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

Published: 23 August 2026

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, Monday 24 August 2026, the channel builds towards a genuine double feature: James Stewart’s Civil War western Shenandoah runs into the early evening, Halle Berry’s disaster thriller Moonfall takes the 6:25pm slot, and then two Michael Mann crime pictures play back to back — Public Enemies at 9pm and Heat at 11:45pm.

Film4 Schedule: Monday 24 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Film4 schedule for Monday 24 August 2026, on Freeview 14.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Film4 today

It’s a thin day on Film4, with just twelve entries across the full 24 hours. Official Competition (2021), Penélope Cruz and Antonio Banderas’s prickly film-world satire about a director who deliberately sets her two male leads against each other, closes out the previous night at 12:55am. Teleshopping then takes over for most of the morning, running from 3:10am through to 11am and broken only by a half-hour of shopping strand LumoTV: Small World at 8am.

The day’s proper films begin at 11am with Charade, Stanley Donen’s Hitchcock-flavoured 1963 comedy-thriller starring Audrey Hepburn as a widow chasing down her murdered husband’s hidden fortune, with Cary Grant as the stranger who may or may not be helping her. Howards End (1992) follows at 1:15pm, James Ivory’s adaptation of E.M. Forster’s novel with Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter and Emma Thompson, running through the early afternoon until Shenandoah takes over at 4:05pm.

Film4 tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Film4 primetime line-up for tonight, Monday 24 August 2026. James Stewart’s Civil War western Shenandoah (1965) has already taken most of the 6pm hour by the time primetime proper begins, running from 4:05pm through to 6:15pm.

American Gangster Special — Film4, 6:15pm

A ten-minute making-of piece ahead of the evening’s films: Ridley Scott sits down with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe to look back at their 2007 crime drama.

Moonfall — Film4, 6:25pm

Halle Berry leads this 2022 disaster picture, in which the Moon is knocked from its orbit and a disgraced former astronaut turns out to hold the only clue to why. It runs through to 9pm.

Public Enemies — Film4, 9pm

Johnny Depp plays bank robber John Dillinger in Michael Mann’s 2009 crime drama, with Marion Cotillard as the woman he falls for and Christian Bale as the federal agent sent to bring him down. It’s the first half of a Mann double bill that carries the night through to the early hours.

Heat — Film4, 11:45pm

Al Pacino and Robert De Niro go head to head in Michael Mann’s 1995 crime thriller, a cop-and-thief standoff that runs into the small hours, finishing at 3:05am.

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?

A western leads into a Michael Mann crime double bill. Shenandoah (1965), with James Stewart, runs from 4:05pm to 6:15pm, then Moonfall (2022), starring Halle Berry, takes the 6:25pm slot. Public Enemies (2009), with Johnny Depp as John Dillinger, holds 9pm, and Heat (1995), with Al Pacino and Robert De Niro, follows at 11:45pm. Full times for the rest of the day 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 thin even by Film4’s standards, just twelve entries across the full day, and half of those are Teleshopping. Public Enemies and Heat, running back to back from 9pm, are the pick: two Michael Mann crime pictures made fourteen years apart, both built around a cop pursuing a career criminal, worth staying up for if you can manage the near-six-hour stretch. Moonfall at 6:25pm is the easier option if you want something the whole household can half-watch, and Shenandoah earlier in the evening is a solid, old-fashioned western if you’re home before 6pm.

Watch

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