Predicting the Surprise Film at London Film Festival

London Film Festival (LFF) is quickly approaching, and as the surprise film approaches, many of us will be guessing what it is. Last year’s Tuner was a crowd-pleasing thriller with a strong lead performance from Leo Woodall.  Since the full programme and the newest additions have been announced, including Primetime starring Robert Pattinson, we can now start to guess the surprise film.

Here are five films that I have predicted could be this year’s surprise pick…

Wife & Dog

Wife & Dog is an upcoming action thriller film starring British actors Benedict Cumberbatch, Rosamund Pike, Cosmo Jarvis, James Norton and Welsh star Anthony Hopkins.  The film is about an aristocratic family whose greed causes betrayal and murder in the battle for succession.

The film will be distributed by Black Bear, which also distributed last year’s Surprise Film, and is scheduled for a February release. Perhaps it’ll have its world premiere at LFF given its distribution and the film feeling thematically on a similar tone to last year’s pick.

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York

An upcoming crime thriller about Harry (John Turturro), an ageing pickpocket. His career is being threatened. Previously, pickpockets could steal wallets full of cash, and now the switch to digital currency means only cards, which are easily cancelled and tracked. He finds himself in a race against time when he accidentally fences a valuable USB which belongs to a member of a major crime family.

The film had its world premiere at Sundance and its international premiere at the Berlin Film Festival out of competition. Its synopsis is similar to the previous pick, Tuner, and it has received rave reviews. A film sure to be a crowd-pleaser, and perhaps a good surprise film.

I Play Rocky

I Play Rocky is about the making of one of the most iconic films, Rocky. The film follows Sylvester Stallone’s (Anthony Ippolito), who bets everything to get the film made and star as its lead character.

The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) with stellar reviews for Ippolito’s performance.  It will be released by Amazon MGM Studios in November in the United States and the UK. Reviews for the film have hailed it as an uplifting crowd-pleaser which seems a good fit for the surprise film crowd and comes out fairly soon after the festival.

Bucking Fastard

Twin sisters Jean (Kate Mara) and Joan Holbrooke (Rooney Mara) are searching for a world where true love is possible. It is Werner Herzog’s latest film loosely based on the lives of Freta and Greta Chaplin.

The film had the opportunity to have its world premiere at Cannes out of competition. However, the offer was rejected due to the lack of a competitive slot. Instead, the world premiere was at Venice in competition, with a North American premiere at Telluride. It has received mixed reviews so far. It could be a potential pick given it features across the autumn festival circuit.

Stuffed

Bernie (Harry Melling) is afraid of being forgotten and offers a taxidermist (Jodie Comer) his body in the event of his death… they proceed to fall in love.  Stuffed is a British musical body horror romance film and feature-length debut for writer-director Theo Rhys. 

The film will premiere at TIFF as the opening film of the festival’s discovery programme. Given it is a British film with two notable British stars as co-leads, it could be a good surprise film pick. It would certainly be thematically different from the last few choices, which have included Tuner, Saturday Night and Ferrari.

The 2026 BFI London Film Festival runs from October 7th – 18th. Get your tickets here.

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Aaminah Saleem

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