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| High flyers Wildwood and Ray Gunn will have their world premieres at LFF Photo: Courtesy of London Film Festival |
In The Shadows, Anthony Wonke’s boxing biopic of Ramla Ali, the UK's first female Muslim ring champ and West End adaptation Frank And Percy, starring Ian McKellen and Roger Allam and directed by Sean Mathias, will also world premiere at the festival's 70th edition.
The festival, which runs from October 7 to 18, also features a raft of films from this year's Cannes, including Palme d'Or winner Fjord, directed by Cristian Mungui, Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur and Club Kid, directed by Jordan Firstman, which received a lot of critical buzz out of the French festival.
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| In The Shadows Photo: Courtesy of London Film Festival |
In total, LFF will showcase 251 features, shorts, series and immersive works from 88 countries, with 43% directed by women. There will be 33 world premieres.
Kristy Matheson, Artistic Director, BFI Festivals, said: "When this festival first sprung to life 70 years ago, little more than a decade after the end of the Second World War, British society was in a period of rapid social change. Then, like now, we turn to artists to synthesise our times. And what a vision they have for us in 2026; tumults of the era live inside our programme, but so too do cinematic thrills, moral conundrums and a reoccurring exploration of care and community.”
Ben Roberts, BFI chief executive, added: “This year, the blockbusters, the indie breakouts and the debuts have drawn audiences to cinemas in record numbers. A reminder that discovering a new film in a room of fellow fans is a thrill like nothing else."
As previously announced, the festival will open with Simon Stone's Elsinore and close with Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut.
We're currently inputting the programme but you'll be able to read our full coverage of the festival here.
