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| Giant, starring Amir El-Masry and Pierce Brosnan will have its world premiere Photo: Courtesy of London Film Festival |
The 69th BFI London Film Festival has announced its full programme. Among the highlights are six world premieres, including Rowan Athale's Prince Naseem Hamed boxing biopic Giant, starring Amir El-Masry and Pierce Brosnan and James Lucas’s biopic of supermodel Kate Moss and painter Lucien Freud, Moss & Freud, starring Ellie Bamber and Derek Jacobi.
Among the big-hitters in the programme are Chloé Zhao‘s Hamnet – starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal – which has been getting rave reviews out of US awards season launch pad Telluride and Bradley Cooper's Is This Thing On?, with Laura Dern and Will Arnett, which draws on the life of Liverpudlian comedian John Bishop.
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| Jessie Buckley stars as Agnes and Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare in Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet Photo: Agata Grzybowska/© 2025 FOCUS FEATURES LLC |
The festival will run from October 8 to 19, with world premieres also including Isabella Eklöf’s series The Death of Bunny Munro, adapted from the Nick Cave novel and featuring Matt Smith. The festival will open with the international premiere of Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, directed by Rian Johnson and featuring a sparkling ensemble cast including Daniel Craig, Glenn Close, Josh Brolin and Mila Kunis. A curated selection of features will be showcased at 11 partner venues across the UK
Ed Sayers will present the world premiere of his environmental documentary Super Nature, with Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story, directed by Bradley Banton and Calif Chong's High Wire rounding out hte highlights. From the BFI National Archive comes a newly remastered 4K print of Ahmed Alauddin Jamal's Hotel London.
In total LFF will present 247 features, shorts, series and immersive works from 79 countries . This includes 103 works made by female and non-binary filmmakers (42% of the programme) and 27 world premieres once shorts and immersive experiences are included.
Among the hits from other festivals are Richard Linklater double-header Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vogue, Palme d'Or winner It Was Just An Accident, Kristen Stewart's directorial debut The Chronology Of Water and Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value.
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| Nouvelle Vague Photo: Courtesy of San Sebastian Film Festival |
The headline galas are below and we'll be bringing you more details of the full line-up in our comprehensive coverage soon.
- Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (US) – opening night – Dir. Rian Johnson
- 100 Nights Of Hero (UK-US) – closing night – Dir. Julia Jackman
- After The Hunt (US), Dir. Luca Guadagnino
- Ballad Of A Small Player (UK), Dir. Edward Berger
- Blue Moon (US, Ire), Dir. Richard Linklater
- Bugonia (UK), Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
- The Choral (UK), Dir. Nicholas Hytner
- Christy (US), Dir. David Michôd
- Die, My Love (Can), Dir. Lynne Ramsay
- Frankenstein (US), Dir. Guillermo del Toro
- H Is For Hawk (UK), Dir. Philippa Lowthorpe
- Hamnet (UK), Dir. Chloé Zhao
- The History Of Sound (US, UK, It), Dir. Oliver Hermanus
- Is This Thing On? (US), Dir. Bradley Cooper
- It Was Just An Accident (Iran, Fr, Lux), Dir. Jafar Panahi
- Jay Kelly (US, UK, It), Dir. Noah Baumbach
- The Mastermind (US), Dir. Kelly Reichardt
- No Other Choice (S Kor), Dir. Park Chan-wook
- Nouvelle Vague (Fr), Dir. Richard Linklater
- Pillion (UK), Dir. Harry Lighton
- Rental Family (US), Dir. Hikari
- Roofman (US), Dir. Derek Cianfrance
- Sentimental Value (Nor, Fr, Ger), Dir. Joachim Trier
- Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere (US), Dir. Scott Cooper
