The 69th BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its full programme line-up, which features a host of top film-makers, superstars and premieres.
The festival is in partnership with American Express and will be presented in cinemas and online across the UK, but over twelve days from 8 – 19 October, London will come alive with film fever across the LFF ‘s flagship venues - BFI Southbank and the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall- plus other partner venues like the Prince Charles, the ICA and Curzons Soho and Mayfair.
The LFF Gala programme will screen at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, while elsewhere will be Special Presentations, Official Competition titles and films and series from all strands of the Festival, with global film talent from behind and in front of the camera in attendance.
You’re looking at a diverse programme of 247 features, shorts, series and immersive works from 79 countries playing across the 12 days of the festival. This includes 103 works made by female and non-binary filmmakers (42% of the programme) and 27 World premieres.
Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director, said, "This Autumn we invite audiences to craft their own festival journey across our programme of premiere screenings, dynamic interactive exhibitions and compelling talks programmes with some of cinema’s leading practitioners. We look forward to you joining us this year to experience the incredible state of the medium in 2025 – brimming with formal innovations, provocations and essential roadmaps for navigating the world around us."
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Some of the highlights include Screen Talks with Yorgos Lanthimos, Daniel Day-Lewis, Richard Linklater, Jafar Panahi, Lynne Ramsay, Tessa Thompson and Chloe Zhao. These will be in person but also screened online on the BFI Player and BFI’s YouTube Channel.
The talk with Day-Lewis will be a particularly hot ticket, with the acting legend returning to screens after 8 years of retirement in Anemone. The film is directed by his son, Ronan, and is co-written by the father-son team, and actually examines male familial ties.
On the gala front, the Opening Night Gala will be Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, in which Daniel Craig will be returning as Benoit Blanc.
The Mayor of London’s Gala is the European premiere of Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, which stars Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley and has received rave reviews in Venice this week. The Cunard Gala will be the UK premiere of Noah Baumbach's comedy-drama Jay Kelly, featuring George Clooney and Adam Sandler. The Closing Gala will the UK Premiere of Julia Jackman’s 100 Knights of Hero, a history fantasy film featuring Emma Corrin and Charli xcx.
We’re also very excited by premieres of Moss & Freud, about the artist/muse relationship between Kate Moss and Lucien Freud, the Matt Smith-starring adaptation of Nick Cave’s novel The Death of Bunny Munro, and also Bradley Cooper’s third directorial film, Is This Thing On? which is, weirdly, inspired by the life of British comedian John Bishop.
And that’s just a brief overview of what’s in store. Further details of the programme and tickets are now on the LFF site. As proud partners of this huge London event, we’ll see you there...
