Too Much: Melodrama on Film

1st October - 31st December 2025
Current Programme
Applications Closed
Still from ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS. A couple kiss in a black and white image.
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Introduction
Season Trailer
Available funding
Key dates
Accessibility
Apply via your Film Hub
Melodrama film stills

Delivered in partnership with the BFI, FAN is proud to unveil the new UK-wide season – Too Much: Melodrama on Film - where audiences are invited to follow their emotions and get swept away by the big screen experience.

Too Much celebrates the visual excess and dramatic potency of a form of cinema which champions emotional intensity over propriety and ‘good taste’. With roots in the exaggerated performance and expressive staging of the silent era, the melodramatic mode evolved to incorporate a wealth of genres and stories. United by their emotion-driven plots, vivid visual language and self-conscious audience manipulation, these films are designed to make you break down in tears, cause a scene, fall in love, feel something.

Defining melodrama is notoriously difficult – its trademarks (emotive music, dramatic plots and expressive performance) are the bread and butter of cinema. To be included in the season, films must meet the following criteria:

  • Heightened emotions and pathos: on screen, and/or deliberately induced in the audience.
  • Some combination of amplified performance, visuals, score and plot used to achieve this.
  • Personal relationships at the heart of the emotional conflict portrayed.

Melodrama in film has long been associated with women – the rare storytelling mode concerned with their inner lives and everyday struggles. ‘Women’s pictures’ employed melodrama to express longing, rage and desire in characters facing motherhood, infidelity, sexual abuse and scandal. Too Much will celebrate the female stars of melodrama who have drawn audiences to the cinema in their millions, and films exploring women’s experiences are encouraged.

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Season Trailer

What funding is available?

There are three ways you can engage with the programme and access support:

1) MENU: Pick from the menu of key titles available from assorted distributors in the UK and access support of up to £125 per film for enhancement wraparound activity and audience development; with a very straight- forward process to access the support.

2) BESPOKE: Up to £15,000 (average awards likely to be circa £5,000 based on previous activity) to develop bespoke projects to allow exhibitors to develop a more bespoke activity within the parameters of the Creative Brief.

3) CROSS-FAN: Up to £15,000 to develop programme and/or Marketing/Outreach Activity with the potential to scale or tour across the UK and/or projects involving multiple site-specific events across the UK. Read the Funding Guidelines for more information and guidance

 

Please note, you must be a member of the Film Audience Network to apply for this funding. Not a member yet? It’s free and easy to join.

Key Dates

Final deadline for Bespoke and Cross FAN Proposals: 5pm Monday 14 July 2025

Menu Expressions of Interest can be submitted until Monday 29 September 2025 (but note that for your activity to be included in initial listings announcement, you will need to submit your EOI and confirm your bookings by the end of July.)

Period of Activity: October to December 2025. Menu titles for non-theatrical venues can be booked until January 2026 and some special regional preview events may be allowed before the start of October.

Accessibility

If you require any access support for completing the form, please email your Film Hub directly and they can advise how they can accommodate your needs to complete a proposal.

You can find further support for access through the BFI’s funding support guidance.

 

Where do I start?

Read the Creative Brief for more information about the programme scope and to get some inspiration. Also get ideas from the list of available contextual titles that are available to book.

Next, visit your local Film Hub’s Too Much: Melodrama on Film page (linked below) to find out more about staging your own screenings and events, and to begin your application!

Please note: You must be a member of the BFI Film Audience Network to access support from this programme. Proposals from individuals or non-members will not be considered.

Lonely Hearts

If you’re considering a Bespoke application and exploring options for wraparound activity, Niki Harman of the Light After Dark Film Festival is interested in working with participating Hub members on a Lonelyhearts Hotline, which you can read more about on an available pitch deck and include in your proposal.

Film Hub Application Pages:

Scotland

North

N. Ireland

Wales

Midlands

London

South East

South West

Too Much: Image Gallery

Still from ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS. A woman lies on a sofa. There is a man with his arms around her.
Still from STELLA DALLAS. A black and white image of two women sitting by a piano
Still from JOHNNY GUITAR. Three men and one woman, all dressed in Western clothes.
Still from IMITATION OF LIFE. Two women sit together.
Still from ALL THAT HEAVEN ALLOWS. A silhouette of a man and a woman, standing in front of a window.
Still from VOLVER. A woman holds her daughter's chin

Image credits:

All That Heaven Allows, courtesy Park Circus and Universal (Header and images 1 & 5)

Stella Dallas, courtesy Park Circus and Samuel Goldwyn Jr. Family Trust (Image 2)

Johnny Guitar, courtesy Park Circus and Paramount (Image 3)

Imitation of Life, courtesy Park Circus and Universal (Image 4)

Volver, courtesy Park Circus and Pathé (Image 6)

BFI FAN
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