19/10/2026 - Sompot Chidgasornpongse’s 9 Temples to Heaven and Asmahan Bkerat’s Concrete Land are also on this year’s winners’ list

The 70th BFI London Film Festival (LFF) drew to a close yesterday, 18 October, with Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut screening as the closing-night film for its UK premiere, bringing two intensive weeks of cinema to an end.

“We, as a jury, have chosen Sergei Loznitsa’s Imperium as the BFI London Film Festival’s Best Film for 2026. It is an extraordinary feature that explores the Soviet Union in the early 1970s from a rich archive with a wide-ranging perspective. It looks at life in a country with an extraordinary social and cultural landscape that has rarely been seen. The movie is richly evocative and emotionally engaging on all levels, giving us a visually arresting perspective of life before the Soviet Union was broken apart. Our jury is immensely proud to honour such a powerful and singular piece of work.” With these words, the official competition jury, headed by director Sam Pollard, offered the Best Film Award to the documentary, entirely made up of archival footage shot between 1970 and 1973. Deliberating with him on the final decision were Mariano Llinás and Julie La Bassiere.

The Sutherland Award winner ended up being Sompot Chidgasornpongse with 9 Temples to Heaven. Actor Amir El-Masry’s jury (also composed of industry experts Alemberg Ang and Rosa Bosch) was convinced by its gentle humour and profound humanity. “This is an accomplished first feature paving its own path in the well-established tradition of filmmaking in the Southeast Asian region. The movie is visually outstanding, spiritual and meditative; in it, a story about life and death transcends borders and generations,” reads the statement.

The documentary competition jury, led by director Sandhya Suri and rounded off by Kate Fitzpatrick and Andee Ryder, opted to hand its award to Asmahan Bkerat for her moving Concrete Land. “This was a beautifully observed portrait filmed with mastery and confidence. In its image creation, sound design, scene building and, most importantly, the deep and trusting relationship with the films’ characters, the filmmaker proved herself a worthy recipient of the Grierson Award. It takes tremendous cinematic skill and maturity to bring the audience to feel so close to each and every character of this remarkable family, across generations and in a very different part of the world, yet the warmth we feel for each one is profound. In a noisy and often polemical world, it was refreshing, humbling and deeply relevant to see the quiet resilience and dignity of this family in the face of the erasure of their culture and traditions. This is filmmaking that never gets in the way of itself and will surely take its place in the annals of the observational greats,” the jury commented.

The complete list of award winners is as follows:

Best Film
Imperium - Sergei Loznitsa (Germany/Italy/France/Lithuania)

Sutherland Award
9 Temples to Heaven – Sompot Chidgasornpongse (Thailand/Singapore/France/Norway/China/Hong Kong/Indonesia/Qatar)
Special Mention
Masc - Bertil Nilsson (UK)

Grierson Award
Concrete Land – Asmahan Bkerat (Jordan/Palestine)
Special Mention
Queer Edward II - Theo Rollason (UK)

Short Film Award
Aman – Rahul Roye (UK/USA/India/France)
Special Mention
Daughters of the Late Colonel - Elizabeth Hobbs (UK/Germany)