BFI London Film Festival 2023 announces full programme line-up

The 67th BFI London Film Festival, which is scheduled to be presented over twelve days from 4 to 15 October 2023, has announced the full programme line-up.

The London Film Festival will invite audiences to return to its 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.

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The festival will present a 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.

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), 7 International Premieres (6 features and 1 short) and 30 European Premieres (22 features, 1 series and 7 shorts).

This year’s Opening Film will be the International Premiere of Saltburn, directed by Emerald Fennell, which will screen simultaneously at selected cinemas across UK. The festival will close with the World Premiere of Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya’s dystopian drama, The Kitchen.

Please take a look at the full lineup below and check out more information about the festival here.

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)

The Mayor of London’s Gala: CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET (UK, dir. Sam Fell)

Cunard Gala: THE HOLDOVERS (USA, dir. Alexander Payne)

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 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

BFI Patron’s Special Presentation: THE END WE START FROM (UK, dir. Mahalia Belo)

Series Special Presentation: GRIME KIDS (UK, dir. Abdou Cisse)

BFI Flare Special Presentation: HOUSEKEEPING FOR BEGINNERS (North Macedonia-Poland-Croatia-Serbia-Kosovo, dir.-scr. Goran Stolevski)

THE BOY AND THE HERON (Japan, dir. Hayao Miyazaki)

COBWEB (South Korea, dir. Kim Jee-woon)

FALLEN LEAVES (Finland, dir.-scr. Aki Kaurismäki)

FOE (Australia, dir. Garth Davis)

HIT MAN (USA, dir. Richard Linklater)

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. Christos Nikou)

GASOLINE RAINBOW (USA, dir.-scr. Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross)

I AM SIRAT (Canada, A COLLABORATION BETWEEN DEEPA MEHTA AND SIRAT TANEJA)

THE ROYAL HOTEL (Australia, dir. Kitty Green)

SELF PORTRAIT: 47 KM 2020 (China, dir. Zhang Mengqi)

STARVE ACRE (UK, dir.-scr. Daniel Kokotajilo)

TOGETHER 99 (Sweden-Denmark, dir.-scr. Lukas Moodyson)

FIRST FEATURE COMPETITION

BLACK DOG (UK, dir. 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. Mika Gustafson)

PENA 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. 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 THE VOLCANO (Germany-Lebanon, dir-scr. Cyril Aris)

THE KLEZMER PROJECT (Austria-Argentina, dir-scr. Leandro Koch, Paloma Schachmann)

QUEENDOM (France-USA, dir. Agnilia 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)

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)

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, dirs. Sally El Hosaini, 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)