Full programme announced for 67th BFI London Film Festival

Across 12 days, we’ll be presenting an exciting and wide-ranging programme of 252 titles (comprising features, shorts, XR works and series), hailing from 92 countries and featuring 79 languages.

Poor Things (2023)

The 67th BFI London Film Festival (LFF) in partnership with American Express today announces the full programme line-up, which will be presented in cinemas and online, across the UK. Over 12 days from 4 to 15 October, the LFF will invite audiences to return to its fantastic flagship venues in the heart of London – BFI Southbank and the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, which between them host Galas, Special Presentations and Official Competition. Films and series from all strands of the festival will screen in many of central London’s iconic cinemas with a curated selection of features also being showcased at 9 partner venues across the UK.

The LFF will present a compelling and diverse programme of films, shorts, series and immersive works from 92 countries, featuring 79 languages playing across the 12 days of the festival. This includes 99 works made by female and non-binary filmmakers – 39% of the programme. 

An impressive number of major alumni filmmakers return to LFF including: Martin Scorsese, Yorgos Lanthimos, Sally El Hosaini, Jonathan Glazer, Steve McQueen, Michel Gondry, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Adura Onashile, Bertrand Bonello, Robin Campillo, Lukas Moodysson, Maite Alberdi, William Oldroyd, DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman, James Benning, Claire Simon, Angela Schanelec, Nicolas Philibert, Lila Avilés, Tatiana Huezo, Victoria Linares Villegas, Michel Franco, Quentin Dupieux, Catherine Breillat, Mohamed Ben Attia, Molly Manning Walker, Kitty Green, Aki Kaurismäki, Marco Bellocchio, Hirokazu Koreeda, Amat Escalante, Nuhash Humayun, Kaouther Ben Hania, Trần Anh Hùng, Baloji, Marie Amachoukeli, Jesse Lewis Reece, Cédric Kahn, Alexandre O. Philippe, Ladj Ly, Alex Gibney, James Krishna Floyd, Dominic Leclerc, Frederick Wiseman, Fawzia Mirza, Pat Collins, Deepa Mehta, Bill Ross, Turner Ross and Mahalia Belo. 

The festival is also introducing audiences to a thrilling new generation of international filmmakers with 47 debut features in LFF from: Mika Gustafson, Raven Jackson, Erica Tremblay, Randall Park, Adura Onashile, Noora Niasari, Laura Moss, Mary Helena Clark, Mike Gibisser, Fox Maxy, Zeno Graton, Myriam U. Birara, Savanah Leaf, Agniia Galdanova, Cyrielle Raingou, Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, Leandro Koch, Paloma Schachmann, Michael Lukk Litwak, Chloe Abrahams, Felipe Carmona, Ramata-Toulaye, SyJulia Jackman, Moin Hussain, Naqqash Khalid, Kibwe Tavares, Mohamed Kordofani, Baloji, Zoljargal Purevdash, Amjad Al Rasheed, Lillah Halla, Amanda Nell Eu, Stéphan Castang, Rosine Mbakam, Thien An Pham, Seán Devlin, Chris Pine, Ernst De Geer, David Allen, Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine, Cyril Aris, Caroline Ingvarsson, Victor Iriarte, Neo SoraTulapop Saenjaroen, Fawzia Mirza, Ali Catterall, Jane Giles, Thomas Hyland and Dana Kavelina.

The Book of Clarence (2023)

Every feature and series will screen to audiences in the UK for the very first time, with many shown publicly for the first time ever anywhere in the world. Premieres include 29 world premieres (14 features, 2 series and 13 shorts), 8 international premieres (7 features and 1 short) and 28 European premieres (20 features, 1 series and 7 shorts). 

World premieres from filmmakers and artists include: Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya’s The Kitchen, which closes the festival; Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget by the award-winning British stop-motion giant Aardman Studios; immersive artwork My Trip by Bjarne Melgaard; coming-of-age romcom Bonus Track by Julia Jackman, Daniel Kokotajlo’s Starve Acre; The Book of Clarence by Jeymes Samuel; The Buckingham Murders by Hansal Mehta; Theresa Ikoko’s Grime Kids from the Series strand; the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation restoration of Michael Powell’s 1960 masterpiece Peeping Tom in association with STUDIOCANAL; and the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation’s restoration of Horace Ové’s pioneering 1975 debut Pressure. 

International premieres include Saltburn, directed, produced and written by Emerald Fennell which opens the festival, as well as collaboration between Deepa Mehta and Sirat Taneja I Am Sirat and This Is Going to Be Big by Thomas Charles Hyland. Major European premieres include One Life by James Hawes starring Anthony Hopkins; Expats, directed by Lulu Wang and starring Nicole Kidman; Together 99 by Lukas Moodyson; Dear Jassi by Tarsem Singh; Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers; and All of Us Strangers by Andrew Haigh. 

Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director, said: “In preparing this 2023 festival, my colleagues and I have been endlessly buoyed by the artistry, ideas and talented individuals and communities that have come into our orbit. It’s now time to share all this wonder and we can’t wait for audiences to experience it all this October here in London and across the UK with LFF on Tour and online at BFI Player.”

Ben Roberts, CEO, BFI said: “Cinema has reclaimed its status as a cultural force, an art-form that can spark a conversation around the world, and which will resound loudly through the wide-ranging line-up of essential cinema that our 67th edition of the BFI London Film Festival will offer. I am particularly excited that the festival will be sharing the exhilarating experience of new work from global filmmakers alongside so many debut features from the UK this year. I congratulate Kristy on her first LFF programme and the talented team who continue to find creative ways to reach new audiences, including through our free programme. We couldn’t do it without our loyal supporters, including our principal partner of 14 years American Express, so huge thanks to them and our many other sponsors, funders, partners, including the UK government and the UK’s National Lottery players who do so much to enable both the festival and our work throughout the year.”  

Lily gladstone and Leonardo DiCaprio in Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)
Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Audiences will enjoy a rich programme of fiction, documentary, animation, artists’ moving image, short film, newly restored classics from the world’s archives, and exciting international works made in immersive and episodic forms. LFF for Free will return to BFI Southbank with a vibrant wide-ranging programme of talks, short films and immersive works alongside imaginative, playful events and filmmaker Q&As, both in-person at BFI Southbank and at Gallery@OXO plus short films online on BFI Player – all completely free of charge. The festival will also be accessible UK-wide via a specially curated programme of 14 free short films on BFI Player, which viewers will be able to enjoy from 4 to 15  October.

The LFF is delighted to invite audiences once again to its London hubs on the South Bank and in the West End, with both areas remaining at the heart of the BFI London Film Festival experience. Galas will screen at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on an 18-metre screen with full high-spec 7.1 channel surround sound, ensuring every seat in the over-2000-seater venue is the best in the house. Titles from the main programme will screen at a range of cinemas across the city from the BFI’s own South Bank Cinemas – BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX – to fantastic partner venues Vue West End, the Prince Charles Cinema, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Curzon Soho and Curzon Mayfair, each of them bringing audiences up close and personal with filmmaking talents from the UK and across the globe. Festival venues across the UK include Broadway Cinema in Nottingham, Chapter in Cardiff, Glasgow Film Theatre, HOME in Manchester, MAC in Birmingham, Queen’s Film Theatre in Belfast, Showroom Cinema in Sheffield, Tyneside Cinema in Newcastle and Watershed in Bristol.

The LFF’s Competition sections celebrate a range of cinematic talents premiering at this year’s festival and feature an incredible range of filmmakers from across the world. 11 films will screen in Official Competition, competing for the Best Film Award, which showcases inspiring, inventive and distinctive international filmmaking, while 11 films will also screen in the First Feature Competition, competing for the Sutherland Award, which recognises the most original and imaginative directorial debut. The Grierson Award will acknowledge feature-length documentaries with integrity, originality and social or cultural significance; 8 films will screen in the Documentary Competition. The Short Film Award will recognise short-form works with a unique cinematic voice, with 10 films selected in this category. The winners of these four competitive awards will be chosen by LFF Awards Juries, the members of which will be announced in the coming weeks and the winning films will be announced on the final day of the festival – 15 October – with surprise screenings of the winning feature films taking place that night. The ever-popular Audience Award will also return for 2023, with audiences being able to vote for their favourite work they saw at this year’s festival, be it fiction, documentary, short or XR work.

As previously announced, LFF Expanded the festival’s programme of immersive art and extended realities will run from 6 to 22 October and invite audiences to explore and experience powerful new ways of telling stories on screen. Featuring British and international artists, filmmakers and creative teams, such as Shirin Neshat, Tania de Montaigne, Bjarne Melgaard, Karen Palmer, Darren Emerson and Anagram, this year’s programme offers audiences a huge diversity of approaches to storytelling at the cutting edge of screen technology. This year, LFF Expanded finds a new home at Bargehouse at OXO Tower Wharf, in the heart of the cultural hub of the South Bank, hosting 9 projects with free work also being showcased at the nearby Gallery@OXO. The programme also includes two free augmented reality walks, additional projects will appear in the largest digital space in Europe cultural hotspot Outernet London and features a groundbreaking audiovisual spectacle at Science Gallery London.

Grime Kids (2023)

In its third year, the LFF Series strand returns to showcase compelling new episodic programming including Expats directed by Lulu Wang and following the vibrant lives of a close-knit expatriate community with an exciting ensemble cast. Also featured in the strand are the world premieres of Theresa Ikoko’s hotly-anticipated Grime Kids, inspired by the book by DJ Target and detailing the emergence of the east London grime scene in the early 2000s; and heist series Culprits, J Blakeson’s thrilling twist of the heist genre, starring Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and Gemma Arterton.

The festival aims to be inclusive, accessible and welcoming, and alongside the major LFF For Free programme, which will be announced in mid-September, there will be a limited number of £10 tickets available to all London screenings, as well as £5 tickets for those aged 25 & Under. Young cinema goers and emerging professionals can also enrich their experience with the festival through our Family screenings (with tickets priced at £5 for children and from £10 for adults), our education programmes, and via events and screenings for young aspiring professionals presented with BFI Film Academy and the BFI Future Film Festival.

A full programme of events and screenings is available for press and industry delegates across the festival. Within a programme of Spotlight talks and panel discussions, global industry leaders, writers, directors and producers will be talking about urgent subjects that are top of the industry’s agenda, sharing their insights and experience with delegates. Full details will be announced in the coming weeks.

Headline Galas

  • Opening Night Gala – Saltburn (UK, dir.-scr. Emerald Fennell)
  • Closing Night Gala – The Kitchen (UK, dir. Kibwe Tavares, Daniel Kaluuya)
  • American Express Gala – One Life (UK, dir. James Hawes)
  • All of Us Strangers (UK, dir.-scr. Andrew Haigh)
  • The Bikeriders (USA, dir. Jeff Nichols)
  • The Book of Clarence (USA, dir.-scr. Jeymes Samuel)
  • The Mayor of London’s Gala – Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (UK, dir. Sam Fell)
  • Cunard Gala – The Holdovers (USA, dir. Alexander Payne)
  • The Killer (USA, dir. David Fincher)
  • Killers of the Flower Moon (USA, dir. Martin Scorsese)
  • Maestro (USA, dir. Bradley Cooper)
  • May December (USA, dir. Todd Haynes)
  • Nyad (USA, dir. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin)
  • Poor Things (UK, dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)

Special Presentations

  • The Boy and the Heron (Japan, dir. Hayao Miyazaki)
  • Cobweb (South Korea, dir. Kim Jee-woon)
  • BFI Patron’s Special Presentation – The End We Start From (UK, dir. Mahalia Belo)
  • Fallen Leaves (Finland, dir.-scr. Aki Kaurismäki)
  • Foe (Australia, dir. Garth Davis)
  • Series Special Presentation – Grime Kids (UK, dir. Abdou Cisse)
  • Hit Man (USA, dir. Richard Linklater)
  • BFI Flare Special Presentation – Housekeeping for Beginners (North Macedonia-Poland-Croatia-Serbia-Kosovo, dir.-scr. Goran Stolevski)
  • Les Indésirables (France-Belgium, dir. Ladj Ly)
  • Memory (Mexico-USA-Chile, dir.-scr. Michel Franco)
  • Occupied City (UK-Netherlands, dir. Steve McQueen)
  • Priscilla (USA-Italy, dir.-scr. Sofia Coppola)
  • The Zone of Interest (USA-UK-Poland, dir.-scr. Jonathan Glazer)

LFF Awards

Official Competition

  • Baltimore (Ireland-UK, dir-scr. Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor)  
  • Dear Jassi (India, dir. Tarsem Singh Dhandwar) 
  • Europa (Austria-UK, dir-scr. Sudabeh Mortezai)  
  • Evil Does Not Exist (Japan, dir-scr. Ryusuke Hamaguchi)  
  • Fingernails (USA, dir-scr. Christos Nikou)   
  • Gasoline Rainbow (USA, dir-scr. Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross)  
  • I Am Sirat (Canada, dir. a collaboration between Deepa Mehta and Sirat Taneja)  
  • The Royal Hotel (Australia, dir-scr. Kitty Green) 
  • Self Portrait: 47 Km 2020 (China, dir. Zhang Mengqi) 
  • Starve Acre (UK, dir-scr. Daniel Kokotajlo) 
  • Together 99 (Sweden-Denmark, dir-scr. Lukas Moodysson)  

First Feature Competition

  • Black Dog (UK, dir-scr. George Jaques) 
  • Earth Mama (USA-UK, dir-scr. Savanah Leaf) 
  • Hoard (UK, dir-scr. Luna Carmoon) 
  • In Camera (UK, dir-scr. Naqqash Khalid) 
  • Mambar Pierrette (Belgium-Cameroon, dir-scr. Rosine Mbakam) 
  • Paradise Is Burning (Sweden-Italy-Denmark-Finland, dir-scr. Mika Gustafson) 
  • Penal Cordillera (Chile-Brazil, dir-scr. Felipe Carmona) 
  • The Queen of My Dreams (Canada, dir-scr. Fawzia Mirza) 
  • Sky Peals (UK, dir-scr. Moin Hussain) 
  • Tiger Stripes (Malaysia-Taiwan-Singapore-France-Germany-Netherlands-Indonesia-Qatar, dir-scr. Amanda Nell Eu) 
  • Tuesday (UK-USA, dir-scr. Daina O. Pusić)

Documentary Competition

  • Bye Bye Tiberias (France-Palestine-Belgium-Qatar, dir-scr. Lina Soualem) 
  • Celluloid Underground (UK-Iran, dir. Ehsan Khoshbakht) 
  • Chasing Chasing Amy (USA, dir. Sav Rodgers) 
  • A Common Sequence (USA-Mexico, dir. Mary Helena Clark, Mike Gibisser) 
  • Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano (Germany-Lebanon, dir-scr. Cyril Aris) 
  • The Klezmer Project (Austria-Argentina, dir-scr. Leandro Koch, Paloma Schachmann) 
  • Queendom (France-USA, dir. Agniia Galdanova) 
  • The Taste of Mango (UK-USA, dir. Chloe Abrahams) 

Short Film Competition

  • The Archive: Queer Nigerians (UK, dir. Simisolaoluwa Akande) 
  • Area Boy (UK, dir. Iggy London) 
  • Boat People (Canada, dir. Thao Lam, Kjell Boersma) 
  • Essex Girls (UK, dir. Yero Timi-Biu) 
  • The Goose’s Excuse (Egypt-UK, dir. Mahdy Abo Bahat,  Abdo Zin Eldin) 
  • Khabur (Germany-Iran, dir. Nafis Fathollahzadeh) 
  • Onset (UK-Poland, dir. Anna Engelhardt,  Mark Cinkevich) 
  • The Singer (UK, dir. Cora Bissett) 
  • The Walk (UK, dir. Michael Jobling) 
  • Wells of Despair (Netherlands, dir. sata taas)

As in previous years, the feature film programme is organised by strand to encourage discovery and to open up the Festival to new audiences. These are: Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Create, Experimenta, Family and Treasures. Audiences can also find a new and exciting Series programming in many of the strands.

Love

  • 20,000 Species of Bees (Spain, dir.-scr. Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren)
  • Àma Gloria (France, dir.-scr. Marie Amachoukeli)
  • Banel & Adama (France-Senegal-Mali, dir.-scr. Ramata-Toulaye Sy)
  • Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry (Switzerland-Germany-Georgia, dir. Elene Naveriani)
  • The Eternal Memory (Chile, dir. Maite Alberdi)
  • Fancy Dance (USA, dir. Erica Tremblay)
  • Girl (UK, dir.-scr. Adura Onashile)
  • Goodbye Julia (Sudan-Egypt-Germany-France-Saudi Arabia-Sweden, dir.-scr. Mohamed Kordofani)
  • Monster (Japan, dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda)
  • Our Body (France, dir. Claire Simon)
  • Perfect Days (Japan, dir. Wim Wenders)
  • Robot Dreams (Spain-France, dir.-scr. Pablo Berger)
  • Silver Haze (Netherlands-UK, dir.-scr. Sacha Polak)
  • Slow (Lithuania-Spain-Sweden, dir.-scr. Marija Kavtaradze)
  • Tótem (Mexico-Denmark-France, dir. Lila Avilés)
  • Unicorns (UK, dir. Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd)

Debate

  • Allensworth (USA, dir. James Benning)
  • Fire Through Dry Grass (USA, dir. Alexis Neophytides, Andres ‘jay’ Molina)
  • Four Daughters (France-Tunisia-Germany-Saudi Arabia, dir.-scr. Kaouther Ben Hania)
  • The Goldman Case (France, dir. Cédric Kahn)
  • High & Low — John Galliano (France-USA-UK, dir.-scr. Kevin Macdonald)
  • Kidnapped (Italy-France-Germany, dir. Marco Bellocchio)
  • The Mission (USA, dir. Jesse Moss, Amanda Mcbaine)
  • On the Adamant (France-Japan, dir. Nicolas Philibert)
  • The Pigeon Tunnel (UK, dir. Errol Morris)
  • The Rye Horn (Spain-Portugal-Belgium, dir.-scr. Jaione Camborda)
  • Shoshana (UK-Italy, dir. Michael Winterbottom)
  • Wilding (UK, dir. David Allen)
  • Youth (Spring) (France-Luxembourg-Netherlands, dir. Wang Bing)

Laugh

  • Asog (Philippines-Canada, dir. Seán Devlin)
  • Bonus Track (UK, dir. Julia Jackman)
  • The Book of Solutions (France, dir.-scr. Michel Gondry)
  • Daaaaaali! (France, dir.-scr. Quentin Dupieux)
  • The Hypnosis (Sweden-Norway-France, dir. Ernst De Geer)
  • Molli and Max in the Future (USA, dir.-scr. Michael Lukk Litwak)
  • The Nature of Love (Canada-France, dir.-scr. Monia Chokri)
  • The Practice (Argentina-Chile-Portugal, dir. Martín Rejtman)
  • Poolman (USA, dir. Chris Pine)
  • Shortcomings (USA, dir. Randall Park)
  • Terrestrial Verses (Iran, dir.-scr. Ali Asgari, Alireza Khatami)

Dare

  • Animalia (France-Morocco-Qatar, dir.-scr. Sofia Alaoui)
  • Behind the Mountains (Tunisia-France-Belgium-Italy-Saudi Arabia-Qatar, dir.-scr. Mohamed Ben Attia)
  • Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (Romania-Luxembourg-France-Croatia, dir.-scr. Radu Jude)
  • Eileen (USA, dir. William Oldroyd) 
  • Foremost by Night (Spain-Portugal-France, dir. Víctor Iriarte)
  • Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Vietnam-Singapore-France-Spain, dir.-scr. Thien An Pham)
  • Last Summer (France, dir. Catherine Breillat)
  • Little Girl Blue (France-Belgium, dir.-scr. Mona Achache)
  • Music (Germany-France-Serbia, dir.-scr. Angela Schanelec)
  • Omen (Belgium-Netherlands-Democratic Republic of Congo-France-South Africa, dir.-scr. Baloji)
  • The Peasants (Poland-Serbia-Lithuania, dir.-scr. Dk Welchman, Hugh Welchman)
  • Power Alley (Brazil-France-Uruguay, dir. Lillah Halla)
  • A Prince (France, dir. Pierre Creton)
  • Red Island (France-Belgium-Madagascar, dir. Robin Campillo)
  • Samsara (Spain, dir. Lois Patiño)

Thrill

  • The Animal Kingdom (France, dir. Thomas Cailley)
  • The Buckingham Murders (India-UK, dir. Hansal Mehta)
  • Copa ’71 (UK, dir. Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine)
  • Culprits (UK, dir-scr. J Blakeson)
  • Gassed Up (UK, dir. George Amponsah)
  • Lost in the Night (Mexico-Germany-Netherlands, dir. Amat Escalante)
  • Lubo (Italy-Switzerland, dir. Giorgio Diritti)
  • Only the River Flows (China, dir. Shujun Wei)
  • Shame on Dry Land (Sweden-Malta, dir.-scr. Axel Petersén)
  • Stolen (India, dir. Karan Tejpal)
  • Unmoored (UK-Poland-Sweden, dir. Caroline Ingvarsson)

Cult

  • The Beast (France-Canada, dir.-scr. Bertrand Bonello)
  • Birth/Rebirth (USA, dir. Laura Moss)
  • Late Night with the Devil (Australia, dir.-scr. Cameron Cairnes, Colin Cairnes)
  • Nightwatch – Demons Are Forever (Denmark, dir.-scr. Ole Bornedal)
  • Red Rooms (Canada, dir.-scr. Pascal Plante)
  • Scala!!! (UK, dir.-scr. Jane Giles, Ali Catterall)
  • Stopmotion (UK, dir. Robert Morgan)
  • Vincent Must Die (France-Belgium, dir. Stéphan Castang)

Journey

  • All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt (USA, dir.-scr. Raven Jackson)
  • The Bride (Rwanda, dir.-scr. Myriam U. Birara)
  • The Delinquents (Argentina, dir.-scr. Rodrigo Moreno)
  • The Echo (Mexico-Germany, dir.-scr. Tatiana Huezo)
  • Expats (USA-Hong Kong, dir.-scr. Lulu Wang)
  • Haar (UK, dir.-scr. Ben Hecking)
  • How to Have Sex (UK-Greece, dir.-scr. Molly Manning Walker)
  • If Only I Could Hibernate (Mongolia-France-Switzerland-Qatar, dir.-scr. Zoljargal Purevdash)
  • Inshallah a Boy (Jordan-France-Saudi Arabia-Qatar-Egypt, dir. Amjad Al Rasheed)
  • The Lost Boys (Belgium-France, dir. Zeno Graton)
  • The New Boy (Australia, dir.-scr. Warwick Thornton)
  • Ramona (Dominican Republic-UK, dir. Victoria Linares Villegas)
  • The Settlers (Chile-Argentina-France-Denmark-UK-Taiwan-Sweden-Germany, dir. Felipe Gálvez Haberle)
  • Shayda (Australia, dir.-scr. Noora Niasari)
  • The Spectre of Boko Haram (Cameroon-France, dir. Cyrielle Raingou)
  • The Sweet East (USA, dir. Sean Price Williams)
  • That They May Face the Rising Sun (Ireland-UK, dir. Pat Collins)

Create

  • Anita (USA, dir. Alexis Bloom, Svetlana Zill)
  • Anselm (Germany, dir. Wim Wenders)
  • Apolonia, Apolonia (Denmark- Poland-France, dir. Lea Glob)
  • Close Your Eyes (Spain-Argentina dir. Víctor Erice)
  • The Daughters of Fire (Portugal, dir. Pedro Costa)
  • Croma Kid (Dominican Republic, dir. Pablo Chea)
  • Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (USA, dir.-scr. Michèle Stephenson, Joe Brewster)
  • In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon (USA, dir. Alex Gibney)
  • Menu-Plaisirs Les Troisgros (USA, dir. Frederick Wiseman)
  • The Pot au feu (France, dir. -scr. Anh Hung Tran)
  • Ryuichi Sakamoto | Opus (Japan, dir. Neo Sora)
  • Swan Song (Canada, dir. Chelsea Mcmullan)
  • They Shot the Piano Player (Spain-France-Netherlands, dir. Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal)
  • This Is Going to Be Big (Australia, dir. Thomas Charles Hyland)
  • You Can Call Me Bill (USA, dir.-scr. Alexandre O. Philippe)

Experimenta

  • The Lost Art of the Future (Canada, dir.-scr. Theo Cuthand) 
  • A Radical Duet (UK, dir.-scr. Onyeka Igwe)
  • Speech for a Melting Statue (Belgium-Democratic Republic of Congo, dir. Collectif Faire-Part)
  • Wells of Despair (Netherlands, dir.-scr. Sata Taas)
  • The Archive: Queer Nigerians (UK, dir. Simisolaoluwa Akande)
  • Everything Worthwhile Is Done with Other People (UK, dir.-scr. Rehana Zaman)
  • Night Fishing with Ancestors (Australia, dir. Elizabeth Povinelli)
  • Minevissam (I Am Writing) (UK, dir.-scr. Niki Kohandel)
  • Notes from Gog Magog (Indonesia, dir.-scr. Riar Rizaldi)
  • Coders (Lithuania, dir.-scr. Anastasia Sosunova)
  • Platform Ghosts – Turker, Farmer, Bot (India, dir. Aarti Sunder)
  • Onset (UK-Poland, dir. Anna Engelhardt, Mark Cinkevich)
  • Gush (USA, dir. Fox Maxy)
  • Pacific Club (France-Qatar, dir.-scr. Valentin Noujaïm)
  • It Can’t Be That Nothing That Can Be Returned (Ukraine. dir. Dana Kavelina)
  • Timekeepers of the Anthropocene (Mexico-USA, dir. Federico Cuatlacuatl)
  • Tristxtotl (UK, dir. Mădălina Zaharia)
  • Mangosteen (Thailand, dir. Tulapop Saenjaroen)
  • The Goose’s Excuse (Egypt-UK, dir. Mahdy Abo Bahat, Abdo Zin Eldin)
  • Room in a Crowd (Philippines, dir.-scr. John Torres)
  • Tempo (Japan, dir. Yu Araki)
  • All the Days of May (Canada, dir.-scr. Miryam Charles)
  • Wood for the Trees (Germany, dir. Rob Crosse)
  • Sunflower Siege Engine (USA, dir.-scr. Sky Hopinka)
  • A Throwing Forth (USA-China, dir. Xiao Zhang)
  • Levitate (Italy-Spain-France, dir. Iván Argote)
  • Desert Dreaming (Sri Lanka, dir.-scr. Abdul Halik Azeez)
  • Khabur (Germany-Iran, dir. Nafis Fathollahzadeh)

Shorts

  • Pu Ekaw Tnod (UK, dir. Rebecca Culverhouse)
  • Strangers (UK, dir.-scr. Rob Price)
  • Doris (Ghana-USA, dir. Edem Dotse)
  • Predators (UK, dir.-scr. Jack King)
  • The Test (USA, dir.-scr. Olivia Marie Valdez)
  • Yummy Mummy (UK, dir.-scr. Gabriela Staniszewska)
  • Foreigners Only (Bangladesh-USA, dir. Nuhash Humayun)
  • The Garden of Heart (Hungary-Slovakia, dir.-scr. Olivér Hegyi)
  • Torn (Denmark-Sweden, dir. Jahfar Muataz)
  • South Facing (UK, dir.scr. Reneque Samuels)
  • Hafekasi (Australia, dir.-scr. Annelise Hickey)
  • Now and Then (UK, dir. Harris Alvi)
  • Rizoo (Iran-USA, dir. Azadeh Navai)
  • I Am More Dangerous Dead (USA-Nigeria-UK, dir.-scr. Majiye Uchibeke)
  • Boat People (Canada, dir.-scr. Thao Lam, Kjell Boersma)
  • Waking Up in Silence (Ukraine-Germany, dir.-scr. Mila Zhluktenko, Daniel Asadi Faezi)
  • Graveyard of Horses (China, dir. Xiao Xuan Jiang)
  • Wildmen of the Greater Toronto Area (Canada, dir.-scr. Solmund Macpherson)
  • The Walk (UK, dir. Michael Jobling)
  • Essex Girls (UK, dir. Yero Timi-Biu)
  • All the Lights Still Burning (UK, dir. Dominic Leclerc)
  • The Scottish Play (UK, dir. James Soldan)
  • Festival of Slaps (UK, dir. Abdou Cissé)
  • Only Yourself to Blame (UK, dir. Noomi Yates)
  • Smoking Dolphins (UK, dir. Sean Lyons)
  • The Singer (UK, dir. Cora Bissett)
  • Blood (UK-Australia, dir.-scr. Vathana Suganya Suppiah)
  • Area Boy (UK, dir.-scr. Iggy London)
  • Mother of Mine (UK, dir.-scr. Jesse Lewis Reece)
  • Making Babies (Canada, dir.-scr. Eric K. Boulianne)
  • Sound & Colour (Ireland, dir. Emma Foley)
  • Gorka (UK, dir.-scr. Joe Weiland)

LFF Expanded

  • Colored (France-Taiwan, lead artists: Pierre-Alain Giraud, Stéphane Foenkinos, Tania De Montaigne)
  • Consensus Gentium (UK-Australia-USA, lead artist: Karen Palmer)
  • Flow (Netherlands-France, lead artist: Adriaan Lokman)
  • Forager (USA, lead artists: Winslow Porter, Elie Zananiri)
  • The Fury (USA, lead artist: Shirin Neshat)
  • The Imaginary Friend (Netherlands-Belgium, lead artist: Steye Hallema)
  • Letters from Drancy (UK-USA, lead artist: Darren Emerson)
  • Murals (Poland-Ukraine-USA, lead artists: Alex Topaller, Daniel Shapiro, Artem Ivaneko)
  • Things Fall Apart: A Musical Installation in Mixed Reality (Germany-Israel-India, lead artist: Cyberräuber)
  • Haunted Hotel – A Melodrama in Augmented Reality (Germany, lead artist: Guy Maddin)
  • Fleeting Figures (Sweden-UK, lead artists: Åsa Cederqvist, Lundahl & Setil, Untold Garden, Pastelae, Oscar Häggström, Song)
  • Ghosts of Solid Air (UK, lead artist: Amy Rose)
  • My Trip 2023 (UK, lead artist: Bjarne Melgaard)
  • Elsewhere in India (India-UK-USA, lead artists: Murthovic, Thiruda)

Family

  • Dancing Queen (Norway, dir. Aurora Gossé)
  • Deep Sea (3D) (China, dir.-scr. Xiaopeng Tian)
  • Kensuke’s Kingdom (UK-Luxembourg-France, dir. Kirk Hendry, Neil Boyle)
  • The Sacred Cave (Cameroon-Burkina Faso-France, dir. Daniel Minlo)
  • Animated Shorts for Younger Audiences
    • Pond (Switzerland, dir.-scr. Lena Von Döhren, Eva Rust)
    • Swing to the Moon (France, dir. Marie Bordessoule, Adriana Bouissie, Nadine De Boer, Elisa Drique, Chloé Lauzu, Vincent Levrero, Solenne Moreau)
    • The Day I Became a Bird (UK, dir. Andrew Ruhemann)
    • The Swineherd (Denmark, dir. Magnus Igland Møller, Peter Smith)
    • Once upon a Studio (USA, dir. Trent Correy, Dan Abraham)
    • Ahru (Argentina, dir. Leandro Martinez)
    • Hooba (Netherlands, dir.-scr. Sem Assink)
    • Upside Down (Latvia, dir.-scr. Dace Rīdūze)

Treasures

  • The Black Pirate (USA, dir. Albert Parker)
  • The Dupes (Syria, dir.-scr. Tewfik Saleh)
  • Macario (Mexico, dir. Roberto Gavaldón)
  • Peeping Tom (UK, dir. Michael Powell)
  • Pressure (UK, dir.-scr. Horace Ové)
  • The Stranger and the Fog (Iran, dir.-scr. Bahram Beyzaie)

Sponsors and funders

It’s a pleasure to welcome back our Principal Partner, American Express, as we celebrate an incredible 14 years of growing and evolving the Festival together. Their support makes the festival possible, as does the continued support of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and The National Lottery. Their funding is essential to our work, and we could not do it without them.

We are thrilled to be able to thank some new partners, BMW join us as a Main Sponsor and supporter of the festival closing night. We offer a warm welcome and thanks to Cunard as a Main Sponsor of the festival this year. 

The BFI is especially thankful to be expanding relationships with our industry supporters and welcome Apple TV+, Netflix, Paramount, Prime Video, Warner Brothers Discovery to our family – your support is critical to the continuation of the work of the BFI.

We welcome back and thank our long-standing friends at American Airlines as Official Partners and we are so thrilled to announce another new partner in Sea Containers London – thank you to our generous Official Hotel.

We are delighted to welcome back Bloomberg Philanthropies who have returned as Sponsors of the Festival and proud to also thank our newest supporters, Reddit, Sunbelt Rentals and The Walt Disney Studios, who have joined us as Sponsors of the Festival.

A huge thank you goes to our fantastic in-kind sponsors: Birra Moretti, Christie, and Dalston’s Soda.

Festival venue partners

LFF partner venues around the UK include: 

London:

  • BFI Southbank
  • Curzon Soho (Screen 1, 2 and 3)
  • Curzon Mayfair (Screen 1)
  • Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA)
  • LFF Expanded at Bargehouse at Oxo Tower Wharf 
  • LFF Expanded at Gallery@Oxo
  • Vue West End 
  • Prince Charles Cinema
  • The Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall

UK-wide:

  • HOME, Manchester
  • Watershed, Bristol
  • Glasgow Film Theatre, Glasgow
  • Broadway, Nottingham
  • Showroom Cinema, Sheffield
  • Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast
  • Chapter, Cardiff
  • Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Midlands Arts Centre (MAC), Birmingham

In addition to UK-wide screenings at the festival venues, audiences will also be able to explore LFF programmes past and present with a special collection of films on BFI Player.

Additional screenings on selected titles may also be added during the festival window at other venues. These are at the discretion of the distributor and will be signposted on the festival website where added.

The 67th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express takes place from Wednesday 4 October to Sunday 15 October, 2023.

LFF 2023 booking

Tickets go on sale 12 September. BFI Members book early on 6September and American Express Cardmembers can access presale from 8 September.

BFI Membership

Become a BFI Member from £39 to enjoy priority festival booking as well as other great benefits all year round.

Join today