Everyone is invited

BFI London Film Festival

The 69th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express takes place 8-19 October in London and around the UK.

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Catch up with a range of recent successes including previous winners of the festival’s top prizes

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Sister Midnight

A genre-bending comedy about a frustrated and misanthropic newlywed who discovers certain feral impulses that land her in unlikely situations.

  • Comedy
  • 2024
  • 107 mins
  • Karan Kandhari

On Falling

The importance of human connection lies at the heart of this powerful, nuanced portrait of a young Portuguese warehouse employee in Scotland.

  • Drama
  • 2025
  • 101 mins
  • Laura Carreira

Evil Does Not Exist

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s follow-up to Drive My Car is a hauntingly enigmatic eco-thriller. Winner of Best Film at the BFI London Film Festival.

  • Drama
  • 2023
  • 106 mins
  • Ryusuke Hamaguchi

Memoir of a Snail

Nick Cave and Sarah Snook voice an Oscar-nominated stop-motion classic of divided twins, told with adult candour and uncanny warmth.

  • Animation & Artists Moving Image
  • Drama
  • 2024
  • 95 mins
  • Adam Elliot

Loveless

Andrey Zvyagintsev delivers a caustic look at contemporary Russian society, a failed marriage and a child's disappearance.

  • Drama
  • 2017
  • 127 mins
  • Andrey Zvyagintsev

The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Mohammad Rasoulof's powerful, vital, Oscar and BAFTA-nominated thriller about a bureaucrat torn between loyalty to his family and the Iranian regime.

  • Thriller
  • 2024
  • 167 mins
  • Mohammad Rasoulof

Wilding

A dying landscape is healed against all odds, going on to thrive in astonishing ways, in this hopeful story of ecological regeneration.

  • Documentary
  • 2024
  • 75 mins
  • David Allen

The Balconettes

Co-written with Céline Sciamma, Noémie Merlant’s bold film follows three friends as they dispose of the body of an abuser they’ve accidentally killed.

  • Comedy
  • Fantasy
  • 2024
  • 104 mins
  • Noémie Merlant

Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry

A fiercely independent woman’s tranquillity is disturbed by an unexpected affair, in this wry, tender and understated drama from Georgia.

  • Drama
  • 2023
  • 110 mins
  • Elene Naveriani

BFI London Film Festival Shorts

A selection of small but perfectly formed shorts nominated for the 2025 Short Film Award

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Currently unavailable

Capybaras

Chickens and capybaras are unlikely allies.

  • Animation & Artists Moving Image
  • 2024
  • 11 mins

Currently unavailable

Coyotes

When Israeli soldiers interrupt her commute home, a Palestinian doctor is forced down a desolate road and her future is thrown into disarray.

  • Drama
  • 2025
  • 20 mins

Currently unavailable

We Had Fun

An eldest son treats himself to a weekend getaway, dangerously leaving his siblings to their own devices.

  • Drama
  • 2025
  • 19 mins

Currently unavailable

happiness

From solidarity protests for Palestine to sleepless nights wrestling with the horrific realities – a rabbit-hole inquiry into alleviating insomnia.

  • Short documentary
  • 2025
  • 18 mins

Currently unavailable

Ka Ba Ddi: A Breath, a Move, a Game

In this South Asian team sport, players repeating ‘kabaddi’ frantically cross boundaries on the court, tagging their opponents before returning.

  • Animation & Artists Moving Image
  • 2025
  • 10 mins

Currently unavailable

Womb

A Māori girl in the custody of an English couple savours her mother’s weekly visitations, making her long for a place to belong.

  • Drama
  • 2025
  • 15 mins

Currently unavailable

Magid / Zafar

Tensions arise amidst the heat of a busy Pakistani takeaway.

  • Drama
  • 2025
  • 19 mins

Currently unavailable

Elephant Families

When London’s Elephant and Castle shopping centre was demolished, it uprooted the community that made it their home.

  • Documentary
  • Short documentary
  • 2025
  • 15 mins

Currently unavailable

Hope is Lost

A single mother arrives in London with her children, desperate for shelter. She turns to a seemingly caring stranger, unaware of the danger facing her

  • Animation & Artists Moving Image
  • 2025
  • 16 mins

Rentals

Some of the best recent LFF films available to rent now

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Occupied City

£3.50

Steve McQueen’s cinematic commemoration of the Holocaust offers a multidimensional experience full of gravity and sublimity.

  • Documentary
  • War
  • 2023
  • 251 mins
  • Steve McQueen

In Camera

£4.50

A struggling actor faces relentless knockbacks in Naqqash Khalid’s sharp-witted comment on race and identity in the film industry.

  • Drama
  • 2024
  • 95 mins
  • Naqqash Khalid

Corsage

£3.50

Sisi the Empress (Vicky Krieps) gets an irreverent make-over in Austrian director Marie Kreutzer’s exhilarating BAFTA-nominated period drama, winner of Best Film at BFI London Film Festival 2022.

  • Biopic
  • Historical drama
  • 2022
  • 114 mins
  • Marie Kreutzer

The Taste of Things

£3.50

Tran Anh Hùng directs Juliette Binoche in this delicious culinary romance that leaves no crumbs. Winner of the best director award at Cannes.

  • Drama
  • 2023
  • 135 mins
  • Trân Anh Hûng

Kensuke's Kingdom

£4.50

Michael Morpurgo’s beloved novel is brought to life in this delightful, animated tale of a young castaway who discovers he’s not alone.

  • Animation & Artists Moving Image
  • 2023
  • 84 mins
  • Neil Boyle and Kirk Hendry

Hoard

£4.50

A young woman journeys through childhood trauma and emerging sexuality in this staggering drama from an exciting new voice in British cinema.

  • Drama
  • 2023
  • 126 mins
  • Luna Carmoon

Tiger Stripes

£4.50

Nothing is quite as scary as puberty in this exuberant feminist pre-teen body horror from first time Malaysian director Amanda Nell Eu.

  • Horror
  • 2023
  • 95 mins
  • Amanda Nell Eu

The End We Start From

£3.50

A stunning post-apocalyptic British drama navigating the anxieties of parenthood and the future of the world.

  • Drama
  • 2023
  • 102 mins
  • Mahalia Belo

Unicorns

£4.50

Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd have created a moving romance between an Essex mechanic and a South Asian drag queen.

  • Drama
  • Romance
  • 2023
  • 120 mins
  • Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd

London Film Festival Q&As

A collection of highlights from past BFI London Film Festival Q&As

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A Bigger Splash Q&A with Ralph Fiennes

Alongside director Luca Guadagnino, the actor reflects on making this provocative film, following its London Film Festival screening.

  • Inside Film
  • Non-Fiction
  • 2015
  • 13 mins

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Q&A)

The acclaimed director discusses his Cannes prize winner, about an ailing man revisiting his past.

  • Inside Film
  • Non-Fiction
  • 2010
  • 7 mins

The Lobster Q&A with Rachel Weisz and Colin Farrell

The stars of The Lobster are joined by writer-director Yorgos Lanthimos to talk about animals, romance and their roles in this dystopian love story.

  • Inside Film
  • Non-Fiction
  • 2015
  • 7 mins

Ultraviolence - Q&A - BFI LFF 2020

Director Ken Fero discusses their powerful documentary about police brutality in the UK following a screening at the 2020 BFI London Film Festival.

  • Inside Film
  • Non-Fiction
  • 2020
  • 17 mins

Mountains May Depart Q&A with Jia Zhangke

The director joins actor Zhao Tao to discuss their humane drama about a group of friends in a changing world.

  • Inside Film
  • Non-Fiction
  • 2015
  • 17 mins

Kelly + Victor (Q&A)

The cast and crew of Kelly + Victor, along with the author of the original novel, discuss the genesis of the provocative love story.

  • Inside Film
  • Non-Fiction
  • 2012
  • 7 mins

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