Film4 TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On Film4 Tonight

Film4 is the UK’s free-to-air film channel, on Freeview 14. It dropped its subscription fee on 23 July 2006 and has run on advertising ever since. Tonight, Friday 7 August 2026, Ad Astra, James Gray’s 2019 space drama with Brad Pitt, opens the evening at 6:40pm. The Martian, Ridley Scott’s 2015 astronaut survival film with Matt Damon, takes the 9pm premiere slot, before Last Night in Soho, Edgar Wright’s 2021 time-slip horror with Thomasin McKenzie and Anya Taylor-Joy, closes the night at 11:50pm. Sky, Virgin and Freesat numbers, the +1 channel and the streaming details are all further down.

Film4 Schedule: Friday 7 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Film4 schedule for Friday 7 August 2026, on Freeview 14.

What’s on Film4 today

The small hours belong to Our Kind of Traitor from 1:45am, the John le Carré adaptation with Ewan McGregor, Naomie Harris, Stellan Skarsgård and Damian Lewis, about a couple pulled into a Russian money-laundering scheme on holiday in Marrakech. Teleshopping takes over from 3:55am and runs through to 11am.

Oliver! opens the daytime schedule at 11am, Carol Reed’s 1968 musical with Mark Lester as the orphan and Ron Moody and Oliver Reed rounding out the cast. Sherlock Holmes and the Secret Weapon follows at 1:55pm, a 1942 wartime entry in the Basil Rathbone series with Holmes and Watson racing to stop a Nazi bombsight falling into the wrong hands. Buchanan Rides Alone runs from 3:15pm, Randolph Scott’s 1958 western about a drifter who wanders into a town run by one family and can’t help getting drawn into their feud, and The True Story of Jesse James closes the afternoon at 4:50pm, Nicholas Ray’s 1957 western with Robert Wagner as the outlaw in his final years.

Film4 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Film4 primetime line-up for tonight, Friday 7 August 2026.

Ad Astra — Film4, 6:40pm

Ad Astra (2019) opens the evening. Brad Pitt plays an astronaut sent to the edge of the solar system to find his father, Tommy Lee Jones’s presumed-dead mission commander, whose experiments are threatening Earth. James Gray directs it as something closer to a meditation on isolation than a conventional space thriller.

The Martian — Film4, 9pm

At 9pm, it’s The Martian (2015). Matt Damon plays an astronaut stranded on Mars after his crew leaves him for dead, and Ridley Scott keeps the tone lighter than the premise suggests, with the character’s dry humour doing a lot of the work. It picked up seven Oscar nominations.

Last Night in Soho — Film4, 11:50pm

The 11:50pm hour belongs to Last Night in Soho (2021). Thomasin McKenzie plays a fashion student who finds herself slipping back into 1960s London through Anya Taylor-Joy’s aspiring singer, and Edgar Wright turns the nostalgia sour fast. Matt Smith co-stars.

What kind of films are on Film4?

Hollywood and recent theatrical releases

A good chunk of the schedule is mainstream Hollywood: films that played UK multiplexes and reached television a couple of years later. The bigger, more recent titles go in the 9pm and 6.30pm slots, where the audience is widest.

British cinema and Film4 Productions

Film4 Productions, the channel’s film-funding arm, has backed British cinema since 1982, originally trading as Channel Four Films. Four Weddings and a Funeral, Trainspotting, This Is England, 12 Years a Slave, Poor Things — four decades of co-productions, and the reason the channel gets more benefit of the doubt than its commercial rivals.

World cinema, independent and cult film

Film4 shows more subtitled film than any other British free-to-air channel, mostly after 11pm, alongside cult American independents and things that never got a proper UK release. That late shift is the best thing about it.

How to watch Film4

Channel numbers

Where to find Film4 on the main UK platforms:

Film4 is free on all of the above, with no subscription required. Virgin Media and Freesat numbers can vary by box and region, so check your on-screen guide if these don’t match.

Streaming online

Film4 streams live and free at channel4.com/now/f4 and via the Channel 4 app on smart TVs, iOS, Android, and Amazon Fire TV. You’ll need a free Channel 4 account, which takes a couple of minutes to set up. Films that have aired often turn up on demand in the Film4 collection afterwards, but licensing means plenty of them never do, and the ones that make it don’t stay long.

Film4 +1 and catching a film you missed

Film4 +1 runs the same schedule an hour behind, on Freeview 47 and Sky 314. Sit down at 10:15pm with the 9pm premiere already 75 minutes gone and +1 lets you start it near the beginning instead of writing the evening off.

If you miss a film outright and it never appears on demand, wait. Film4 reruns titles fairly regularly, usually in themed seasons or when a director or actor is back in the news, so searching a week or two ahead in your on-screen guide often turns one up.

Frequently asked questions

What’s on Film4 tonight?

Ad Astra, the 2019 Brad Pitt space drama, opens at 6:40pm; The Martian, the 2015 Matt Damon survival film, takes the 9pm premiere slot; and Last Night in Soho, Edgar Wright’s 2021 time-slip horror, closes the night at 11:50pm. Full times for the rest of the evening are in the schedule table above.

What time do films start on Film4?

Typically around 11am, 2pm, 4pm, 6.30pm, 9pm, and 11pm to midnight. Running lengths shift the exact times day to day, so your on-screen guide has the most accurate information.

Is Film4 free to watch?

Yes, and it has been since it left subscription in July 2006. Expect ad breaks during films, but no fee on any platform.

Can I watch Film4 online for free?

Yes, live at channel4.com or through the Channel 4 app, with a free account.

Verdict

I rate Film4, with reservations. The 9pm slot and the run after 11pm are what keep me coming back: recent releases, the odd Productions title, and foreign-language cinema you’d rarely stumble across on any other free channel. Daytime is mostly the same forty-odd Hollywood titles on rotation, and the ad breaks mid-film wear thin some nights.

Tonight is a solid science-fiction and horror run rather than a genuine mixed bill. Ad Astra at 6:40pm is the slow, brooding option, better suited to viewers who want atmosphere over spectacle. The Martian at 9pm is the easier watch and the pick of the night for most households, funny in places despite the setup. Last Night in Soho at 11:50pm is the one to stay up for if you want something unsettling rather than comforting.

Watch

Related: What’s On TV Tonight | BBC One TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide