The BFI London Film Festival has announced its line-up for 2025.
New films set to screen at this year’s edition of the event include releases from directors Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story), Philippa Lowthorpe (The Other Boleyn Girl), and Hikari, whose comedy-drama Rental Family has already been pegged as an early Best Picture contender at next year’s 98th Academy Awards.
Nomadland director Chloé Zhao’s adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 Shakespeare romance novel Hamnet, which the New York Magazine film critic Bilge Ebiri dubbed “the most devastating” film they’ve seen in years, will have its UK premiere at the festival, alongside James Lucas’s Kate Moss film Moss & Freud, starring Ellie Bamber as the British supermodel.
As previously announced, Rian Johnson’s next Knives Out installment, Wake Up Dead Man, will open this year’s festival. Meanwhile, Julia Jackman’s fantasy drama 100 Nights of Hero will close the fest and see popstar Charli XCX take on her first major film role alongside Emma Corrin, Maika Monroe and Nicholas Galitzine.
This year’s headline galas are also set to be star-studded, with Claire Foy and Brendan Gleeson starring in Lowthorpe’s Patron’s Gala film H Is for Hawk. The Cunard Gala is Baumbach’s comedy drama Jay Kelly, which stars George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup and Riley Keough.
Jafar Panahi Cannes Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident (Yek Tasadee Sadeh) will be shown alongside the latest film from Challengers and Queer director Luca Guadagnino – After the Hunt, a psychological thriller starring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield – and Edward Berger’s Ballad of a Small Player, starring Colin Farrell.
Other highlights include Richard Linklater’s reunion with Ethan Hawke for the Lorenz Hart biographical drama Blue Moon and Poor Things director Yorgos Lanthimos’ feature Bugonia, starring Emma Stone, which dazzled early viewers at Venice Film Festival last week.
Alan Bennett’s World War I drama The Choral is led by Ralph Fiennes and will debut alongside Sydney Sweeney’s queer boxing drama Christy. Elsewhere on the programme, Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson front Lynne Ramsay’s psychological drama Die My Love, which received a nine-minute standing ovation at its Cannes premiere in May.
Additionally, The Shape of Water director Guillermo del Toro will make his return to the film festival with his interpretation of Mary Shelley’s classic gothic novel Frankenstein, starring Saltburn’s Jacob Elordi, while Oliver Hermanus’ The History of Sound with Josh O’Connor and Paul Mescal will have its UK premiere. Mescal also stars in Zhao’s Hamnet alongside Jessie Buckley.
Bradley Cooper’s third directorial feature Is This Thing On? starring Will Arnett and Laura Dern will screen alongside Park Chan-wook’s thriller No Other Choice, as well as Kelly Reichardt’s heist drama The Mastermind, which also stars Josh O’Connor.
The highly anticipated Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me from Nowhere will also premiere at the festival, starring The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White as the Boss. Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst lead Derek Cianfrance’s crime drama Roofman and Elle Fanning stars alongside Stellan Skarsgard in Sentimental Value.
World premieres at the festival include Isabella Eklöf’s series adaptation of Nick Cave’s novel The Death of Bunny Munro with Matt Smith, Bradley Banton’s directorial debut More Life, and Rowan Athale’s British boxing drama Giant with Amir El-Masry and Pierce Brosnan in lead roles. Calif Chong’s British-Chinese immigrant tale High Wire, Yemi Bamiro’s Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story and Ahmed Alauddin Jamal’s Hotel London will also screen in this section.
Siobhan McCarthy’s new gender-swap comedy She’s the He will also premiere, as will Majid Al Ansari’s psychological horror The Vile, Vincho Nchogu’s One Woman One Bra, and Finding Optel from Jesse Brown and Mikayla Joy Brown. A Marianne Faithfull documentary that features appearances from George MacKay and Tilda Swinton is also screening in the special presentations category.
Over 12 days, the LFF will showcase 247 works from 79 countries, including 103 projects made by female and non-binary filmmakers.
Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director, said of this year’s event: “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.”
Meanwhile, Ben Roberts, Chief Executive, BFI, said: “Audiences are at the heart of the LFF and the festival brings them an incredible breadth of stories from some of the most talented and creative filmmakers from the UK and across the world.”
The 69th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express takes place from 8-19 October 2025. Tickets go on sale on 16 September.
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