975, bringing the 24-year-old Akerman international recognition. Although it is a central touchstone for the BFI Southbank Retrospective and UNITED KINGDOM– cinema release on February 7, BFI This celebration offers audiences the opportunity to go beyond Jeanne Dielman and discover more about Akerman’s radical and unwavering approach to film throughout her career.

Classified by theme, the BFI The Southbank season will explore Akerman’s filmography through different subjects close to his heart:

• Self-portraits – personalizing cinema and questioning what cinema is and how to make it (Saute ma ville (1968), Les Rendez-vous d’Anna (1978), Les Années 80 (1983), Akerman by Chantal Akerman (1997)

• Mothers – Akerman had an intense relationship with her mother, she explored it both in her non-fiction and in the recurring motif of mother/daughter relationships in her fiction films (The Child Loves or I Play… (1971) , Jeanne Dielman (1975), News from Home (1976), No Home Movie (2015))

• Exile and dislocation—exploring identity and belonging (Hotel Monterey (1972), The 1⅝ (1973), Stories of America: Food, Family and Philosophy (1988))

• Romance and desire – including groundbreaking examples of on-screen lesbian sex (Je tu il elle (1974), All Night Long (1982), Golden Eighties (1986), A Couch in New York (1996))

• Confinement and Wandering — looking outward to explore the situation of immigrants (D’Est (1993), South (1999), From the Other Side (2002), Hang Out Yonkers (1973))

• Portraits of artists – including films on Sylvia Plath and Pina Bausch

These themes help to foster a deeper connection to the filmmaker, her interests and concerns, and an understanding of her films. From 1995, Akerman created video installations combining the worlds of cinema and contemporary art. His last film No Home Movie (2015) was completed just before his death.

Akerman’s work was recently celebrated in Brussels with CINEMATEKThe complete retrospective and the exhibition organized at the Palais des Beaux-Arts Bozar, currently on tour at the Jeu de Paume in Paris. An Akerman retrospective at the Institute of Contemporary Art organized by Joanna Hogg and Adam Roberts under the title “A Nos Amours” (2013 to 2015) helped bring more public and critical attention to his work, but the work of Chantal Akerman has never been widely accessible around the world. UNITED KINGDOM until now. A selection of titles including Je tu il elle (1974), News from Home (1976), Golden Eighties (1986) and La Captive (2000) will be on tour UNITED KINGDOM cinemas, with partner theaters including the Ciné Lumière and the Glasgow Film Theatre.

BFI The five-disc Blu-ray collector’s box set, Chantal Akerman Collection: Volume 1 — 1967 — 1978, releases February 24 and includes Akerman — Entrance Exam INSAS x 4 (1967), Skip My Town (1968), The Child Loves or I Play… (1971), Monterey Hotel (1972), The Room (1972), Hang Out Yonkers (1973), The 1⅝ (1973), Je tu il elle (1974), Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975), News from Home (1976), Les Rendez-vous d’Anna (1978) + 4 extras: Author of Jeanne Dielman, interviews with Babette Mangolte (director of photography), Natalia Akerman (Chantal Akerman’s mother) and Aurore Clément (actress).

Chantal Akerman Collection: Volume 2 — 1982 – 2015, released June 16, will include All Night Long (1982), Les Années 80 (1983), Golden Eighties (1986), Sloth (in Seven Women, Seven Sins) (1986), Stories of America: Food, family and philosophy (1988), East (1993), South (1999), The Captive (2000), On the other side (2002), The madness of Almayer (2011), No Home Movie (2015). In addition, a selection BFI The collection of player subscriptions will coincide with the collection of Chantal Akerman BFI Southbank season.

BFI Distribution has acquired the rights to the Chantal Akerman film collection from the Chantal Akerman Foundation in partnership with the Royal Cinematheque of Belgium (CINEMATEK). Almost all of the feature films have been restored in 2K and 4K including Les Rendez-vous d’Anna (1978) and Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (1975) by CINEMATEK.