The world premiere of Steve McQueen’s Blitz is the headline grabber at this year’s BFI London Film Festival but there are dozens of other movies, shorts, and immersive experiences for film fans to sink their teeth into.
From Angelina Jolie to Daniel Craig, returning auteurs to directorial newcomers, fan favourites to foreign masterpieces, the 68th LFF promises to be one of the best yet.
Over 12 days from October 9 to October 20 London’s iconic cinemas, including the BFI’s own South Bank cinemas, the Prince Charles Cinema, the ICA, Curzon Soho and Mayfair and Vue West End will be host to a plethora of films from far and wide.
There are also festival venues across the UK in several major cities.
Tickets don’t go on sale until September 17 (though BFI members can book a week earlier) but favourites often sell out quickly - so what should you be on the lookout for?
Award contenders
The festival kicks off on Southbank on October 9 with the world premiere of WW2-era Blitz, which stars Saoirse Ronan, Stephen Graham and Harris Dickinson - and introduces youngster Elliot Heffernan as a 12-year-old boy who goes missing amid the Nazi bombing campaign on London.
Also in the gala schedule is Steve Baker’s Palme d’Or winning Anora, about a stripper in a Russophone enclave in New York state who begins a relationship with the son of a Russian oligarch.
The Apprentice, starring Sebastian Stan as a young Donald Trump and Jeremy Strong as his ‘fixer’ Roy Cohn is bound to ruffle some feathers with director Ali Abbasi’s film caught in a distribution war in the United States due to the unflattering portrayal of the 45th president as a younger man in New York City.
Could Ralph Fiennes finally get his hands on an Oscar with Conclave, the new film by All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger? Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow also star in this hotly-tipped award favourite about the election of a new pope behind the sacred walls of St Peter’s basilica.
-ia99x0a1.jpeg)
Angelina Jolie is also attracting significant awards buzz with her central performance in Pablo Larrain’s Maria, about the legendary opera singer Maria Callas (Jolie is said to have spent months learning how to sing herself). It is the third film in Larrain’s unofficial ‘trilogy’ of works about 20th century women, following on from the acclaimed Jackie and Spencer.
Speaking of buzz… did someone say they wanted a queer French musical crime comedy starring Selena Gomez and Zoe Saldana? Because if they did, that’d be Emilia Pérez, directed by French favourite Jacques Audiard (Dheepan, Rust and Bone, A Prophet). The performance of Karla Sofia Gascon is already getting awards chatter and she may be the first openly trans actress nominated for an Oscar.
Away from the gala glitz there are still headline names, with significant interest in Luca Guadagnino’s Queer which stars Daniel Craig as an American expat in Mexico in the 1940s who falls for a younger man (Drew Starkey). This is somewhat familiar ground for the Challengers and Call Me By Your Name director with the film based on a William S Burroughs short story from 1985.
Another returning director is British legend Mike Leigh, who has reunited with actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets & Lies) for Hard Truths, which enjoys an LFF gala. Jean-Baptiste earned an Oscar nomination in her previous work with Leigh - can she go a step further with Hard Truths?
Spanish auteur Pedro Almodovar’s first English-language feature The Room Next Door, starring Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore. It enjoyed some mixed reviews when it debuted in Venice but may fare better with critics, and fans, in the UK and the US.
Also part of the programme
Those in search of a feel-good factor might seek out the gala performance of Joy, which has its world premiere at the LFF. It stars Bill Nighy, Thomasin McKenzie and James Norton and tells the true story of the world’s first in vitro fertilisation (that is, ‘test tube’) baby in the 1960s and 70s
Elton John documentary, Elton John: Never Too Late, tells the story of Elton’s Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour with behind-the-scenes access to the legendary hitmaker’s family life, journals and historic performance footage. It is co-directed by Elton’s husband David Furnish and documentarian R. J. Cutler.
Another high-profile documentary is Sadie Frost’s Twiggy about the legendary career and life of the 1960s icon, featuring interviews from the model herself as well as commentary from contemporaries Paul McCartney and Lulu.
Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch may raise the most eyebrows - outside of Donald Trump at least. The film is based on the bestselling novel of the same name, with Amy Adams starring as a stay-at-home mother who - sometimes - transforms into a dog. It was filmed back in autumn 2022 and has taken almost two years to reach screens.
Andrea Arnold’s first film in eight years, Bird, stars Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski and enjoyed warm reviews out of Cannes in May - Arnold is also down to give a Screen Talk at the Royal Festival Hall.
If you want to get in the Christmas spirit early you could check out the animated That Christmas (the clue is in the name), a new film based on Richard Curtis’s children’s books (Succession’s Brian Cox voices Santa). The Mayor of London’s Gala is We Live in Time, a decade-spanning romance starring festival favourite Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield (those terminally online may have seen the horse meme).
The closing night gala is the unusual Piece by Piece, which documents the life and career of Pharrell Williams… by means of Lego. The voice cast includes performances by Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, Justin Timberlake and Jay-Z - and Williams himself wrote five songs for the film.
Elsewhere, we’re set to see Nicholas Cage continue his renaissance with The Surfer, a psychological thriller that is showing as part of the ‘Cult’ section and Broadway fave Jonathan Groff will be starring in rom-com A Nice Indian Boy alongside Karan Soni.
Denzel Washington’s son Malcolm makes his directorial debut with The Piano Lesson, based on the 1987 August Wilson play. The cast includes Samiel Jackson, Ray Fisher and the director’s brother, John David Washington. It lands on Netflix in November.
Jesse Eisenberg’s sophomore directorial effort A Real Pain - that co-stars Succession favourite Kieran Culkin - is part of the programme.
And not for the first time, the LFF is also embracing prestige TV. There are sneak previews of A Thousand Blows, the new Disney+ series from Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight about an all-female London crime syndicate which is not set for release until 2025. Stephen Graham, perhaps Britain’s busiest actor, stars.
There are also advance looks at The Listeners, starring Rebecca Hall and the much-anticipated HBO/Sky show The Franchise; a comedy series by showrunner Jon Brown, alongside Armando Iannucci and Sam Mendes about a film crew in production on a superhero film.
Foreign favourites
All We Imagine As Light, an international co-production between India, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Italy scooped the Grand Prix at Cannes. It tells the story of two Malayali nurses in Mumbia who go on a road trip together and find out more about themselves and their lives. The Guardian and the BBC both gave it five stars.
Berlinale Golden Bear winner Dahomey is also showing at the LFF, a quasi-documentary which weaves in fantasy as it explores the issue of colonisation through precious artworks being taken, and then returned, to the present-day Republic of Benin.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig, which centres on an investigating judge in Tehran who is riddled with doubt regarding role in the state amid widespread political protests, won a special jury award at Cannes. The film earned particular buzz after director Mohammad Rasoulof was sentenced to eight years in prison by Iranian authorities - but he fled to Germany and was at the red carpet at Cannes. The two main actresses are still in Iran and unable to leave.
Under the Volcano is a Polish film about the Russian invasion of Ukraine and screens in the Official Competition, as does the Palestinian film Thank You For Banking With Us about two sisters trying to overcome Sharia law regarding the inheritance of their dead father.
There is also strong interest in the documentaries Collective Monologue and Kamay, both part of the Documentary Competition.
Acclaimed South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang Soo brings A Traveler’s Needs to the festival, as does Malaysian director Tsai Ming-liang with Abiding Nowhere.
Extended programme
The extended programme runs from October 11 through to October 27 and celebrates the moving image in all its forms, from shorts and features to television, immersive and, for the very first time, video games.
There will be five major installations presented at Bargehouse, at Oxo Tower Wharf, BFI Southbank, BFI IMAX and Outernet London.
At South Bank there will be Arcade, a major immersive audio installation inspired by 1980s video games from Darkfield, set inside a shipping container and presented in near total darkness.
There will be five free-to-play games at Bargehouse at Oxo Tower Wharf.
Ulrich Schrauth, BFI London Film Festival’s XR and Immersive Programme Lead, said: “This year’s LFF Expanded programme harnesses the most innovative and imaginative digital technologies, from Projection Mapping and Mixed Reality to Immersive Audio and AI and, for the first time, I’m excited that the programme will present games.”
For more information about the LFF Expanded programme click here.
Tickets go on general sale on September 17 and for BFI members on September 10.
