Into Film Clubs
Find out everything you need to know about starting an Into Film Club.
Ten new films have been added to Into Film+, the free* streaming service for UK classrooms. Each title offers engaging storytelling, insightful perspectives on relevant themes and thought provoking debate suitable for different ages.
Fantasy blockbusters How to Train Your Dragon and Wicked celebrate literary legacies and overcoming prejudice. Based on inspiring true-life stories, Dream Horse and I Swear also explore Welsh and Scottish representation on screen. Looper and Anatomy of a Fall offer ideal case studies for sci-fi and crime genre analysis. The Lebanese social realist drama Capernaum and Southern Gothic vampire tale Sinners present opportunities to discuss societal issues such as child poverty and cultural appropriation. And The Fantastic Four: The First Steps and The Ride Ahead focus on the themes of family, inclusivity and self-determination.
Support your use of film in the classroom with our downloadable discussion guides, which help students further engage with the themes on screen by drawing links with curriculum subjects and relevant issues in young people's lives. Sinners and Fantastic Four: First Steps are available exclusively on Into Film+ Premium. For further information about Into Film + Premium please check out our FAQ pages.
How to Train Your Dragon
Following the popular animated adaptations of the series, British author Cressida Cowell's fantasy Viking world gets a live-action reimagining, bringing new intensity and thrills to the story whilst retaining its core messages of friendship, anti-prejudice and teamwork. On a forested island, a Viking tribe have spent the last few hundred years battling the dragons who live nearby. But when the chieftain's son, Hiccup, breaks the mould by befriending a fearsome beast that he names Toothless, he stumbles across a secret which might hold the key to humans and dragons forming a new future together.
The accompanying film guide is designed to engage learners aged 8-12 and is useful for exploring subjects including PSHE Education and Literacy in addition to highlighting themes surrounding ethics, monsters and friendships.
Wicked
The hit stage musical about The Wizard of Oz's Wicked Witch of the West has been turned into a hugely successful two-part movie epic, with the first instalment now on Into Film+. A young Elphaba starts university and is made to feel different because of her unusual green skin. After an awkward start, she becomes friends with popular girl Glinda. Elphaba's extraordinary magical powers catch the attention of her professors, and she is sent to meet the almighty Wizard of Oz. This spectacle of a film is rich with inspiration for performing arts and design, and is also available to stream with sing-a-long lyrics.
The accompanying film guide is designed to engage learners aged 12-15 and is useful for exploring subjects including PSHE Education and English, in addition to highlighting themes surrounding friendship, musicals, anti-bullying and storytelling.
Dream Horse
Based on a true story, this feel-good film appears on the new WJEC GCSE Digital Media and Film qualification. Jan Vokes, living in the South Wales valleys and working two jobs, seeks more excitement in her life and decides to buy, breed, and train a racehorse. Lacking money and experience, she invites local community members to join her as equal partners. Though hesitant at first, they are inspired by Jan's determination and name the horse Dream Alliance. Finding a suitable trainer proves difficult, especially as the middleclass racing world mocks their working class syndicate. Undeterred, Jan and her partners push forward, determined to challenge expectations and prove their doubters wrong.
The accompanying film guide is designed to engage learners aged 14-16 and is useful for exploring subjects including English and Film Studies in addition to highlighting themes surrounding animals, rural areas and community.
The Ride Ahead
No one tells you how to be an adult, reflects the 21-year-old director and protagonist of this documentary, let alone an adult with a disability. As he graduates from high school and starts attending college, Samuel - who uses a wheelchair and primarily communicates via an electronic device - has plenty of questions about adult life that he's seeking to find the answers to. He reaches out to disability activists, his chosen mentors, to discuss the challenges of living in an unequal society and how to follow one's dreams. This documentary is an inspiring celebration of Samuel as a person, his support system, and the strides forward made by the disability movement.
The accompanying film guide is designed to engage learners aged 14-16 and is useful for exploring subjects including PSHE Education, in addition to highlighting themes surrounding disability and inclusion, rights and democracy, filmmaking, and family.
Capernaum
Film has the power to shine relevance and compassion on what can sometimes feel like abstract global affairs, and with the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, this poignant drama from 2018 presents a very human story that can offer an insight into the displacement and instability that millions of young people are suffering today. Growing up in the slums of Beirut, bold 12-year-old Zain runs away after his parents sell his younger sister into marriage. Despite his young age, the boy endures life on Lebanon's chaotic streets with great resourcefulness and resilience. He crosses paths with Rahil, an illegal Ethiopian worker who lives with her toddler in precarious conditions. Being sentenced to 5 years in jail for a crime he previously committed, Zain decides to sue his parents for giving him life without being able to care for him.
The accompanying film guide is designed to engage learners aged 16+ and is useful for exploring subjects including PSHE Education, in addition to highlighting themes surrounding child safety, refugees and immigration, crime and punishment, and Middle Eastern countries.
I Swear
This moving and inspiring biopic recently earned lead actor Robert Aramayo the BAFTA Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of John Davidson, whose activism and youth work has positively impacted greater awareness of Tourette syndrome in the UK. In 1983, John has just started secondary school, when he begins to develop verbal and physical tics. These symptoms leave his teachers, classmates, and family bemused, initially believing John to be acting out deliberately for attention. Thirteen years later, John is an adult still living at home with his mother but striving for independence. When he bumps into an old childhood friend whose own mother is a mental health nurse, John begins to receive the care, attention, and support he so dearly needs.
The accompanying film guide is designed to engage learners aged 16+ and is useful for exploring subjects including PSHE Education, in addition to highlighting themes surrounding disability and inclusion, anti-bullying, mental health and family. You can also make use of our bespoke resource on Tourette's that supports neurodiversity awareness and helps young people practice proactive allyship.
Looper
This sci-fi film is perfect for studying the tropes of the genre, from telekinetic powers to time travel timelines, combined with intelligent, provoking screenwriting. It's 2044 and 25-year-old Joe is working as a ‘looper' for a criminal enterprise, tasked with ending the life of victims sent back in time from 2074. However, when confronted with his future self, Joe briefly hesitates and fails to get the job done. From here, we follow both Old Joe and Young Joe as the latter chases the former, attempting to atone for his error. Meanwhile, Old Joe is searching for some closure of his own, seeking to hunt down and kill the child who will eventually grow into his wife's murderer.
Anatomy of a Fall
Another modern classic that lends itself to genre analysis, this crime drama examines the complexities around guilt, innocence and personal tragedy, with a gripping script that keeps the audience guessing. After her husband Vincent is found dead underneath a window in their Alpine home, stoic novelist Sandra is ultimately charged with his murder. Insisting that he must have fallen or jumped, Sandra goes to trial where her beloved half-blind son, Daniel, is called forth as a primary witness, prompting a legal and moral dilemma that will frame the ensuing courtroom battle in unexpected ways.
The accompanying film guide is designed to engage learners aged 16+ and is useful for exploring subjects including Film Studies, French and Law, and is useful for exploring topics including Law and Film Studies in addition to highlighting themes surrounding ethics, crime & punishment, and performance.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
A retro-futuristic parallel Earth within the Marvel Cinematic Universe is protected by a group of special astronauts known as the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards a.k.a. the super-stretchy Mister Fantastic, his wife Sue Storm a.k.a. the forcefield-wielding Invisible Woman, her brother Johnny Storm a.k.a. the fiery Human Torch, and Reed's best friend Ben Grimm, a.k.a. the thick-skinned Thing. When their world comes under attack from the planet-devouring cosmic being Galactus and his herald, the Silver Surfer, the Fantastic Four must harness their superpowers and face the challenge as a family.
Sinners
A film that recently made history at the 2026 Oscars by breaking the record for the most nominations ever received by a single film, this vampire horror film set in 1930s Mississippi has a searing score and a sharply original screenplay. Twin brothers Smoke and Stack have returned to their hometown to open a juke joint. Tension builds as they prepare for the venue's grand opening, with former lovers resurfacing, the threat of the Ku Klux Klan looming over the festivities, and an even greater danger lurking in the darkness, lured by the transcendental blue music.
Please note: Film is a powerful tool for learning, helping to develop critical thinking, empathy, and an understanding of different perspectives. Our films have been selected with consideration to age-appropriateness, safeguarding, the curriculum and statutory and non-statutory guidance to schools. Some of our films and resources include sensitive content which is highlighted in the guidance that Into Film provides with each film. Educators should carefully watch or read all elements of any content and must ensure they are following their own school's policies and guidelines prior to using films and resources in the classroom or in after-school clubs. The final decision to use any film or resource sits with teachers, who should decide what is appropriate for their students using their professional judgement and their knowledge of their students, their school context and their community. Teachers must follow their school's safeguarding protocol if a student is distressed or makes a disclosure as a result of the use of any film or other content.
How Do I Get Started?
To access Into Film+, all you'll need is an Into Film Account - it's completely free, and only takes a moment to set up. Into Film+ is free to use for all UK state schools that hold a valid Public Video Screening (PVS) Licence from Filmbankmedia.
Filmbankmedia PVS Licences are paid for on behalf of schools by all local authorities in England and by some local authorities in both Wales and Scotland. Into Film NI cover the license cost for some schools in Northern Ireland. For further information on licensing in your locality please see our FAQs.
If you're a state school in England that's funded by the Department for Education, you will automatically have access to Into Film+ Premium, which offers an extended catalogue of 800+ titles. Find out more about Into Film+ Premium in our FAQs.
If you don't have a PVS Licence, or aren't already covered, then a licence can easily be obtained from Filmbankmedia.
Filmbankmedia
Filmbankmedia licenses and distributes film and TV entertainment to many groups and is the licensing authority we work with to ensure schools, libraries and youth groups have the permissions to screen films from our catalogue.
* Screenings for an entertainment or extra-curricular purpose require a PVS (Public Video Screening) Licence from Filmbankmedia. State-funded schools in England are covered by the PVS Licence.
The core Into Film programme is free for UK state schools, colleges and other youth settings, thanks to support from the BFI, awarding National Lottery good cause funding, and through other key funders including Cinema First and Northern Ireland Screen.
