David Farnor | On 07, Sep 2021

It’s almost October, which means it’s that time of year again: the London Film Festival is almost upon us. After last year’s hybrid event, 2021 will once again see the BFI’s festival head both into cinemas and online, making it not only a big screen showcase for the latest films from around the world, but also an accessible celebration of cinema accessible across the UK. You can read our recommendations of what to watch here.

Now in its 65th year, the festival will run from 6th to 17th October, with films playing at the BFI Southbank and the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, plus cinemas across London’s West End and a selection of films at 10 venues in cities and towns across the UK. The LFF Expanded programme will also feature Immersive Art and XR projects, and there’ll be a bespoke virtual exhibition space, The Expanse.

The films

In total, the programme comprises 159 feature films (including 21 world premieres).

Among them are multiple films from Netflix, including The Power of the Dog, The Hand of God, A Cop Movie, Munich: Edge of War, Passing and Maya and the Three. Amazon will debut Encounter at the festival, while Apple’s The Velvet Underground will also be screening. MUBI will be present too, with 11 films playing, including Andreas Fontana’s Azor, Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta (Headline Gala), Mia Hansen-Løve’s Bergman Island, Andrea Arnold’s Cow, Jessica Beshir’s Faya Dayi, Sebastian Meise’s Great Freedom, Valdimar Jóhannsson’s Lamb, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s Lingui, The Sacred Bonds, Céline Sciamma’s Petite Maman, Tatiana Huezo’s Prayers for the Stolen and Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World.

Several TV series will also be featured, including the first three episodes of Netflix’s South Korean series Hellbound and Episodes 1 and 2 of HBO’s Succession Season 3.

On the big screen, the festival will kick off with Netflix’s The Harder They Fall, directed by Jeymes Samuel, and closes with Apple’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, directed by Joel Coen.

The headline galas then include Netflix’s The Power of the Dog, directed by Jane Campion and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch, Paul Verhoeven’s Benedetta, Will Smith’s King Richard, Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho, Eva Husson’s Mothering Sunday, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s The Lost Daughter, Joanna Hogg’s follow up to The Souvenir and Pablo Larrain’s Spencer.

The virtual premieres

27 of the features will also stream online on BFI Player, with each film available to watch for 24 hours after their specific premiere time – and, once you’ve started watching, will have a four-hour window to complete. Notable films among the online line-up include Harry Wootliff’s True Things, starring Ruth Wilson and Tom Burke, which just premiered at Venice and Panah Panahi’s thrilling debut Hit the Road. The entire short film selection will also be available to stream for free on BFI Player throughout the festival.

And the free virtual platform The Expanse will be available throughout the festival including several 360 films, including Adult Children, Atomic / Ghost in the Atom, Container and Laika.

The screen talks

Also free will be a Screen Talk with Ryusuke Hamaguchi about his career and his latest films, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy and Drive My Car – that will be streamed on the BFI YouTube and Facebook pages at 6pm on 12th October. You can also see Pablo Larrain’s Screen Talk on YouTube for free after it takes place in person.

The Awards

The LFF Awards ceremony will also be streamed online for free, taking place at 4pm on Sunday 16th October. Click here to watch.

The tickets

Tickets go on general sale on 20th September, with extra tickets released on 30th September and on the day of each screening. Priority booking opens for BFI Patrons on 10th September, BFI Champions on 13th September and BFI Members on 14th September.

For online BFI Player screenings, tickets cost £12 (£10 for BFI Members).
 

The schedule

Here’s the breakdown of the full digital line-up and when they’re streaming:

The Storms of Jeremy Thomas
Affectionate, fascinating and unconventional documentary portrait examining the long and illustrious career of one of the UK’s most iconic producers, Jeremy Thomas.

Available online: 6th – 7th October

Memory Box
A package of keepsakes from 1980s wartime Beirut arrives in contemporary Montreal, in this stylish intergenerational drama from acclaimed directors Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige.

Available online: 7th – 8th October

What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?
When Lisa and Georgi fall in love their future is threatened by the Evil Eye, which unaccountably changes their appearance overnight.

Available online: 7th – 8th October

The Feast
You are cordially invited to the dinner party from hell, courtesy of Lee Haven Jones’ Welsh-language horror opus.

Available online: 8th – 9th October

Brother’s Keeper
A young boy must fight to save his sick friend in this thrillingly unpredictable boarding school drama.

Available online: 8th – 9th October

A Cop Movie
Be prepared to be surprised by this wildly inventive, hybrid documentary drama by Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios, following two Mexico City police officers on the beat.

Available online: 9th – 10th October

The First Wave
When the Covid-19 pandemic struck, hospital staff found themselves on the front line. This essential film documents the first wave as experienced by New York City’s emergency medical workers.

Available online: 9th – 10th October

Sediments
A group of Spanish trans women go on a road trip and share openly about their life experiences in this warm and honest documentary.

Available online: 9th – 10th October

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
Along with Drive My Car, this triptych is one of two new films from LFF favourite Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Happy Hour, Asako I & II).

Available online: 10th – 11th October

The Story of Film: A New Generation
Mark Cousins returns with another journey across the landscape of film, examining what changes the 21st century has brought.

Available online: 10th – 11th October

Queen of Glory
In Nana Mensah’s self-assured and charming comedy, a Ghanaian-American woman’s life is thrown into disarray when she inherits her mother’s Christian bookshop.

Available online: 10th – 11th October

La Mif
A raw, in-your-face drama that offers a glimpse of life within a residential care home for at-risk teenage girls.

Available online: 10th – 11th October

Boiling Point
An emotionally scarred London chef struggles to keep it together in this formally extraordinary and beautifully acted single-take thriller.

Available online: 11th – 12th October

True Things
Harry Wootliff returns to the Festival with this fascinating psychological drama, starring Ruth Wilson and adapted from Deborah Kay Davies’ novel True Things About Me.

Available online: 11th – 12th October

Citizen Ashe
An ultimate origin story, Arthur Ashe was not only a pioneer within the world of tennis but a revolutionary social activist for many global causes.

Available online: 11th – 12th October

Rehana
An assistant medical professor faces her own #MeToo moment when she discovers that her colleague has assaulted one of her students, in this gripping feminist drama from Bangladesh.

Available online: 12th – 13th October

Playground
The harsh world of playground politics is seen through the eyes of a seven-year-old girl in a gripping debut from Belgian writer-director Laura Wandel.

Available online: 12th – 13th October

Becoming Cousteau
Get your woolly red beanie ready. This riveting doc brings a fresh take on the life of the inspiring inventor, explorer, environmentalist and filmmaker Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau.

Available online: 12th – 13th October

Hit the Road
Panah Panahi’s thrilling debut is by turns tender, quirky, even laugh-out-loud funny – a wondrously-observed reflection on family and the ambivalence of saying goodbye.

Available online: 13th – 14th October

Natural Light
Dénes Nagy’s riveting drama follows a lieutenant in a Hungarian special unit as he hunts partisans in occupied Soviet Union during the Second World War.

Available online: 13th – 14th October

Users
A sci-fi of our time, Natalia Almada’s stunning documentary considers how an imitation of life is becoming second nature.

Available online: 14th – 15th October

Wild Indian
Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr’s sleek and stylish psychological thriller centres on two very different men bound together by a violent secret from their childhood.

Available online: 14th – 15th October

BFI Flare Special Screening: Flee
Winner of the World Cinema Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at Sundance Film Festival, Flee is a testament to friendship, family and acceptance.

Available online: 15th – 16th October

The Real Charlie Chaplin
A stirring new take on the life and work of one the most elusive cinema icons, revealing a never-previously-broadcast interview.

Available online: 15th – 16th October

Between Two Worlds
Juliette Binoche plays an undercover reporter investigating the conditions faced by France’s working women in this insightful, involving drama.

Available online: 16th – 17th October

Mr Bachmann and His Class
Winner of the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, Maria Speth’s enjoyable and profoundly moving documentary searches for the true meaning of home and community.

Available online: 16th – 17th October

Petrov’s Flu
A comic book artist contracts flu during an epidemic and subsequently embarks on a strange journey through Russian society.

Available online: 16th – 17th October

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