Newly-Discovered Terence Davies Short to Get First Screening at BFI Celebration of British Filmmaking Icon (EXCLUSIVE)

A newly-discovered short film by Terence Davis is set to have its world premiere at a special celebration of the late filmmaking icon being put on by the British Film Institute.

“Boogie,” made in 1980, was found among personal items donated from Davies’ estate to Edge Hill University, which looks after the Terence Davies Archive, after the director and writer passed away in 2023. The film — a student production from Davies’ time at the National Film and Television School and a story of a coerced sexual encounter — will now be screened for the first time at part of ‘Love. Sex. Religion. Death. The Complete Films of Terence Davies’ being held at the BFI Southbank Oct. 20-Nov. 30.

Programmed by BFI chief executive Ben Roberts, the event is set to provide a comprehensive journey through Davies’ body of work, alongside a free exhibition curated by Edge Hill. Other films in the program include the BFI’s own 4K remaster of 1988 “Distant Voices, Still Lives” and a new 35mm print of 1992’s “The Long Day Closes.”

A centrepiece of the celebration is Davies’ BAFTA-nominated 2000 drama “The House of Mirth,” newly remastered by the BFI and set to will receive a theatrical release in the U.K. and Ireland from Oct. 24. Adapted from Edith Wharton’s classic novel, the film features an acclaimed performance by Gillian Anderson as a young woman looking to make a good marriage, drawn into a downward spiral when her honour and her love for another prevent her from accepting the advances of a wealthy banker.

“Terence Davies was a uniquely uncompromising independent filmmaker and a true hero of mine. It was an honour to know him, to support his work during his lifetime and to continue championing his legacy now with this U.K.-wide celebration,” said Roberts. “A major figure of British cinema and an inspiration to independent filmmakers at every level, his work consistently speaks to the universal nature of the human experience while always remaining deeply personal. I am thrilled we have the chance to share his films with BFI audiences in cinemas and on BFI Player.”

Considered by some critics to be one of the great British directors of his period, Davies passed away in 2023 at the age of 77, just over a year after the release of his acclaimed final feature “Benediction,” starring Jack Lowden at British poet and WWI veteran Siegfried Sassoon.