The 67th BFI London Film Festival Teases ‘New And Old Generations’

The BFI have announced the 67th London Film Festival line-up. A bumper celebration of feature and short films from around the world and a line-up a new generation of filmmakers will rub shoulders with the established alumni.

Last year, it was a year of strong women and retribution, this year filmmakers taking their first steps into feature films with debut release. Next to them we have filmmakers  some veteran  others bringing long awaited films; Martin Scorsese, Hayao Miyazaki, Lorgos Lanthimos, Emerald Fennell, Todd Haynes and David Fincher to name a few.

The past few weeks the BFI have teased British cinephiles with news of what films will open and close this years festival. Oscar winning Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman) will open things up with Saltburn starring Barry Keoghan. The festival will close with the debut feature with the World Premiere of Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya’s The Kitchen.

The 2023 festival will be 12 days of exciting and wide-ranging programme of 252 titles hail from 92 countries, and feature 79 languages. 29 World Premieres, 7 International Premieres and 30 European Premieres, all playing in the UK for the first time.

We mentioned several big directors like Martin Scorsese long awaited Killers Of The Flower Moon getting  a play at London. David Fincher’s passion project The Killer starring Michael Fassbender as our assassin getting it’s UK premiere.  Jeymes Samuel‘s Book Of Clarence will make it’s world premiere starring Lakeith Stanfield and Benedict Cumberbatch. Animation maestro Hayao Miyazaki will return for one final time with anime The Boy And The Heron. Sofia Coppola’s MUBI bound Priscilla  will also receive a special preview.

Every year the festival encourage cinephiles discover new gems, with splitting the programme into strands. Those strands are Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Create, Experimenta, Family and Treasures.

Some of the highlights of these strands include Hirokazu Kore-eda drama Monster which has one of the final scores from Ryuichi Sakamoto before his death. We stay Japan with Wim Wenders Japanese language feature comedy drama Perfect Days. Michael Winterbottom‘s period drama  Shoshana will be hoping it will provoke debate.  If you enjoy your comedy French, quirky and possibly a little surreal Quentin Dupieux‘s DAAAAAALI! keeps it weird with his film on Salvador Dali. Michael Gondry‘s The Book Of Solutions which also stars Sting puts a comedic twist on possession. Angela Schanelec’s Music will give a modern twist on  the Greek myth of Oedipus.

For details of what films are in competition, please head over to our post.

HEADLINE GALAS

• Opening Night Gala – SALTBURN (UK, dir.-scr. Emerald Fennell)
• Closing Night Gala – THE KITCHEN (UK, dir. Kibwe Tavares, Daniel Kaluuya)
• American Express Gala – ONE LIFE (UK, dir. James Hawes)
• ALL OF US STRANGERS (UK, dir.-scr. Andrew Haigh)
• THE BIKERIDERS (USA, dir. Jeff Nichols)
• THE BOOK OF CLARENCE (USA, dir.-scr. Jeymes Samuel)
• The Mayor of London’s Gala – CHICKEN RUN: DAWN OF THE NUGGET (UK, dir. Sam Fell)
• Cunard Gala – THE HOLDOVERS (USA, dir. Alexander Payne)
• THE KILLER (USA, dir. David Fincher)
• KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON (USA, dir. Martin Scorsese)
• MAESTRO (USA, dir. Bradley Cooper)
• MAY DECEMBER (USA, dir. Todd Haynes)
• NYAD (USA, dir. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin)
• POOR THINGS (UK, dir. Yorgos Lanthimos)

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

• THE BOY AND THE HERON (Japan, dir. Hayao Miyazaki)
• COBWEB (South Korea, dir. Kim Jee-woon)
• BFI Patron’s Special Presentation – THE END WE START FROM (UK, dir. Mahalia Belo)
• FALLEN LEAVES (Finland, dir.-scr. Aki Kaurismäki)
• FOE (Australia, dir. Garth Davis)
• Series Special Presentation – GRIME KIDS (UK, dir. Abdou Cisse)
• HIT MAN (USA, dir. Richard Linklater)
• BFI Flare Special Presentation – HOUSEKEEPING FOR BEGINNERS (North Macedonia-Poland-Croatia-Serbia-Kosovo, dir.-scr. Goran Stolevski)
• LES INDÉSIRABLES (France-Belgium, dir. Ladj Ly)
• MEMORY (Mexico-USA-Chile, dir.-scr. Michel Franco)
• OCCUPIED CITY (UK-Netherlands, dir. Steve McQueen)
• PRISCILLA (USA-Italy, dir.-scr. Sofia Coppola)
• THE ZONE OF INTEREST (USA-UK-Poland, dir.-scr. Jonathan Glazer)

You can check out the full line up, to book tickets and more info at The BFI website.

Tickets go on sale 12th September. BFI Members can book early on 4th September.

The 67th BFI London Film Festival will take place from Wednesday 4th October until Sunday 15th October.