10 Films By British Directors to Watch Out For in 2025: Tom Hardy, Hot Milk and Samurai in Scotland

There are some terribly British films coming out this year that are not in fact directed by Brits: Pressure (Andrew Scott does D Day), Hamnet (Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal do Shakespeare) and The Thursday Murder Club (every actor you know over 60 does cosy crime-solving). It also goes without saying that you should pencil in Downton Abbey 3 for September.

But! There is a whole bunch of exciting films from British directors coming in 2025, including Danny Boyle’s 28 Years Later which we shouted out in our blockbusters preview. Our picks here include independent and arthouse films, some action crowdpleasers and one bound-to-be-eccentric studio release from the always excellent Edgar Wright.

1. Havoc - Gareth Evans

Headshots. Top-tier fight choreography. Intense Tom Hardy. A washing machine flying out the back of a moving van. The teaser trailer for Havoc has everything we could possibly dream of in a gritty action thriller. Gritting alongside Hardy’s detective Walker are Forest Whitaker and Timothy Olyphant, in the criminal underworld of an as-yet-unspecified city, but one populated by drug dealers, dodgy politicians and kidnapped sons.

Havoc is written and directed by Welshman Gareth Evans - you know, the guy who directed The Raid and The Raid 2. He’s also one of the creators of TV series Gangs of London. So “high-octane” from him actually means high-bloody-octane. Let’s hope Netflix gave him enough money to really cook with this one.

Out 25th April - Netflix

2. Die, My Love - Lynne Ramsay

A new film from Lynne Ramsay is major cinephile news. The Scottish indie director’s previous fine form includes 2017’s Joaquin Phoenix psychological thriller You Were Never Really Here, the 2011 adaptation of We Need To Talk About Kevin with Tilda Swinton and, of course, her second film Morvern Callar. (We recommend checking out that soundtrack). Produced by everyone’s fave Marty Scorsese, star Jennifer Lawrence apparently sent Ramsay the book that Die, My Love is based on.

Lawrence plays a new mother, whose mental health is unravelling in the Montana countryside, alongside her husband (Robert Pattinson). If that sounds heavy, this is billed as a dark comedy-horror, so, with that signature Ramsay chill, expect anything. The release date isn’t locked in yet but it’s premiering at Cannes Film Festival in May.

TBC 2025 - in cinemas

3. Mr. Burton - Marc Evans

Another Welsh director in Marc Evans and this time, a Welsh story, in one character’s words, of “the drunken son of a drunken bloody miner”, AKA one-of-one Richard Burton. Or Richard Jenkins as the actor was known as a kid, years before he was buying heaps of diamonds for Elizabeth Taylor. This looks like a fairly traditional, meticulously produced biopic but there’s plenty of interesting family drama and actual, real obstacles for Industry’s Harry Lawter, as Richard, and national treasure Toby Jones as his schoolmaster Philip Burton, to chew over.

Burton tutored Richard, became his legal ward, helped him get his start in acting and, of course, lent him his surname. What with Johnny Flynn doing his best to boom in last year’s The Motive and the Cue on the West End, it’s a mark of Richard Burton’s genius that playing him is now approaching the status of rite of passage for British actors.

Out 4th April - in cinemas

4. Tornado - John Maclean

John Maclean is just a dude. Founding member of The Beta Band, collaborator of Michael Fassbender, and music video maker, he's multi-talented. The director of 2015’s Slow West decided he wanted to make a samurai film but, since he’s Scottish, not Japanese, he had the cracking idea to bring the samurai characters (Shōgun’s Takehiro Hira alongside model/musician Kōki as the titular Tornado) to Scotland in the late 18th century. There they come across a gang of criminals led by - yes - Tim Roth playing Sugarman and his son, Little Sugar (Jack Lowden). Shot on 35mm film, and with the supremely talented Robbie Ryan as cinematographer, this is one to venture out and see on the big screen. It sounds wild.

Out June 13th - in cinemas

5. The Salt Path - Marianne Elliott

Even the trailer for this one is a bit weepy so hold steady. Based on the bestselling memoir by Raynor Winn, The Salt Path is the feature film debut of award-winning theatre director Marianne Elliott. It’s a two-hander between Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs, as Ray and her husband Moth, who become homeless after losing their farmhouse in a gnarly legal battle. They decide to strap on the backpacks and walk the 600-ish mile South West Coast Path through Somerset, Devon, Cornwall and Dorset, camping, taking odd jobs and battling the elements along the way.

Out 30th May - in cinemas

6. Warfare - Alex Garland, Ray Mendoza

This one could really go either way, and I say that as a fan of Alex Garland’s divisive Civil War last year. He’s back with A24 for Warfare, with the help of co-writer and director, Iraq War veteran and former Navy SEAL Ray Mendoza, who based the film on his experiences. Does it look like thrilling, tense, close quarters, real-time urban sniping and fighting? Yes. Does it have an absolutely stacked group of jarheads? Also yes, with Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Joseph Quinn and Reservation Dogs’ D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai as the Mendoza character.

Does this also look suspiciously like Hollywood military propaganda, from an indie studio darling of all places? Yes? Not long till we find out. And one thing’s for sure, Garland, who wrote the scripts for Sunshine and 28 Days Later and directed (perfect film) Ex Machina, as well as the more experimental Annihilation and Men, is not afraid to take big swings.

Out 18th April - in cinemas

7. Departures - Lloyd Eyre-Morgan, Neil Ely

If you’re looking for hidden gems, Departures, a tale of a toxic queer relationship premiering at BFI Flare at the end of March, looks to be shot through with manic energy and dry Northern, working-class wit. Writer and co-director Lloyd Eyre-Morgan plays Benji who meets Jake (David Tag) at an airport gate and, from the gist of the trailer, absolute chaos ensues. Eyre-Morgan worked on Eastenders for a couple of years and he’s made a series of interesting shorts with his collaborator, Neil Ely.

As for other up-and-comers, we’re also looking out for theatre director Nadia Latif’s The Man in My Basement, starring Corey Hawkins and our guy Willem Dafoe, due out in 2025. And Joshua Trigg’s Satu - Year of the Rabbit is a coming-of-age story involving a Buddhist orphan, a photojournalist and a motorcycle ride through Laos, coming out this June.

TBC 2025 - in cinemas

8. Hot Milk - Rebecca Lenkiewicz

Hot Milk is Rebecca Lenkiewicz’s directorial debut and yet her writing credits, alongside a long career as a playwright in British theatre, are the opposite of amateur. Lenkiewicz co-wrote the stunning 2013 film Ida with its director Paweł Pawlikowski, she was on the writing team for Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology and she wrote the screenplays for the ‘Me Too’ film She Said and The Salt Path (higher up on this list).

Here, Lenkiewicz has reworked novelist Deborah Levy’s story of a mother - Rose - and daughter - Sofia - who travel to an unconventional Spanish clinic, looking for a cure for Rose’s mysterious paralysis. This cast is flawless. Fiona Shaw as Rose, Sex Education’s Emma Mackey as Sofia and the always superb Vicky Krieps as Ingrid, a German seamstress they meet along the way. Intriguing.

Out 4th July - in cinemas

9. The Running Man - Edgar Wright

You either have a serious soft spot for the offbeat style of Edgar Wright - the man behind Spaced, the Cornetto trilogy and Baby Driver - or you don’t. I really do so it’s a joy that he’s back at the end of the year with his take on The Running Man, the Stephen King dystopia that got the Arnie treatment in the ‘80s (pictured above, with a little Photoshop help to introduce its recognisable new star...). In remake news that doesn’t make us mad, Wright teamed up with his Scott Pilgrim collaborator Michael Bacall to write a story for Paramount, one that they say is more faithful to the 1987 book. Sidenote: the original story was set in the year 2025.

Wright has also enlisted Very Charismatic Man Glen Powell to play Ben Richards, the man who starts playing a deadly reality show where the contestants are hunted by hitmen. (No Squid Games here). With William H. Macy, Lee Pace and Josh Brolin on board, I also cannot wait to see what Colman Domingo (last seen in the excellent Sing Sing) does with the role of Bobby Thompson, the host of the deadly game show. The movies are so back.

Out 7th November - in cinemas

10. Rogue Trooper - Duncan Jones

It sounds like Duncan Jones has really been going through it with Rogue Trooper. Jones is, of course, the director of (perfect film) Moon, Source Code and (not so perfect film) Warcraft, and son of David Bowie, and he’s been stuck in the Unreal Engine 5 making his comic-inspired sci-fi animation for some time now. But we’re hoping he gets it out in 2025, as planned and internet-expected.

The Rogue Trooper strip in the comic 2000 AD, originally by Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons, focuses on a super-soldier / ‘Genetric Infrantryman’ named 19, who features in a bunch of crossovers. Taking on the voice acting, we have Aneurin Barnard as the lead with Hayley Atwell and Sean Bean, together with Jermaine Clement, Diane Morgan, Reece Shearsmith, Alice Lowe (who kept schtum about her involvement in a recent Shortlist interview) and Matt Berry. Thank you cinema gods.

TBC 2025 - in cinemas

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