First full series programme announced for 65th BFI London Film Festival

The 65th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express is delighted to announce the first ever LFF Series programme featuring eight brand new works made in the episodic form.

LFF Series will provide a platform within the festival for some of the best new international television and digital episodic filmmaking, from high-end TV to indie web series, and will also explore the increasing convergence of film and television, with many artists moving actively across forms.

This launch programme showcases the thrilling vibrancy of series being made around the world, with work ranging from a non-fiction whodunit-meets-cultural-history about male exotic dance troupe, the Chippendales, to a genre-bending supernatural police procedural from the director of Train to Busan. Talent from the Series programme will also be taking part in the festival’s public and industry-facing talks and events.

The works screening in LFF Series 2021 are:

Series creator: Jesse Armstrong, Director: Mark Mylod USA 2021 | Friday 15 October 2021 21:20, Royal Festival Hall

Jesse Armstrong’s critically lauded and award-winning series about vicious power struggles within a US media corporation, and the family that runs it.

Series creators: Ezequiel Lenardon, Rosario Perazolo Masjoan, María Belén Poncio, Directors: Rosario Perazolo Masjoan, María Belén Poncio, Argentina-France 2021 | Wednesday 06 October 2021 18:15 BFI Southbank, NFT3 & Thursday 07 October 2021 13:00, BFI Southbank, NFT2

A delightful Argentinian web series about 17-year-old Juana, who is determined to lose her virginity and won’t let her wheelchair hold her back.

Director: Jesse Vile, UK-USA-Norway-Sweden-Denmark 2021 | Tuesday 12 October 2021 18:10, BFI Southbank, NFT2 & Thursday 14 October 2021 11:50, BFI Southbank, NFT1

Documentary series telling the bizarre true story behind the rise and fall of the world’s most famous exotic dance troupe, from director Jesse Vile and the British Oscar®-winning producer of Searching for Sugarman and Man on Wire.

Series creator: Danny Strong, Director: Barry Levinson, USA 2021 | Wednesday 13 October 2021 18:00, Curzon Mayfair, Screen 1

Oscar-winning director Barry Levinson and Emmy-winning writer and showrunner Danny Strong take aim at Big Pharma in this dynamic series starring Michael Keaton, Rosaria Dawson and Will Poulter.

Series creators: Tony Ayres, Belinda Chayko, Directors: Michael Rymer, Ana Kokkinos, Kim Mordaunt, Australia 2021 | Saturday 16 October 2021 20:15, BFI Southbank, NFT3 & Sunday 17 October 2021 17:50, ICA, Screen 1

Eliza Scanlen stars in this terrifying and heartbreaking Australian series about the catastrophic bushfires that swept across the country in 2019-2020, leaving devastation in their wake.

Director: Yeon Sang-ho, South Korea 2021 | Friday 15 October 2021 20:20 BFI Southbank, NFT2 & Sunday 17 October 2021 12:00, Prince Charles Cinema, Downstairs Screen

Supernatural fantasy, police procedural and social satire merge in this genre-hopping South Korean mini-series from the director of Train to Busan.

Series creator and director: Jorge R. Gutiérrez, USA 2021 | Saturday 16 October 2021 12:00, BFI Southbank, NFT2 & Sunday 17 October 2021 14:40, ODEON Luxe West End

This hotly anticipated animated mini-series starring Zoe Saldana is a ‘love letter to Mexican culture’ that tells the thrilling story of a world under siege from a slew of underworld Gods and the warrior princess who must save the day.

Series creators: Dominique Rocher, Eric Forestier, Director: Dominique Rocher, France 2021 |Thursday 07 October 2021 20:40, BFI Southbank, NFT3 & Saturday 09 October 2021 15:00, Prince Charles Cinema, Downstairs Screen

A team of scientists face a test of faith and survival when they discover a mysterious rope in the middle of a forest in the riveting French mini-series, starring Suzanne Clement, Jean-Marc Barr, Jeanne Balibar.
 
The festival announced in early 2020 the development of the festival’s public programming canvas to include works made in immersive and XR (LFF Expanded) and episodic (LFF Series) forms. Yet, while the reduced 2020 festival featured several series, including two episodes from Steve McQueen’s Small Axe BBC series, Mangrove and Lovers’ Rock, and also a rare outing for the television work of Hirokazu Koreeda with A Day-Off of Kasumi Arimura, the 65th festival marks the full launch of LFF Series.
 
“LFF Series is not a departure for us but rather a belated and welcome addition to the BFI London Film Festival,” says festival director Tricia Tuttle. “While film has always taken centre stage at LFF, the BFI offers a vibrant year round programme of classic and contemporary television programming at the Southbank. And the BFI National Archive television collection is the largest accessible archive of British TV programmes in the world. Film remains at the heart of the festival but we are thrilled to use the LFF platform to showcase the incredible work being made in series form.”
 
LFF Series programmer Rowan Woods says: “The launch of the LFF Series programme comes at a time when the boundaries between film and television are increasingly porous, with authored, cinematic work being made for both the big and small screens, and creatives – and audiences – moving fluidly between the two. This year’s programme reflects the exciting range of work being made in the episodic space, from high-end drama to short form web series, via documentary and animation, and across multiple different genres. That the work hails from Argentina, Mexico, France, Australia, South Korea, USA and the UK only confirms how astonishingly vibrant the international television landscape is right now.”
 
The 65th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express takes place from Wednesday 6 October to Sunday 17 October, 2021.