69th BFI London Film Festival Announces Full Programme For 2025 Edition

The 69th BFI London Film Festival has today announced the full programme for its 2025 event, with multiple UK, European and World Premieres happening across the festival, which runs from October 8th to 19th.

The LFF invites audiences to return to its fantastic flagship venues in the heart of London, BFI Southbank and the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. The LFF Gala programme will screen at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, while BFI Southbank, alongside many of Central London’s iconic cinemas will host Special Presentations, Official Competition titles and films and series from all Strands of the Festival, with global film talent from behind and in front of the camera in attendance. A curated selection of features will also be showcased at 11 partner venues across the UK.

Opening the festival will be with the International Premiere of Rian Johnson’s WAKE UP DEAD MAN: A KNIVES OUT MYSTERY, whilst the UK Premiere of Julia Jackman’s 100 NIGHTS OF HERO closes it.

Galas-wise, the American Express Gala is the UK Premiere of Hikari’s RENTAL FAMILY; The Cunard Gala is the UK premiere of Noah Baumbach’s JAY KELLY; The Mayor of London’s Gala is the European premiere of Chloé Zhao’s HAMNET; The Patrons’ Gala is the UK premiere of Philippa Lowthorpe’s H IS FOR HAWK.

The BFI London Film Festival will present a captivating and diverse programme of 247 features, shorts, series and immersive works from 79 countries playing across the 12 days of the festival. This includes 103 works made by female and non-binary filmmakers (42% of the programme) and 27 World premieres.

FULL PROGRAMME AVAILABLE AT https://www.bfi.org.uk/lff 

The Festival also announces:

• 247 titles (comprising features, shorts, series and immersive works) from 79 countries

• 103 works are made by female and non-binary filmmakers – 42% of the programme

• Screen Talks with Yorgos Lanthimos, Daniel Day-Lewis, Richard Linklater, Jafar Panahi, Lynne Ramsay, Tessa Thompson and Chloe Zhao, in person and also available online on BFI Player exclusively and BFI YouTube

• Returning to its home at the heart of London’s South Bank at BFI Southbank and The Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, the Festival will also run in cinemas and venues across central London

• LFF On Tour visits 11 UK wide partner venues with two new venues – National Science and Media Museum, Bradford (2025 City of Culture) and Filmhouse, Edinburgh

• Nominated titles from the short film competition will be available digitally for free across the UK on BFI Player from 8 – 26 October

• LFF Expanded brings audiences cutting-edge immersive art, extended reality and video games, with works presented at BFI Southbank, BFI IMAX and Rambert

• LFF Series, showcases international work made for television or digital platforms,

• LFF for Free offers audiences a fun and wide-ranging programme of talks, workshops, DJ Nights, exhibitions and filmmaker Q&As, in-person at BFI Southbank as well as short films online on BFI Player – all completely free of charge

• All features and series will screen to UK audiences for the first time, including 27 World Premieres (6 features, 1 series, 19 shorts, 1 immersive), 11 International Premieres (10 features, 1 short) and 20 European Premieres (11 features, 1 mid-length, 7 shorts, 1 immersive)

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Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director, said: “This Autumn we invite audiences to craft their own festival journey across our programme of premiere screenings, dynamic interactive exhibitions and compelling talks programmes with some of cinema’s leading practitioners. We look forward to you joining us this year to experience the incredible state of the medium in 2025 – brimming with formal innovations, provocations and essential roadmaps for navigating the world around us.”
Ben Roberts, Chief Executive, BFI said: “Audiences are at the heart of the LFF and the festival brings them an incredible breadth of stories from some of the most talented and creative filmmakers from the UK and across the world. Huge thanks to our Festival team for presenting a brilliant programme, American Express for its 16 years of headline partnership and all our other partners and supporters.”

An impressive number of major alumni filmmakers return to LFF including: Rian Johnson, Noah Baumbach, Julia Jackman, Yorgos Lanthimos, Richard Linklater, Julia Jackman, Lynne Ramsay, Michel Franco, Guillermo Del Toro, Jim Jarmusch, Chloé Zhao, Bradley Cooper, Edward Berger, Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Luca Guadagnino, François Ozon, Alexandre O. Philippe, Radu Jude, Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard, Christian Petzold, Raoul Peck, Ira Sachs, Derek Cianfrance, Lucile Hadžihalilović, Hlynur Pálmason, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Pablo Trapero, Rebecca Zlotowski, Cyril Aris, Julia Ducournau, Andy Serkis, Lois Patiño, Bretten Hannam, Gianfranco Rosi, Yemi Bamiro, Maryam Touzani, David Michôd, Laura Poitras, Christopher Petit, Alberto Vázquez, Alexandre Koberidze, Pietro Marcello, Robin Campillo, Trương Minh Quý, Aneil Karia, Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit, Jafar Panahi, and Ben Rivers.

The Festival is also delighted to introduce audiences to an incredible new generation of filmmakers from the UK and across the globe with debut feature directors in LFF 2025 including: Kristen Stewart, Ronan Day-Lewis, Bradley Banton, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, Deming Chen, , Polen Ly, Yasuhiro Aoki, Janus Victoria, Georgi M. Unkovski, Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, Jesse Brown, Mikayla Joy Brown, Annapurna Sriram, Sophie Somerville, Calif Chong, Imran Perretta, Ya-Ting Hsu, Anas Saeed, Ibrahim Snoopy, Ciro Durán, Shih-Ching Tsou, Mailys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang, Rochael Abigail Holder, Lloyd Lee Choi, Alex Russell, Joel Alfonso Vargas, Flora Gomes, James Lucas, Akinola Davies Jr., Vincho Nchogu, Brittany Shyne, Siobhan McCarthy, Hemen Khaledi, Zain Duraei, Anuparna Roy, Oscar Hudson, Ed Sayers, Maja-Ajima Yde Zellama, Ernesto Martínez Bucio, Ben Proudfoot, Sumitra Peries, Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski, Hasan Hadi, Stroma Cairns, Antoine Lanciaux, David Bingong, Cal McMau, Emilie Thalund.

You can find out more about the festival at the link above.