The Loud and Clear team recommends 35 movies to watch at the 2026 BFI London Film Festival, from big world premieres to lesser known gems. Read the list!
The 2026 BFI London Film Festival is about to begin, and we made a list of movies to watch this year! The 70th edition of the festival will take place on 8 – 19 October, 2026 in London and in venues around the UK. With several competition sections, exciting gala screenings, thematic strands, and various talks and events, there’s always so much to do at the festival, and we’re here to help!
The tickets are on sale now, and the Loud and Clear Reviews writers picked 35 movies that should be on your watchlist at LFF this year, and you can find them all below in alphabetical order. Keep scrolling for our 2026 BFI London Film Festival recommendations, and don’t forget to follow us for live updates from the festival:
1. 14th
Documentary Special Presentation
Director: Ava DuVernay
Country: U.S.A.
14th serves as a companion piece to Ava DuVernay’s acclaimed documentary feature, 13th (2016). Her previous film explored the Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution, and this one focuses on the Fourteenth Amendment, which defines citizenship and protects basic civil rights for all citizens born or naturalized in the United States. The documentary will look at the complexities of US history and politics through interviews with politicians, academics, and experts. The London Film Festival will be one of the few chances that audiences have to watch the documentary on the big screen as it will only have a limited theatrical release prior to its streaming release on Netflix in December. (Clotilde Chinnici)
2. 7 Miles Out
Official Competition
Director: Carol Morley
Country: U.K
Lucy Halliday (The Testaments) stars in this exciting world premiere from writer-director Carol Morley, who adapts her semi-autobiographical novel. 7 Miles Out is a celebration of friendship set against the backdrop of the emerging new-wave punk movement, where our protagonist finds an escape in the aftermath of her father’s suicide. It’s a coming-of-age movie we’re not going to miss! (Serena Seghedoni)
3. A Long Winter
Gala
Director: Andrew Haigh
Countries: Canada, U.K.
After captivating Telluride, TIFF, and New York Film Festival audiences, Andrew Haigh’s much anticipated new film is coming to London, and we’re sure it will be one of the highlights of the festival. After All of Us Strangers, the director brings us a story that takes place in the Colorado mountains, adapted from Colm Tóibín’s short story of the same name. Mike (Fred Hechinger) has just returned to enjoy a quiet life with his family, but everything changes when his depressed mother, Louise (Caitríona Balfe), suddenly disappears in the snowstorm, after an argument with her husband Lester (Ebon Moss-Bachrach).
What follows is an examination of grief, loss, and isolation through the lens of a fractured family whose secrets slowly come to the surface. Critics have been raving about Hechinger, Moss-Bachrach and Balfe’s performances, and we’re sure we’re going to be thinking about this one for a long time. (Serena Seghedoni)
4. All of a Sudden
Love
Director: Ryūsuke Hamaguchi
Country: Japan
Japanese filmmaker Ryūsuke Hamaguchi returns to the London Film Festival with All of a Sudden, three years after winning the Official Competition with Evil Does Not Exist. Playing in the Love strand, his latest dramatic epic will be a different kind of film from that environmentally-focussed one, but no less effective or moving.
Co-written with Lea Le Dimna (it is Hamaguchi’s first French-language film), All of a Sudden follows nursing home director Marie-Lou (Virginie Efira) and theatre director Mari (Tao Okamoto) as the two become close to one another. At 196-minutes, Hamaguchi’s latest is in line with his other lengthy dramas Happy Hour (2015) and Drive My Car (2021), and like those films, All of a Sudden promises to be a miraculous film of intimate dialogue, elegant direction, and mesmerising acting. The fact that Efira and Okamoto shared the Best Actress prize at the 79th Cannes Film Festival only further cements this promise. (William Stottor)
5. Artificial
Gala
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Countries: U.S.A., Italy
Luca Guadagnino’s new film is a tech drama about Sam Altman (Andrew Garfield), the co-founder of OpenAI who was fired from the company – and then quickly rehired – in 2023. It has had a tumultuous couple of months, having been dropped by initial distributor Amazon MGM before NEON picked it up. Yura Borisov, Monica Barbaro, Mark Rylance, Cooper Hoffman, Hason Schwartzman and Ike Barinholtz (who plays Elon Musk) are part of a stacked ensemble cast in a film that promises to be of the moment, confronting the ethical conundrums and possible doomsday scenarios of artificial intelligence. (Daniel Allen)
6. Behemoth!
BFI Patrons’ Gala
Director: Tony Gilroy
Country: U.S.A.
Tony Gilroy’s (Michael Clayton) first movie in nearly fifteen years is the tale of a cello prodigy named Alex (Pedro Pascal), who has spent most of his life changing jobs as often as he’s been changing lovers. One day, Alex returns to Los Angeles as a session player as a means to escape his latest fling, and starts working in a studio to record a film score. Over two timelines unfolding in non-linear way, we explore Alex’s life from childhood to present day, in what is being described as an exploration of “the human heart” that acts as a love letter to film music and the people who make it.
Behemoth! hasn’t been screened anywhere yet, but with such a promising premise and the talent involved
– Olivia Wilde and Will Arnett also star – our expectations are high. (Serena Seghedoni)
7. Ben’Imana
First Feature Competition
Director: Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo
Country: Rwanda, France, Gabon, Norway
This year’s Cannes Camera d’Or and FIPRESCI Award winner is set in the aftermath of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. It revolves around a survivor named Vénéranda who’s trying to get her community to confront their shared trauma together, hoping for a reconciliation between the victims and the perpetrators’ families. It’s being described as an intimate film about healing, sisterhood, and forgiveness that looks at how the past impacted the present, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. Not to be missed. (Serena Seghedoni)
8. Cameron Winter at Carnegie Hall
Create
Director: Paul Thomas Anderson
Country: U.S.A.
If you can’t make it to a concert, having America’s greatest filmmaker capture it in a documentary has to be the next best thing. After the critical and awards glory of One Battle After Another, Paul Thomas Anderson returns to our screens with this behind-the-scenes documentary. Anderson captures the December 2025 gig in all its glory, highlighting the talent and star power that made Winter one of the youngest artists to ever play the hallowed New York venue. Where Anderson made Junun intimate and collaborative, this is something more expansive, a solo show that thrums with the energy of the uber-talented man on the stage. (Philip Bagnall)
9. Club Kid
Gala
Director: Jordan Firstman
Country: U.S.A.
It takes a special directorial debut to make it into the Gala section at the London Film Festival, but that is what Jordan Firstman has done with his first feature film. With a spectacular reception at earlier festivals such as Cannes and TIFF, Club Kid already seems to warrant its place alongside other gala films from seasoned filmmakers.
Peter (played by Firstman) is beginning to burn out after a decade of drinking and drugs. The arrival of his 10-year-old son, Arlo, pushes his life into new directions. Subsequent highs and lows are to be expected, but Firstman seems to play out this millennial malaise in unique and unexpected ways. Young actor Reggie Absolom as Arlo also looks set for a breakout role. Funny and moving, Club Kid looks likely to make you cry and laugh over and over again. (William Stottor)
10. Elsinore
Opening Night Gala
Director: Simon Stone
Country: U.K.
Opening this year’s London Film Festival is this touching British drama led by the brilliant Andrew Scott, who has garnered some awards buzz. Scott plays Ian Charleson, the actor best known for his role in Chariots of Fire. In 1989, he is seeking a more challenging role. That appears to come when Daniel Day-Lewis abandons the National Theatre production of Hamlet, with Charleson stepping into the lead role. But he is also dying of AIDS at a time when the condition is treated with great stigma, with the actor keeping his diagnosis (and his homosexuality) a secret. This role of a lifetime will force Charleson to face his own mortality. Olivia Colman also features as Charleson’s doctor. (Daniel Allen)
11. Everytime
Dare
Director: Sandra Wollner
Countries: Austria, Germany
When Jessie (Carla Hüttermann) dies in a tragic accident, three broken people are left to pick up the pieces. Her mother (Birgit Minchmayr), younger sister (Lotte Kelling) and boyfriend (Tristán López) navigate a haze of guilt, shame and anger, using unorthodox methods to find their way through their pain. The extraordinary Everytime has already won the Un Certain Regard prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and is Germany’s choice for Academy Awards’ best foreign language film category. Writer-director Sandra Wollner reflects the subjectivity and occasional oddity of grief back on an audience that knows many of these feelings all too well. (Philip Bagnall)
12. Fjord
Gala
Director: Cristian Mungiu
Countries: Romania, France, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Finland
Based on the real-life story of the Bodnariu family and the legal case that followed it, Fjord is a legal thriller family drama set in Norway. The Gheorghiu family is made up of Mihai (Sebastian Stan) and Lisbet (Renata Deinsve) and their children Elia (Vanessa Ceban), Emmanuel (Jonathan Ciprian Breazu) who just moved to a remote village in Norway from Romania and face chaos and public scrutiny in the face of different rules and cultural norms. After its world premiere in Cannes, the film went on to win the Palme d’Or and also features an incredible career defining performance from Sebastian Stan in the lead role. (Clotilde Chinnici)
13. Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!
Love
Director: Josef Kubota Wladyka
Country: U.S.A.
From Sundance to the Melbourne Film Festival and, recently, TIFF, Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! has been met with almost universal acclaim. Rinko Kikuchi plays Haru, whose friends convince her to return to ballroom dancing after a time of isolation that followed a tragedy. When she comes back, she becomes infatuated with Fedir (Alberto Guerra), a new instructor, and her life takes a different turn. The BFI describes this analysis of grief as “bold, playful and crowd-pleasing”, qualities we can already infer from the trailer.
Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! is out now in the U.S. but the U.K. and Ireland release date hasn’t been announced yet, which makes the BFI London Film Festival the perfect chance to catch this one before awards season begins! (Serena Seghedoni)
14. Heysel 85
Thrill
Director: Teodora Ana Mihai
Countries: Belgium, Netherlands, Romania, Germany
On 29th May 1985, 37 people were killed in a crush just before the European Cup final at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels. Director Teodora Ana Mihai follows up the acclaimed La Civil and Traffic with a plunge into the chaos behind the scenes, as authorities, politicians and journalists struggle to get to the truth in the face of obstruction. Heysel 85 righteously stokes anger in the viewer with a tense and vivid depiction of media manipulation in real time. It’s not easy viewing, but it’s honest and full of frustration at officials who would rather save themselves than do the right thing. (Philip Bagnall)
15. I Love Boosters
Gala
Director: Boots Riley
Countries: U.S.A.
Sorry to Bother You‘s Boots Riley returns with a movie that shines with originality, filling each frame with so much color and so many details that you’ll need multiple watches to take everything in, even more so since I Love Boosters also has something to say. The ever-excellent Keke Palmer plays Corvette, an aspiring fashion designer who has put together a ‘gang’. With Naomi Ackie’s Sade and Taylour Paige’s Mariah, Corvette has been robbing clothes from stores belonging to fashion entrepreneur Christie Smith (Demi Moore), whom our protagonist worships, to resell them at a lower price. But when Corvette notices one of her own design in one of these stores stores, she realizes that Smith stole from her. Which means one thing for The Velvet Gang: it’s time to do something about it.
I Love Boosters uses its intriguing premise to explore consumerism, capitalism, labor exploitation, the nature of art, and many more timely themes. Watch it for fantastic performances for the whole ensemble, great characterization that will make you really care for the titular ‘boosters’, an on-point satire of our current world, and so much to look at in every single frame. (Serena Seghedoni)
16. I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
Debate
Director: Clio Barnard
Country: U.K.
In 2010, Clio Barnard released her feature film directorial debut, The Arbor, a spectacular and inventive documentary about Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar. Since then, Barnard has frequently charted different aspects of British society, from the North and South divide to racism. I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, her fifth feature, looks set to continue this trend.
Adapted from Kieran Goddard’s novel of the same name, the film follows five childhood friends in Birmingham, elegantly tracking their journey into adulthood. Like Club Kid, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning utilises pulsing club music as a key narrative technique. Youthful joy gives way to adult disillusionment.
The fact that Enda Walsh (Ish, Die My Love) wrote the screenplay only further enhances the excitement around this title at the London Film Festival. Expect something intensely intimate, but also a film that will touch on broader topics such as social inequality in British society today. (William Stottor)
17. Ink
The Mayor of London’s Gala
Director: Danny Boyle
Country: U.K.
Adapted by James Graham from his own play, Danny Boyle’s latest film is about a newspaper that forever changed the way news was presented both in Britain and across the world. In 1969, Australian businessman Rupert Murdoch (Guy Pearce) buys The Sun. He hires Yorkshireman Larry Lamb (Jack O’Connell) to be his editor, and the two turn the struggling paper to a sensationalist tabloid. Expect Boyle’s dynamic, stylistic filmmaking to shine through in a film that, in our review from the Venice Film Festival, we called an “exhilarating, appropriately bleak thriller that uses the past to warn us about the present.” (Daniel Allen)
18. Ken Russell’s The Devils
Cult
Director: Ken Russell
Countries: U.K.
Make no mistake, this is definitively Ken Russell’s The Devils. The British director originally made his graphic, incendiary film of religious persecution and collusion in 1971. However, it was banned in several countries and heavily censored in the UK and US. An edit approved by Russell was created in the 2000s but didn’t receive a wide release. Now this director’s cut – a Holy Grail for The Devils’ acquired cult following – has been given a 4K restoration by Warner Bros. Clockwork, allowing us all to experience the dramatised tale of Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed), the 17th-century priest accused of bewitching a convent of nuns (one of whom is played by Vanessa Redgrave). (Daniel Allen)
19. La Bola Negra
Gala
Directors: Javier Ambrossi & Javier Calvo
Countries: Spain, France
Winner of the People’s Choice Award at the 51st Toronto International Film Festival and Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival, La Bola Negra is definitely a film that audiences want to keep their eye on. The film has also been submitted as the Spanish entry for the International Feature Film category at the Academy Awards and has the potential to be an important player for the upcoming award season. The movie touches on themes of Spanish history and queer identity and is inspired by a work of the same name by Federico Garcia Lorca and the play “La Pieda Oscura” by Alberto Conejero, who also co-wrote the film. (Clotilde Chinnici)
20. Lemonade
Love
Director: Kim Bartley
Countries: Ireland, U.K.
Danny (Lewis Brophy) has just turned 18, which means he has to leave the foster care system and find a job. When a reckless mistake threatens to have consequences on his future, he is reunited with his former social worker, Josh (Barry Keoghan), who’s in need of some redemption of his own. Newcomer Lewis Brophy shines in writer-director Kim Bartley’s feature debut, joined by Keoghan in a role that feels perfect for him, in a movie that’s being described as an intimate drama about first love, family, friendship, and connection. We’re in (Serena Seghedoni)
21. The Liberation
Thrill
Director: Guy Nattiv
Countries: U.S.A.
A holocaust survivor named Rita (Carrie Coon) is struggling to process the trauma in her past and live her ordinary life as a bank teller. Enter Ricki (Lily James), who comes with the promise of healing, in the form of a secluded all-women’s cult that Rita decides to join. At first, our protagonist finds peace and freedom, but everything changes when her daughters arrive. Ella (Bella Ramsey) and Jo (Odessa Young) are determined to get their mother out of the cult, but things get even more complicated when they are tempted to join her too.
With Tatami‘s Guy Nattiv at the helm and this incredible cast, The Liberation already had our attention, but the film being based on a true story makes it an even more compelling project. The first reviews from Telluride and TIFF has been positive and we can’t wait to watch it for ourselves. (Serena Seghedoni)
22. Look Back
Official Competition
Director: Hirokazu Koreeda
Country: Japan
Read Also: Interview: Natsuki Deguchi & Aju Makita on Look Back
Whether you’re familiar with the original manga, you loved Kiyotaka Oshiyama’s 2024 animated film, you’re a fan of Hirokazu Koreeda‘s movies, or you know absolutely nothing about any of these topics, you’re going to love Look Back. The film, which had its world premiere in Venice, revolves around a fourth-grader named Fujino (Fūri Nanase) whose talent for drawing manga earned her a regular slot in her school’s paper. One day, the girl crosses paths with a reclusive classmate named Kyomoto (Rokka Okada), whom Fujino is shocked to realize is better at drawing than she is. What could have been a rivalry soon turns into a special friendship that follows both girls into adulthood, eventually evolving into a creative partnership that will affect both lives forever.
To say more would spoil the film for you, but there’s a reason why so many people loved the manga, which is not only a beautiful coming-of-age story through the lens of artistic pursuit, but also a poignant look at grief, loss, and the choices that make us grow up. Koreeda turns this tale into a movie that feels like a manga unfolding on the screen, imbuing each frame with a vibrant, visceral quality that makes you immerse into its characters’ world. The whole cast shines in a film that will affect you in many ways, and that you shouldn’t miss. (Serena Seghedoni)
23. Minotaur
Gala
Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev
Countries: France, Germany, Latvia
Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev (Leviathan, Loveless) has been living in exile in France since 2022, having been vocally critical of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He uses the war as the backdrop for his latest film, a tale of corruption that riffs on Chabrol’s La Femme Infidèle. In a small Russian town, transport company CEO Gleb (Dmitriy Mazurov) is asked to produce a list of employees to be drafted to the frontline in Ukraine. As he navigates this moral labyrinth, Gleb begins to suspect his wife Galina (Iris Lebedeva) is having an affair, leading him to take drastic action. Winner of the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes, Minotaur is certainly one to catch at LFF. (Daniel Allen)
24. Musk
Debate
Director: Alex Gibney
Country: U.S.A.
Alex Gibney turns his attention to one of the world’s most famous and controversial billionaires in Musk, an ambitious documentary where the director aims to answer two central questions: “How could Musk assume so much power, and why have we given it to him?” The movie is nearly four hours long, but you’ll barely perceive it as you watch Gibney address anything from Tesla and rocket ship failures to pop culture stardom, public controversies, his influence on global politics, a fixation with AI and an obsession with procreation.
With Musk himself declining to participate, Gibney finds creative ways to examine both the man and the phenomenon around him, hilariously using an AI-generated version of his subject in a futuristic spaceship to deliver lines from past interviews. This gives you an idea of just how entertaining the film is, with references to video games and other playful devices that make its runtime fly by. Yet, at the same time, Musk also approaches its subject in a more serious way, making for an informative watch that might even tell the magnate’s own supporters something new. What you’re left with at the end is an even more urgent, worrying question, which makes the documentary even more of an essential watch at the festival. (Serena Seghedoni)
25. My Notes on Mars
Official Competition
Director: Lili Horvát
Countries: Hungary, Austria
Read Also: Interview: Mackenzie Davis & Rupert Friend on My Notes on Mars
Lili Horvát, of Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time, brings us a sci-fi film with an irresistible premise and an unexpected twist that’s really a thought-provoking analysis of relationships as a whole. Mackenzie Davis and Rupert Friend star as Margot and Sam, a married couple who seem to inhabit entirely different worlds. She’s a scientist increasingly consumed by the possibility of life on Mars; he’s a horse breeder who cannot quite understand the woman he loves. When Margot disappears while on a hiking trip and is eventually presumed dead, a memorial service is held in her honor. But when Margot – or at least, what looks like Margot – shows up at her own wake, no one knows what to believe, starting from Sam himself.
How well can we ever truly know another person? Horvát fills My Notes on Mars with striking imagery, ominous sounds, moments of unexpected humor and an ambiguity that will leave you wondering exactly what you’ve just witnessed. But it’s Mackenzie Davis and Rupert Friend who make its unusual premise feel so raw and human, turning this strange tale of Martian life into something much more intimate: a story about two people trying to find their way back to each other. (Serena Seghedoni)
26. Possible Love
Love
Director: Lee Chang-dong
Country: South Korea
It’s been eight years since Lee Chang-dong’s last film—the unforgettable Burning (2018)—but from the early reactions to Possible Love, his next one has certainly been worth the wait. One of South Korea’s best filmmakers, Lee continues with the examinations of class and social status seen in Burning; in Possible Love, Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong) makes a documentary about workers who have been made redundant.
Possible Love will also be about so much more than that, as it looks to explore the intertwining marriages of two couples, and all the fractures and connections that will inevitably form. Lee’s screenplay, co-written with Oh Jung-mi, promises to be a complex, intelligent piece of work, with a novelistic quality seen many times before in Lee’s previous films. On the whole, Possible Love is likely to be one of the best films playing at the London Film Festival this year, and perhaps even one of the greatest of 2026. (William Stottor)
27. Queer Edward II
Documentary Competition
Director: Theo Rollason
Country: U.K.
Theo Rollason’s documentary, winner of the Queer Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival, takes place in 1980s Britain, exploring the anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation that threatened queer life in the UK at the time. At the same time, Derek Jarman was starting production on Edward II, of which we get a behind-the-scenes look through previously unseen archival footage that provides a snapshot of the country at the time. Cinematographer Seamus McGarvey brings the material to life in a movie that’s been described as a “radical protest film” that reflects on the power of art and queer visibility. (Serena Seghedoni)
28. Ray Gunn
Gala
Director: Brad Bird
Country: U.S.A
In a dystopian world where humans and aliens co-exist, a private investigator is looking into a murder. The city is the fictional Metropia and the year is 1939, but it’s an alternate, neon-soaked version of it that gives this animated tale the quality of a nostalgic noir film. Director Ray Gunn’s (The Incredibles) new movie has the potential to be a crowd pleaser, and the cast attached – Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Waits, Alan Tudyk, Michelle Rodriguez, Bobby Cannavale and even more familiar names – has us very excited about the voice work too. Catch it at the festival before it hits Netflix on December 18! (Serena Seghedoni)
29. Tender Loving Care
Gala
Director: Mike Leigh
Country: U.K.
After a couple of historical films in Mr. Turner (2014) and Peterloo (2018), Mike Leigh returned to his roots in 2024 with Hard Truths. His follow-up to this film is Tender Loving Care, also set in London.
It follows social workers Amy (Kate O’Flynn) and Rosie (Alice Bailey Johnson) as they navigate their daily lives, both at work and at home. Marion Bailey and Paul Jesson complete a strong ensemble; Leigh has always been so adept at bringing a cast together to create something special.
Tender Loving Care is potentially Leigh’s final film, making this possible swansong an even more emotionally rich work. Strong writing, sharp comedy, and unforgettable characters are to be expected from Leigh’s films; early reviews suggest this Gala entry will be no different. (William Stottor)
30. The Debut
Closing Night Gala
Director: Jesse Eisenberg
Country: U.S.A.
After the success of his previous film, A Real Pain (2024), Jesse Eisenberg is directing and writing his third feature. In the musical comedy The Debut, Julianne Moore stars as Mona Friedman, a housewife from New Jersey who auditions for Noisy Neighbours, a fictional musical directed by the enigmatic Jerry Blankenbuehler (Paul Giamatti). Halle Bailey, Colton Ryan, Bonnie Milligan, and Jesse Eisenberg himself co-star as some of the actors in the musical. This is one that you don’t want to miss if you are a fan of musical films, Eisenberg’s directorial style and comedic writing, or perhaps both. (Clotilde Chinnici)
31. The History of Concrete
Laugh
Director: John Wilson
Country: U.S.A.
Unless you’re a structural engineer, it’s unlikely you care very much about concrete. Leave it to John Wilson to find a way to make you not just interested, but downright fascinated. The creator of How To With John Wilson returns with this delightful experiment in subverting expectations. After attending a workshop on making Hallmark movies, Wilson proceeds to take that formula’s cheese and cringe, and use it to frame his attempts to make a documentary all about the titular building material. The film blends the chutzpah of its director with the charm of its subversions to mesmerising effect. (Philip Bagnall)
32. Wicker
Laugh
Directors: Alex Huston Fischer & Eleanor Wilson
Country: U.S.A.
Based on the short story “The Wicker Husband” by Ursula Wills-Jones, Wicker is a romantic fantasy comedy set in a small medieval farming town with a rigid social hierarchy. Olivia Colman stars as the Fisherwoman who is ostracised because of her smell and her rejection of institutionalised marriage. Alexander Skarsgård plays her Wicker Husband, whom she commissions from the master weaver. The movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January and viewers who did not get a chance to see it at the beginning of the year will finally be able to watch it at the London Film Festival before its wider release at the end of October. (Clotilde Chinnici)
33. Wild Horse Nine
Gala
Director: Martin McDonagh
Countries: U.S.A., U.K., Chile
In 1973, when dictator Augusto Pinochet is about to stage a military coup on Chile, CIA agents Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell) fly from Santiago to Easter Island awaiting instructions from bureau chief MJ (Steve Buscemi). But with Lee’s not-so-secret mission of his own and Chris’s complete inability to keep any of his thoughts, including important agency secrets, to himself, the trip soon turns into something else entirely. Soon, the trip takes a more surreal quality and the film becomes an equally hilarious and heart-wrenching reflection on friendship, mortality, fulfilment, and life as a whole.
Wild Horse Nine will be out in cinemas on November 6, yet you should absolutely watch it with a festival crowd, to be fully immersed in Martin McDonagh‘s (In Bruges, The Banshees of Inisherin) witty, absurd, heartbreakingly human world. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry; it will make you marvel at the storytelling craft, and it will remind you of what life is all about. (Serena Seghedoni)
34. Woman Unknown
Official Competition
Director: May el-Toukhy
Countries: Denmark, Latvia, Sweden
“El-Toukhy demonstrates not only her glorious disinterest in crafting likable female leads, but her complete boredom in making women in film palatable in order for audiences to critically engage with the story being told.” reads our review of Woman Unknown, which captivated audiences in Venice and went on to earn the director the Golden Lion for Best Film and star Mathilde Arcel the Volpi Cup.
The film takes place in the aftermath of the World War II, when former housekeeper Marie has planned an extravagant party to celebrate her engagement to her wealthy husband. As secrets from her past threaten to resurface, Marie’s future hangs in the balance, in a film that draws a parallel between the occupation and the female body, using its camerawork to deliver a poignant message. (Serena Seghedoni)
35. Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Gala
Director: Bassam Tariq
Countries: U.S.A., U.K.
How much can you take before you lose yourself? That’s the question that Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother poses, and makes sure the question lodges in your mind after. Latif (Mahershala Ali) is struggling to bring up his children after his wife’s death, and his desperation leads him to question his devout Muslim faith, and draws him back into his work as a hitman to make ends meet. Ali has never been better, channeling the rage he might have used to play Blade to inhabit a different kind of man torn between worlds. Writer-director Bassam Tarriq mixes colourful kinetic action with deep wells of pain and fury, resulting in a unique blend of style and soul. (Philip Bagnall)
2026 BFI London Film Festival, More Movies to Watch:
- 9 Temples to Heaven
- The Beloved (El Ser Querido)
- Black Church Bay
- Chronovisor
- The Difficult Bride
- Elephants in the Fog
- Fatherland
- Gentle Monster
- A Girl Unknown
- La Gradiva
- The Idiot(s)
- In a Whisper (À Voix Basse)
- Josephine
- Klara and the Sun
- The Meltdown
- Moonglow
- My Undesirable Friends: Part II – Exile
- No Good Men
- Once Upon a Time in Harlem
- Our Share of Sand
- Prima Facie
- Rose
- The Unknown
- Wildwood
The 2026 BFI London Film Festival will take place on 8 – 19 October in London and in cinemas across the UK. Take a look at the official London Film Festival schedule!