The BFI London Film Festival turns seventy this year, a year after its bet on immersive work, and it is celebrating the way festivals do: with more films than anyone can see. From 7 to 18 October, 251 features, shorts, series and immersive works from 88 countries play across London and ten partner venues nationwide – 43 percent of them by women filmmakers, with 33 world premieres in the mix. General booking opened on 17 September, and the mathematics of demand are already familiar: queue early, have a shortlist, keep a backup.
The opener: Elsinore
Opening night, 7 October at the Royal Festival Hall, belongs to Elsinore – Simon Stone’s account of the actor Ian Charleson, who prepared Hamlet at the National Theatre while dying. Andrew Scott plays Charleson, with Olivia Colman alongside, from a script by Stephen Beresford; Scott also produces. The festival’s artistic director promises an astounding central performance, and the setting does half the work: the hall stands a stone’s throw from the National itself. Studiocanal puts the film in cinemas UK-wide on 29 January 2027, so the gala is a preview in the fullest sense. Closing night, 18 October, goes to Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, billed as a raucous love letter to community theatre.
The talks and the extras
The Screen Talks strand is the festival’s other box office: Andrew Scott, Cynthia Erivo, Danny Boyle and Sofia Coppola sit for sessions, with Robert Eggers added to the roster. September’s additional announcements thickened an already dense programme – Luca Guadagnino’s Artificial, with Andrew Garfield and Yura Borisov, takes on OpenAI and the Altman ousting; there are UK premieres for Paul Thomas Anderson, Chris Rock and Jonathan Glazer, among others. Series have their own gravity now, from Winterbottom’s fifth Trip to Marvel’s VisionQuest with Bettany and Spader.
Practical notes
Twelve days, flagship venues at BFI Southbank and the Royal Festival Hall, prices from £10 – £6 for under-25s, subject to availability – and a phone line (020 7928 3232) for those who distrust queues. The seventieth festival arrives with the institution confident enough to look backward and forward at once: the same week celebrates seventy years of the LFF and premieres work that will define the next few. Book the opener if you can. Book anything, while you still can.
