BFI London Film Festival 2026 — 15 Films, 14 Days & One Epic Voice Note Journey | Cinema Callback Special

For this special episode of Cinema Callback, Andy and Michael take listeners inside the 2026 BFI London Film Festival, capturing two weeks of press screenings, cinematic discoveries, personal adventures, and unexpected disasters through the show's signature voice note conversation format.

With press accreditation secured and two weeks booked off work, Andy documents the experience from his initial festival preview to his final screening. Along the way, he sends Michael voice notes from London's streets, cinemas, and daily journeys, sharing immediate reactions to the films while Michael responds from afar with questions, opinions, and stories of his own.

15 Festival Films and a Birthday Bonus

Across 14 days, Andy watches 15 festival films, plus one additional screening for his birthday tradition.

The films discussed include:

• The Dreamed Adventure

• The Beloved

• The Man I Love

• Look Back — Hirokazu Kore-eda

• All of a Sudden — Ryusuke Hamaguchi

• Rogue Trooper — Duncan Jones

• La Bola Negra — Los Javis

• Wild Horse Nine — Martin McDonagh

• Paper Tiger — James Gray

• Ray Gunn — Brad Bird

• Digger — Tom Cruise birthday screening

• Klara and the Sun — Taika Waititi

• Tender Loving Care — Mike Leigh

• Club Kid

• Minotaur — Andrey Zvyagintsev

• The Debut — Jesse Eisenberg

From highly anticipated releases to unexpected discoveries, Andy and Michael explore which films impressed, disappointed, surprised, and sparked the most interesting conversations.

Behind the Press Screenings

The episode also offers a candid look at attending a major film festival as an accredited member of the press. Andy discusses the £51 accreditation fee, approximately £150 in travel expenses, and his daily 28-minute walk from Victoria Station to Picturehouse Central, complete with a regular Gail's bakery stop for a pain au chocolat.

There are also the unwritten rules of press screenings, including an awkward confrontation with someone who objected to Andy eating popcorn. And just as the festival gathers momentum, an increasingly unpleasant "grade B cold" threatens to derail the entire experience.

Life Outside the Cinema

As always, Cinema Callback isn't exclusively about films. The voice notes wander into the hosts' everyday lives, from Andy's cat clawing his leg during an opening recording to wedding planning, meeting registrars, and celebrating his birthday on October 10th with his annual Tom Cruise film.

Meanwhile, Michael returns from a family wedding in Spain, sharing stories about travelling with young children, his wife's dislike of Westerns, and the pair's ongoing movie traditions, including Spooktober, Criterion Week, and Animated April.

A Festival Experienced in Real Time

Rather than delivering polished reviews recorded weeks later, this special captures the festival as it unfolds. The anticipation before screenings, the excitement of discovering something extraordinary, the disappointment of an underwhelming film, and the exhaustion of watching so much cinema become part of an evolving conversation between two friends.

By the final day, Andy and Michael reflect on the highlights, surprises, frustrations, and what the experience reveals about contemporary cinema.

Part festival diary, part film criticism, and part comedy of everyday mishaps, this is the BFI London Film Festival experienced from the press screenings to the streets of London, one voice note at a time.

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In this episode of Cinema Callback, Andy and Michael take a deep dive into Clint Bentley’s Netflix film Train Dreams (2025), starring Joel Edgerton. Through the show’s signature voice note conversation format, the hosts exchange contrasting reactions to a beautifully photographed, deeply melancholic story about working-class life, grief, isolation, and the passage of time.

Set against the changing American frontier of the early twentieth century, Train Dreams follows Robert Grainier, a railroad worker and logger whose life unfolds through moments of love, tragedy, and quiet reflection. Andy and Michael explore the film’s portrayal of physically demanding labour, male loneliness, psychological trauma, and the devastating consequences of loss, while considering how its story reflects humanity’s evolving relationship with nature, industry, and time itself.

The conversation also explores the film’s place within a particular tradition of spiritual and philosophical art-house cinema, drawing comparisons with Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life and David Lowery’s A Ghost Story. Does Train Dreams achieve the same sense of emotional transcendence through its meditative imagery and deliberately sparse storytelling, or does its restrained approach leave the audience feeling slightly detached? The hosts debate whether a film in which seemingly very little happens can nevertheless communicate something profound about the human experience.

Andy and Michael also find themselves questioning the boundaries of the Western genre. With its historical frontier setting, rugged landscapes, isolated workers, and changing American identity, does Train Dreams qualify as a genuine Western, or is it better understood as a character drama with distinctly Western DNA? The discussion opens up a broader examination of what actually defines a genre beyond its familiar imagery and setting.

Across their voice note exchanges, the hosts share contrasting family reactions to the film, including the wonderfully contradictory assessment that it is "brilliant despite nothing happening." There is also room for the usual Cinema Callback tangents, including a brief discussion of the genre surprises in Sinners and the different expectations audiences bring to films that challenge conventional storytelling.

As ever, the conversation extends beyond cinema itself, with personal updates covering an engagement, the search for wedding rings, the realities of parenthood on the go, and holiday travels back to Ireland. These moments of everyday life provide a fitting contrast to a film so deeply concerned with the passage of time and the experiences that ultimately define us.

Join Andy and Michael for a deep dive into grief, PTSD, the American frontier, Terrence Malick, the meaning of the Western, and whether a film in which almost nothing happens can somehow say everything about being alive.

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Support Cinema Callback on Patreon for bonus content, exclusive extras, and to help us continue making in depth film discussions through our unique voice note format.

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In this episode of Cinema Callback, Andy and Michael take a deep dive into Jay Duplass’s The Baltimorons, an unconventional indie holiday romance co-written by Duplass and Michael Strassner, and starring Strassner alongside Liz Larsen.

Through the show’s signature voice note conversation format, the hosts unpack a film that begins in surprisingly dark territory. Cliff is a self-involved improv comedian whose story opens with a suicide attempt before the holidays. After breaking a tooth on Christmas Eve, he finds himself in the office of Didi, a grounded and world-weary dentist, beginning an increasingly chaotic odd-couple journey through Baltimore.

Andy and Michael debate whether The Baltimorons really captures the magic of a Christmas movie at all. Is this a warm, alternative addition to the festive canon, or does its melancholy, dysfunctional view of the holidays place it closer to the world of anti-Christmas movies such as Christmas, Again?

The biggest disagreement comes with the romance itself. The hosts clash over Cliff’s deliberately unlikable and uncharismatic qualities and whether the film successfully subverts the traditional romantic comedy by pairing a flawed man-child with an older woman. Is their relationship a refreshing rejection of the polished people who usually populate the genre, or does the lack of conventional romantic chemistry expose problems with the writing and the plausibility of their connection?

The conversation also expands into the wider career of the Duplass brothers. Andy and Michael look at Jay Duplass’s work away from his usual collaboration with Mark Duplass and consider how his solo directing and writing instincts compare with the films the brothers created together.

Ultimately, The Baltimorons gives the hosts plenty to disagree about. From its dark opening and unusual central relationship to its awkward comedy and alternative take on Christmas romance, this is a film that deliberately refuses to give audiences the comfortable characters and familiar emotional beats they might expect from the genre.

Join Andy and Michael for a deep dive into rom-com subversion, Christmas melancholy, difficult protagonists, unlikely attraction, and whether The Baltimorons earns its unconventional romance.

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Support Cinema Callback on Patreon for bonus content, exclusive extras, and to help us continue making in depth film discussions through our unique voice note format.

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