The 67th BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its full lineup, which includes galas and special presentations of films by contemporary masters.
As previously announced, Emerald Fennell’s “Saltburn” will open the festival and Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya’s “The Kitchen” will close it. James Hawes’ “One Life” is the American Express gala and Sam Fell’s “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget” the Mayor of London gala.
In addition, the festival’s headline galas include Martin Scorsese‘s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” David Fincher‘s “The Killer,” Andrew Haigh’s “All of us Strangers,” Jeff Nichols’ “The Bikeriders,” Jeymes Samuel’s “The Book Of Clarence,” Alexander Payne’s “The Holdovers,” Bradley Cooper‘s “Maestro,”
Todd Haynes’ “May December,” Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “Nyad” and Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Poor Things.”
Special presentations include Miyazaki Hayao’s “The Boy And The Heron,” Kim Jee-woon’s “Cobweb,” Mahalia Belo’s “The End We Start From,” Aki Kaurismäki’s “Fallen Leaves,” Garth Davis’ “Foe,” Abdou Cisse’s “Grime Kids,” Richard linklater’s “Hit Man,” Goran Stolevski’s “Housekeeping For Beginners,” Ladj Ly’s “Les Indésirables,” Michel Franco’s “Memory,” Steve McQueen’s “Occupied City,” Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla” and Jonathan Glazer’s “Zone of Interest.”
The festival’s competition titles were previously announced.
In all, the program comprises 252 titles, including features, shorts, XR works and series from 92 countries, across 79 languages. Among these, 99 works are made by female and non-binary filmmakers – 39% of the program. All features and series will screen to U.K. audiences for the first time, including 29 world premieres (14 features, two series and 13 shorts), seven international premieres (six features and one short) and 30 European premieres (22 features, one series and seven shorts). Of the countries represented, the U.K. has more than 80 titles, followed by the U.S. and France with more than 50 works each.
As in previous years, the feature film program is organized by Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Create, Experimenta, Family and Treasures strands and new series programming can be found in many of the strands.
Festival director Kristy Matheson said: “In preparing this 2023 festival, my colleagues and I have been endlessly buoyed by the artistry, ideas and talented individuals and communities that have come into our orbit.”
Ben Roberts, CEO, BFI, added: “Cinema has reclaimed its status as a cultural force, an art-form that can spark a conversation around the world, and which will resound loudly through the wide-ranging line-up of essential cinema that our 67th edition of the BFI London Film Festival will offer. I am particularly excited that the festival will be sharing the exhilarating experience of new work from global filmmakers alongside so many debut features from the U.K. this year.”
The full festival program is here. The festival runs Oct. 4-15.
