English films about dreamers

A man trying to put his life back on track gets some advice from an unexpected benefactor (the ex football player Eric Cantona) in this comedy-drama from acclaimed British director Ken Loach.

The true story of British intelligence whistleblower Katharine Gun who—prior to the 2003 Iraq invasion—leaked a top-secret NSA memo exposing a joint US-UK illegal spying operation against members of the UN Security Council. The memo proposed blackmailing member states into voting for war.

A father and son who must team up to save Christmas, once they discover Santa Claus sleeping in their garage after crashing his sleigh and finding himself on the run from the police.

Set in the fields of Devon and the WW1 battlefields of Flanders, two brothers fall for the same girl while contending with the pressures of their feudal family life, the war, and the price of courage and cowardice.

After a bleak childhood, Jane Eyre goes out into the world to become a governess. As she lives happily in her new position at Thornfield Hall, she meet the dark, cold, and abrupt master of the house, Mr. Rochester. Jane and her employer grow close in friendship and she soon finds herself falling in love with him. Happiness seems to have found Jane at last, but could Mr. Rochester's terrible secret be about to destroy it forever?

Inspired by true events, Eddie the Eagle is a feel-good story about Michael "Eddie" Edwards (Taron Egerton), an unlikely but courageous British ski-jumper who never stopped believing in himself - even as an entire nation was counting him out. With the help of a rebellious and charismatic coach (played by Hugh Jackman), Eddie takes on the establishment and wins the hearts of sports fans around the world by making an improbable and historic showing at the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics.

Selma, a Czech immigrant on the verge of blindness, struggles to make ends meet for herself and her son, who has inherited the same genetic disorder and will suffer the same fate without an expensive operation. When life gets too difficult, Selma learns to cope through her love of musicals, escaping life's troubles - even if just for a moment - by dreaming up little numbers to the rhythmic beats of her surroundings.

Arthur is a grumpy pensioner who can't understand why his wife Marion would want to embarrass herself singing silly songs with her unconventional local choir. But choir director Elizabeth sees something special in the reluctant Arthur and refuses to give up on him. As she coaxes him out of his shell, Arthur realizes that it is never too late to change.

It is 1944 and the D-Day invasion has failed, Germany's army have successfully invaded England and the Nazi war-machine is now heading west towards Wales. A group of women in an isolated Welsh village near the English border wake up to discover all of the their husbands have mysteriously vanished. They have headed into the mountains to join the Resistance.

A woman searches for her adult son, who was taken away from her decades ago when she was forced to live in a convent.

Billy Hill and Jack 'Spot' Comer were among the most notorious criminals in London up until the 1950s. Dramatising the violent reign of two of London's most notorious gangsters, Billy Hill (Leo Gregory) and Jack 'Spot' Comer (Terry Stone), ONCE UPON A TIME IN LONDON charts the legendary rise and fall of a nationwide criminal empire that lasted until the mid-fifties and which paved the way for the notorious Kray Twins and The Richardsons. This is the story of their rise and fall.

Comedy sequel to "East Is East". Manchester, North of England, 1975. The now much diminished, but still claustrophobic and dysfunctional, Khan family continues to struggle for survival. Sajid, the youngest Khan, the runt of the litter, is deep in pubescent crisis under heavy assault both from his father's tyrannical insistence on Pakistani tradition, and from the fierce bullies in the schoolyard. So, in a last, desperate attempt to 'sort him out', his father decides to pack him off to Mrs Khan No 1 and family in the Punjab, the wife and daughters he had abandoned 35 years earlier. It is not long before Ella Khan (Mrs Khan No2) with a small entourage from Salford, England, swiftly follows to sort out the mess, past and present.

As WWII looms, a wealthy widow hires an amateur archaeologist to excavate the burial mounds on her estate. When they make a historic discovery, the echoes of Britain's past resonate in the face of its uncertain future‎.

A woman who goes on maternity leave becomes increasingly paranoid about the motives of the person covering for her.

As a snow storm closes in, one final plane takes off. The plane reports to the ground that both pilots are dead, while the slowly dwindling number of passengers on the plane wish that they’d never left the ground.

Garden gnomes, Gnomeo & Juliet, recruit renown detective, Sherlock Gnomes, to investigate the mysterious disappearance of other garden ornaments.

A young family find themselves in serious danger when they move to an isolated haunted house in the Yorkshire Moors.

Set in a small English town in 1959, a woman who decides, against polite but ruthless local opposition, to open a bookshop, a decision which becomes a political minefield.

When notorious criminal Jacob Sternwood is forced to return to London, it gives detective Max Lewinsky one last chance to take down the man he's always been after.

The story is set in 1947, following a long-retired Holmes living in a Sussex village with his housekeeper and rising detective son. But then he finds himself haunted by an unsolved 50-year old case. Holmes' memory isn't what it used to be, so he only remembers fragments of the case: a confrontation with an angry husband, a secret bond with his beautiful but unstable wife.

David Blair directs this powerful British Drama, loosely inspired by John Steinbeck's novel 'Of Mice and Men'. Set in Nottingham, the film revolves around the relationship between the thuggish Danny (Stephen Graham) and Joseph (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), a giant of a man with a mental age of seven. When Danny finds himself in debt to a local crime boss, he feels he is left with no choice but to manipulate Joseph into participating in a series of underground cage fights from which Danny can pay his debts.

Yorkshire, 1974, the Maynard family moves into their dream house. It's a dream that quickly descends into a panic stricken nightmare as the family discovers a horrifying truth, a truth that will make the history books. The house is already occupied by the most violent poltergeist ever documented, a poltergeist that will tear you from your bed as you sleep and drag you helplessly into the darkness.

This hand drawn animated film, based on the award winning graphic novel by Raymond Briggs, is an intimate and affectionate depiction of the life and times of his parents, two ordinary Londoners living through extraordinary events.

Late Bloomers stars Isabella Rossellini and William Hurt as a married couple pulled apart by the threat of old age. Each reacts in a different way: Hurt’s distinguished architect chases after his glory days, while Rossellini’s housewife installs handrails about the house.

To Walk Invisible takes a new look at the extraordinary Brontë family, telling the story of these remarkable women who, despite the obstacles they faced, came from obscurity to produce some of the greatest novels in the English language.

Ethan and team take on their most impossible mission yet, eradicating the Syndicate - an International rogue organization as highly skilled as they are, committed to destroying the IMF.

D.C. Rachel Bailey and D.C. Janet Scott have a robust and engaging friendship which enables them to draw upon each other’s strengths and investigate murders for the Manchester Metropolitan Police.

Family adventure based on Mary Norton's classic children's books about a race of tiny people who live under the floorboards, resourcefully surviving by borrowing bits and pieces from the large residents who dwell above. After being discovered by 'human beans', borrower Arrietty and her parents are forced to leave their home while attempting to evade the clutches of obsessive scientist Professor Mildeye.

Kate and Martin escape from personal tragedy to an Island Retreat. Cut off from the outside world, their attempts to recover are shattered when a man is washed ashore, with news of airborne killer disease that is sweeping through Europe.

A thrilling and raw crime drama following a gang of drug dealers in Hackney, London - an honest and gripping rendition of inner-city drug and gang culture.

An early-20th-century tale of love across class boundaries which tells the legendary and romantic story of Lady Chatterley’s affair with her gamekeeper. Jed Mercurio’s adaptation of DH Lawrence’s classic.

An adaptation of celebrity chef Nigel Slater's bestselling memoir, 'Toast' is the ultimate nostalgic trip through everything edible in 1960's Britain. Nigel's mother was always a poor cook, but her chronic asthma and addiction to all things canned does not help.

When an underachieving single father inadvertently becomes an MI5 agent, he must keep his government job a secret while battling his ex-wife for custody of their precocious son.

The story of the miraculous evacuation of Allied soldiers from Belgium, Britain, Canada and France, who were cut off and surrounded by the German army from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk between May 26th and June 4th 1940 during World War II.

In the year 1215, the rebel barons of England have forced their despised King John to put his royal seal on the Magna Carta, a seminal document that upheld the rights of free men. Yet within months of pledging himself to the great charter, the King reneged on his word and assembled a mercenary army on the south coast of England with the intention of bringing the barons and the country back under his tyrannical rule. Barring his way stood the mighty Rochester castle, a place that would become the symbol of the rebel's momentous struggle for justice and freedom.

A promising young filmmaker is thrown into emotional disarray over the impending release of his second feature, when he is introduced to a magnetic French musician called Noah.

A married couple move back to his childhood village to start a family but a surprise visit from the husband's brother ignites sibling rivalry and exposes the lies embedded in the couple's relationship.

The deceased have risen with the instinct to feed on the living as a family is trapped during a zombie apocalypse. Wales. Based on George A. Romero's classic "Night of the Living Dead".

A man becomes haunted by his past and is presented with a mysterious legacy that causes him re-think his current situation in life.

A mother desperate to reconnect with her troubled daughter becomes embroiled in the urban legend of a demonic witch.

Yachtsman Donald Crowhurst's disastrous attempt to win the 1968 Golden Globe Race ends up with him creating an outrageous account of traveling the world alone by sea.

Comedy thriller about three friends who embark on a journey that takes them to the extremes of their friendship, crossing every boundary imaginable to save a life.

Two feuding rock stars get handcuffed together for 24 hours at a music festival where they are both due to perform.

An elite hitman returns to erase his past only to find that somebody has messed with his future.

Five friends who reunite in an attempt to top their epic pub crawl from 20 years earlier unwittingly become humankind's only hope for survival.

A semi-fictionalized documentary about a day in the life of Australian musician Nick Cave's persona.

1974. Amidst power cuts, strikes and boot-boy aggro on the football terraces, Joe McCain is bored of a life that's going nowhere. Enter hair-dresser Jane: blonde, beautiful, and moving to the beat of a whole new world of sound, movement and all-nighter dancing at The Wigan Casino - the home of Northern Soul. Swept along on this tide of pulsating dance and lust, Joe becomes embroiled in the darker side of soul scene that will put his friendship to the test.

In the dark heart of a sprawling, anonymous city, two assassins carry out a sinister mission, a teacher battles a fatal illness, and an enigmatic janitor and a curious waitress lead dangerous double lives. Murderous consequences unravel in the dead of night, as their lives intertwine at the hands of a mysterious criminal mastermind who is hell-bent on revenge.

The lives of two eccentric metal detectorists, who spend their days plodding along ploughed tracks and open fields, hoping to disturb the tedium by unearthing the fortune of a lifetime.

Story follows a group of young Londoners as they struggle to find meaning in their lives while masking their discontent with sex, drugs, and rock ‘n roll.