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 14 August 2026, Horizon Line opens primetime at 7:15pm, Fury takes the 9pm slot and The Invitation closes the night from 11:40pm.

Film4 Schedule: Friday 14 August 2026 (Full Listings)

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

Overnight

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Film4 today

Berberian Sound Studio opens the small hours at 2am, a 2012 psychodrama with Toby Jones as a sound engineer whose grip on reality slips while he works on a horror film in 1970s Rome. Teleshopping then fills the overnight stretch through to 11am.

Cleopatra takes over at 11am, the sprawling 1963 epic with Elizabeth Taylor as the Egyptian queen playing Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, Rex Harrison and Richard Burton, against each other to protect her throne. Siege of the Saxons follows at 3:45pm, a 1963 dark ages adventure in which an outlaw seeks out Merlin to avenge a murdered King Arthur. Battle at Apache Pass, a 1952 western built around Cochise’s uneasy truce with the cavalry and Geronimo’s refusal to keep it, airs at 5:30pm before Horizon Line opens the evening at 7:15pm.

Film4 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Film4 primetime line-up for tonight, Friday 14 August 2026.

Horizon Line — Film4, 7:15pm

Horizon Line opens the evening with a lean premise: two passengers left to bring a small aircraft down safely once the pilot dies mid-flight. Allison Williams and Alexander Dreymon carry the tension well enough for a film built more for a Friday evening slot than for cinema-scale ambition. It gets in, does the job asked of it, and gets out again before 9pm.

Fury — Film4, 9pm

Fury is the pick of tonight’s schedule, a grim account of an American tank crew fighting through the final chaotic weeks of the war in Europe. Brad Pitt leads a hardened unit forced to absorb a green replacement just as the fighting turns most desperate, with Michael Peña among the crew. It earns its 9pm billing on the strength of its combat sequences rather than any easy sentiment.

The Invitation — Film4, 11:40pm

The Invitation closes the night in gothic mode. Nathalie Emmanuel plays a struggling New York artist who accepts a surprise invitation from newly discovered British relatives, only for the family wedding in Whitby to turn out to be anything but ordinary. It’s a late slot pick that trades scares for atmosphere, and the Whitby setting alone signals which horror tradition it’s borrowing from.

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?

Horizon Line, the 2020 disaster thriller with Allison Williams and Alexander Dreymon, opens primetime at 7:15pm; Fury, Brad Pitt’s 2014 Second World War tank drama, takes the 9pm slot; and The Invitation, a 2022 gothic horror with Nathalie Emmanuel, closes the night from 11:40pm. 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’s spread is smaller but still varied. Horizon Line is a lean, functional disaster thriller to ease into the evening. Fury is the one worth building your night around: a grim, well-drilled war film with Brad Pitt at his most commanding. The Invitation closes things out in the late slot, a gothic horror with just enough style to justify the hour.

Watch

Related: What’s On TV Tonight | BBC One TV Guide | Freeview Channel Guide | Films on TV This Week