Popping up immediately after the major September festivals, the BFI London Film Festival returns in full force this year from 4-15 October, with a new artistic director, Kristy Matheson, in tow and numerous starry titles that will make ticket sales surge. Taking place at various venues in the capital, with a few satellite screenings elsewhere in the UK, the festival’s exposure will of course be affected by the Hollywood union strikes, just as Venice and Toronto are with their absence of A-lister red-carpet promotion. This has further consequences for the London Film Festival, as it helps formally launch the “awards” corridor, with BAFTA screenings and campaigning where talents were always very much present.

The programme spans some of the most highly anticipated cinema releases of the fourth quarter, as well as favourites from other festivals and a spotlight on UK filmmakers. A total of 252 titles (comprising features, shorts, XR works and series) are present, hailing from 92 countries and in 93 languages. Ninety-nine works come from female and non-binary filmmakers – 39% of the total programme. Twenty-nine world premieres (of which 14 are features) are on the agenda. The festival’s competitive sections are also going strong, with 11 features in the Official Competition, 11 screening in the First Feature Competition and eight in the Documentary Competition.

Particular highlights from the line-up include the international premiere (after Telluride) on the opening night of the buzzed-about Saltburn [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], Emerald Fennell’s follow-up to Promising Young Woman [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], which features Barry Keoghan and Jacob Elordi in a Brideshead Revisited [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]- and The Talented Mr. Ripley-like story set at Oxford University in the early 2000s. Closing night is embellished with the world premiere of Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya’s The Kitchen, with the Oscar-winning actor stepping behind the camera for his feature debut. The movie is set in a dystopian future London, exploring themes of community, inequality and family.

Further high-end titles include Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Suzy Bemba
Q&A: Yorgos Lanthimos
scheda film], Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers [+leggi anche:
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Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival director, commented: “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 of 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 on BFI Player.”

Referencing the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon, BFI CEO Ben Roberts enthused: “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 will offer.”

The films in competition are as follows:

Official Competition

Baltimore - Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor (Ireland/UK)
Dear Jassi - Tarsem Singh Dhandwar (India/Canada/USA)
Europa [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Sudabeh Mortezai
scheda film] - Sudabeh Mortezai (Austria/UK)
Evil Does Not Exist - Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Japan)
Fingernails - Christos Nikou (USA)
Gasoline Rainbow - Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross (USA)
I Am Sirat - Deepa Mehta, Sirat Taneja (Canada)
The Royal Hotel [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Kitty Green (UK/Australia)
Self Portrait : 47 KM 2020 - Zhang Mengqi (China)
Starve Acre - Daniel Kokotajlo (UK)
Together 99 - Lukas Moodysson (Sweden/Denmark)

First Feature Competition

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

Documentary Competition

Bye Bye Tiberias [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Lina Soualem
scheda film] - Lina Soualem (France/Panama/Belgium/Qatar)
Celluloid Underground [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Ehsan Khoshbakht (UK/Iran)
Chasing Chasing Amy - Sav Rodgers (USA)
A Common Sequence - Mary Helena Clark, Mike Gibisser (USA)
Dancing on the Edge of a Volcano [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Cyril Aris
scheda film] - Cyril Aris (Germany/Lebanon)
The Klezmer Project [+leggi anche:
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intervista: Leandro Koch, Paloma Schac…
scheda film] - Leandro Koch, Paloma Schachmann (Austria/Argentina)
Queendom [+leggi anche:
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scheda film] - Agniia Galdanova (France/USA)
The Taste of Mango - Chloe Abrahams (USA/UK)