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The 70th BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its full lineup of movies, with the U.K.’s biggest film event bringing together some of the year’s most talked about festival favorites, many features expected to be in the awards
race and titles soon to premiere in Venice, Telluride and Toronto.
With the Andrew Scott-starring “Elsinore” set to open the festival and Jesse Eisenberg’s “The Debut” already announced as the closer, the 2026 LFF has added a series of gala presentations, including Cannes breakout “Club Kid,” Danny Boyle’s Venice opener “Ink,” Paweł Pawlikowski’s “Fatherland,” Florian Zeller’s “Bunker,” Cristian Munglue’s Palme d’Or winner “Fjord,” Javier Calvo’s queer epic “La Bola Negra” and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s “The Beloved.”
Other galas include Siân Heder’s “Being Heumann,” Taika Waititi’s “Klara and the Sun,” Andrew Haigh’s “A Long Winter,” Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Minotaur,” James Gray’s “Paper Tiger,” Lee Chang-dong’s “Possible Love,” Susanna White’s “Prime Facie,” Mike Leigh’s “Tender Loving Care” and Martin McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine” and Bassem Tariq’s Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.”
The 2026 LFF has also landed some high-profile world premieres, most notably animated features “Wildwood” from Laika and director Travis Knight and Brad Bird’s Netflix caper “Ray Gunn.” Other films getting their first bow in London include Anthony Wonke’s British boxing biopic “In the Shadows,” Carol Morley’s semi-autobiographical “7 Miles Out” and Sean Mathias’ “Frank and Percy.”
Elsewhere, international premieres at the LFF include Boots Riley’s “I Love Boosters,” Tony Gilroy’s “Behemoth! and Giovanni Tortorici’s “Ketticé.”
On the TV side, the festival is showing both episodes from Michael Winterbottom’s “The Trip to the Northern Lights,” part of “The Trip” series,” and Marvel Studio’s “Visionquest.”
The festival has already announced it main competition, but titles announced to compete for the Sutherland Award for first feature include Ashley Walters’ “Animol,” Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s “Ben’Imana” and Olive Nwosu’s “Lady.” Meanwhile, the documentary competition features William Greaves and David Greaves’ “Once Upon a Time in Harlem,” Theo Rollason’s “Queer Edward II” and “Asmahan Bkerat’s “Concrete Land.”
In all, the LFF is set to show 251 features, shorts, series and immersive works from 88 countries, including 109 works from female filmmakers (43% of the programme) and 33 world premieres.
“When this Festival first sprung to life 70 years ago, little more than a decade after the end of the Second World War, British society was in a period of rapid social change,” said Kristy Matheson, artistic director of BFI Festivals. “Then, like now, we turn to artists to synthesise our times. And what a vision they have for us in 2026; tumults of the era live inside our programme, but so too do cinematic thrills, moral conundrums and a reoccurring exploration of care and community. If you find yourself in London, or across the U.K., this October, the opportunity to experience worlds outside ourselves will be on offer. We hope you can join us.”
The BFI London Film Festival runs Oct 7 — Oct 18.
