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The Souvenir is a 2019 romantic drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Joanna Hogg. The film is a semi-autobiographical account of Hogg's experiences at film school. It stars Honor Swinton Byrne, Tom Burke, and Tilda Swinton. It follows a young, quietly ambitious film student who embarks on her first serious love affair with a charismatic and mysterious man.
The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 27 January 2019, where Hogg was awarded the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic. It was theatrically released in the United States on 17 May 2019, by A24, and in the United Kingdom and Ireland on 30 August 2019, by Curzon Film. It grossed over $2 million worldwide and received generally positive reviews from critics. It was named one of the top 10 independent films of 2019 by the National Board of Review and was nominated for Best International Film at the 35th Independent Spirit Awards. The film earned eight nominations, including Best British Independent Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor (for Burke), and Most Promising Newcomer (for Swinton Byrne), at the 22nd British Independent Film Awards. A sequel, The Souvenir Part II, was released in 2021.
Anthony travels to Paris and returns with some lingerie, which he asks Julie to put on. While in bed, she notices some needle marks on his arm but doesn't ask about them. Anthony frequently asks Julie for money, and she starts having to pay their restaurant bills and has to borrow from her parents.
Julie and Anthony have dinner with two of Anthony's friends, who reveal to Julie when he has left the room that Anthony is a heroin addict. Julie is taken aback but does not mention it to Anthony.
Anthony explains over a meal at Harrods that he has had relationships with three other girls, including trips to Venice with at least one of them, who appears to have committed suicide while on the trip. He invites Julie to go to Venice with him.
One evening, she returns to find that her flat has been broken into, and her valuable jewellery is missing. Later, after their trip to Venice, Anthony admits to doing it but says he didn't tell her to keep her from feeling bad. Julie becomes upset, but Anthony manages to convince her he had a good reason for doing so, even though he doesn't elaborate, insinuating it is related to work and not to his heroin habit. Julie starts noticing when Anthony is on heroin, and she attends a self-help group. She starts to confront him sometimes but doubts herself, and he manipulates and Gaslighting her. She begins to take on the responsibility of his addiction.
Julie returns home one evening to find a strange man in her apartment that Anthony must have let in. She also catches an illness from what she's being exposed to through Anthony. Finally, after finding out he was arrested, Julie asks Anthony to move out.
Julie begins to put herself back together after the breakup and progresses in her film work, to the happiness of her friends and professors. Anthony's mother calls Julie frequently in an attempt to find him.
Anthony shows up again and appears clean long enough for Julie to invite him back in with her. He goes through withdrawal in front of her but eventually starts using heroin again. Then he goes missing and is later found dead, having overdosed in a public toilet at the Wallace Collection - the gallery in which The Souvenir is hung.
Mark Kermode of The Observer gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and stated, "Hogg turns the blade on herself, performing what seems at times to be a delicate act of on-screen auto-vivisection. It's powerful stuff: wryly tender, frequently funny, but insidiously suffocating. More than once I found myself stifling a scream – and I mean that as a compliment." Kermode highlighted, "Particular plaudits are due to Tom Burke, who gives a career-best performance."
Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times opined, "If The Souvenir seems to move assuredly to its own unconventional rhythms, it's because Hogg isn't telling a straightforward story; she's showing us, piecemeal, how an artist's sensibility comes into being."
A. O. Scott of The New York Times called it "one of my favorite movies of the year so far" and wrote, " The Souvenir feels like a whispered confidence, an intimate disclosure that shouldn't be betrayed because it isn't really yours." Scott also noted, "This is one of the saddest movies you can imagine, and it's an absolute joy to watch."
Michael O'Sullivan of The Washington Post gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars and commented, "Hogg's coming-of-age tale is no misty remembrance of bygone days. Rather, it is a clear-eyed reflection on how hindsight — and true art — is always 20/20."
David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter described the film as "an illuminating (self-)portrait of a young artist as well as a mesmerizing chronicle of a consuming, destructive relationship that steadily inches its way under the viewer's skin."
Guy Lodge of Variety stated, "Hogg takes a little of both positions in her rich, exquisitely reflective fourth feature — a work of memoir shattered and reassembled into a universally moving, truthful fiction." Lodge praised Burke and Swinton Byrne for their "intensely interlocked performances."
Tomris Laffly of TheWrap wrote, " The Souvenir isn't exactly autobiographical, but it shares a DNA with the filmmaker's own past as a film student. It is a precise yet dreamy memory piece, in an opposite but equally masterful manner to Alfonso Cuarón's Roma, also a cinematic reenactment of recollections. … The Souvenir — with its soft pastels, grainy textures and cloudy aftertaste — feels like getting liquefied within them."
In July 2025, it ranked number 68 on Rolling Stones list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century."
| Sundance Film Festival | February 2, 2019 | World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize | Joanna Hogg | ||
| British Independent Film Awards | December 1, 2019 | Best British Independent Film | Joanna Hogg and Luke Schiller | ||
| Best Director | Joanna Hogg | ||||
| Best Screenplay | Joanna Hogg | ||||
| Best Actor | Tom Burke | ||||
| Most Promising Newcomer | Honor Swinton Byrne | ||||
| Best Costume Design | Grace Snell | ||||
| Best Editing | Helle Le Fevre | ||||
| Best Production Design | Stéphane Collonge | ||||
| National Board of Review | January 8, 2020 | The Souvenir | |||
| London Film Critics' Circle Awards | January 30, 2020 | Film of the Year | The Souvenir | ||
| Screenwriter of the Year | Joanna Hogg | ||||
| Actor of the Year | Tom Burke | ||||
| British or Irish Actor of the Year | |||||
| Supporting Actress of the Year | Tilda Swinton | ||||
| The Attenborough Award for the Best British or Irish Film of the Year | The Souvenir | ||||
| Young British or Irish Performer of the Year | Honor Swinton Byrne | ||||
| Independent Spirit Awards | February 8, 2020 | Best International Film | Joanna Hogg and Luke Schiller |
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