Birmingham’s Flatpack Festival Launches 2025 Programme

Back for its 19th edition this May across multiple Birmingham venues such as Mockingbird Cinema, Midland Arts Centre and Pan-Pan. The 2025 Flatpack Festival has once again delivered a brilliantly eclectic programme, ready to showcase talent based within the region and from across the world.

Promising an exciting reinvention of the classic samurai epic will be Slow West director John Maclean’s latest Tornado, boasting the talents of Jack Lowden (Slow Horses) and model/songwriter turned star Koki. Delving into men’s struggles with mental health. Director Duncan Cowles will be gracing the festival for a Q+A screening of his documentary Silent Men, whilst BAFTA award-winner Victoria Mapplebeck offers a frank and intimate look into being a single mother via her film Motherboard. Duncan and Victoria will also be teaming up for a panel discussion called Mirror Images, as they discuss their deeply personal brands of filmmaking. Elsewhere, Alessandria Celessia invites us into the uncompromising estate of Belfast’s New Lodge with The Flats, as she dissects the city’s tough history and lingering impact of the Troubles.

In keeping with the genre’s rich vein of form in recent months. Flatpack has curated a wealth of animated treats including Julian Glander’s ‘one-of-a-kind’ directorial debut Boys Go To Jupiter. Straight out of Hungary, Pelikan Blue as it follows three teenagers navigating life after the fall of the Iron Curtain. After a decade-long effort collaborating by a lean but supremely talented scene based in the Dominican Republic, Tomas Pichardo Espaillat’s Olivia & The Clouds creates a unique picture of one loving relationship. Capped off by the UK premiere of Maria Trenor’s Rock Bottom, a vibrant immersion into 1970’s hippie culture.

Flatpack is renowned for giving short films ample opportunity to impress and this year is no exception, with various programmes for audiences to sample. With an emphasis on sound, the Pixel Tones (Optical Sounds Shorts’ features French heavy metal doc Apocalypse and from Ivory Coast the poetic Deja Nu. Boxer Short Films will be returning with another wonderfully weird batch of animated shorts.

Alongside the Short & Suite strands Made In The Middle, Second City Cinema and Competition backed by Crew HQ, as it presents work from various students and first-time filmmakers. Joining forces with community cinema initiative Falasteen On Film, After Us will be highlighting three Palestinian artists exploring themes of legacy, identity and memory. You will also be given a chance to experience the thriving Reel Brum on opening night, which brings industry creatives together from across the region for talks and screenings.

The festival will not be skimping on the retrospectives either. Celebrating Cluedo creators Anthony and Elva Pratt who lived in Kings Heath, the historic Highbury Hall will be the setting for two special screenings of comedy caper Clue. Not long removed from Fede Alvarez’s Alien: Romulus, Birmingham Botanical Gardens encourages a night of face hugging with Ridley Scott’s iconic Alien. Whilst the Talking Hitchcock Podcast flies in to offer insight into the legacy of Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.

Flatpack Festival 2025 runs from Friday 9 May – Saturday 17 May. You can view the full programme and purchase tickets for any events, including a ‘Flatpass’ priced at £120/£80 HERE