Daniel Day-Lewis returned to the screen after eight years in Anemone, his son Ronan’s first feature, and brought it to the BFI London Film Festival for its UK premiere.
Daniel Day-Lewis, the only actor with three Best Actor Oscars, attended the UK premiere of Anemone at BFI Southbank on the South Bank on Tuesday 14 October 2025. It is the first feature by his son Ronan, who wrote it with him.
Day-Lewis was born in Kensington in 1957, the son of the poet Cecil Day-Lewis and the actor Jill Balcon. He trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School, and My Beautiful Laundrette and A Room with a View made his name in 1985.
His three Best Actor awards came for My Left Foot, There Will Be Blood and Lincoln, and he was knighted in 2014. He once stepped away from acting to train as a shoemaker in Italy.
Anemone was his first role since Phantom Thread in 2017. He plays Ray Stoker, a former paramilitary soldier living in the woods. Sean Bean plays Jem, the younger brother who comes to find him.
The London screening followed the world premiere at the New York Film Festival on 28 September. Day-Lewis also gave one of the festival’s Screen Talks, and Universal Pictures released the film in British cinemas on 7 November.