British Film Festival 2026 Centrepiece Event

Australian Premiere

Academy Award® nominee Cynthia Erivo (Wicked) delivers a commanding performance in Prima Facie, Susanna White’s gripping legal drama adapted by Suzie Miller from her Olivier Award-winning stage phenomenon.
 
 Tessa (Erivo) is a brilliant, fiercely ambitious defence barrister who has fought her way from a working-class background to dominate London’s ruthless courtrooms. Skilled at dismantling testimony and exposing doubt, she regularly defends men accused of sexual assault. But when Tessa is assaulted by a colleague from a powerful legal dynasty, she suddenly finds herself on the other side of the system she has built her career believing in.
 
 Forced to confront the same tactics she once wielded so expertly, Tessa’s certainty in the law begins to fracture as questions of evidence, credibility and justice become devastatingly personal. Joining Erivo are Daniel Ings and Harry Treadaway (The Crown), Noma Dumezweni, Toheeb Jimoh and two-time BAFTA winner Simon Russell Beale (The Choral BFF25).

“Cynthia Erivo’s riveting Prime Facie performance earns TIFF standing ovation.” -Variety

OFFICIAL SELECTION – Toronto International Film Festival 2026