The full lineup for this year’s BFI London Film Festival has been unveiled with Noah Baumbach’s George Clooney-starring Jay Kelly and Chloé Zhao’s buzzy Shakespeare tale Hamnet among the additions.
On Wednesday, a total of 247 titles — comprised of features, shorts, series and immersive works — from 79 countries were confirmed to premiere at this year’s festival, running Oct. 8-19. Rian Johnson’s next Knives Out installment, Wake Up Dead Man, was previously announced as the opening gala and Julia Jackson’s 100 Nights of Hero is set to close the fest.
The headline galas are jam-packed with Hollywood’s top talent. Kicking off the American Express Gala is the U.K. premiere of the Brendan Fraser-led Japanese drama Rental Family from Hikari, while the Patron’s Gala at this year’s fest is H Is For Hawk from Philippa Lowthorpe with Claire Foy and Brendan Gleeson. The Cunard Gala is Baumbach’s Netflix film Jay Kelly with Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup and Riley Keough, which earned its world premiere at this year’s Venice Film Festival.
The Palme d’Or-winning It Was Just An Accident (Yek Tasadee Sadeh) from Jafar Panahi will premiere alongside Luca Guadagnino’s After The Hunt with Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri and Andrew Garfield, Ballad of a Small Player from Edward Berger starring Colin Farrell, Richard Linklater’s reunion with Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon, and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Venice feature Bugonia with Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons.
Ralph Fiennes leads an ensemble cast in Alan Bennett’s World War I drama The Choral and Sydney Sweeney’s queer boxing film Christy will also debut. Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson lead Lynne Ramsay’s Die, My Love and Guillermo Del Toro returns to LFF with his interpretation of horror classic Frankenstein.
The U.K. premiere of Oliver Hermanus’ The History of Sound with Josh O’Connor and Paul Mescal was unveiled on Wednesday, as was Zhao’s Hamnet, also starring Mescal alongside Jessie Buckley. Bradley Cooper’s third directorial feature, Is This Thing On,? with Will Arnett and Laura Dern, will feature, as will Kelly Reichardt’s The Mastermind and Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice, which has garnered buzz on the Lido.
Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst lead Derek Cianfrance’s crime drama Roofman and Elle Fanning stars alongside Stellan Skarsgard in Sentimental Value, set to hit the LFF. Jeremy Allen White, Stephen Graham and Jeremy Strong lead the Bruce Springsteen biopic Deliver Me From Nowhere, which will also premiere at the fest.
World premieres include Rowan Athale’s British boxing drama Giant with Amir El-Masry and Pierce Brosnan, Isabella Eklöf’s series adaptation of Nick Cave’s novel The Death of Bunny Munro with Matt Smith and Bradley Banton’s directorial debut More Life. Calif Chong’s British-Chinese immigrant tale High Wire, Yemi Bamiro’s Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story and Ahmed Alauddin Jamal’s Hotel London will also screen in this section.
A new gender-swap comedy She’s The He from Siobhan McCarthy will also premiere, as will Finding Optel from Jesse Brown and Mikayla Joy Brown, Majid Al Ansari’s psychological horror The Vile and Vincho Nchogu’s One Woman One Bra. Aitor Arregi’s examination of elder queer desire Maspalomas will debut alongside Hsu Ya-Tsing’s documentary on Taiwan’s leprosy Island of the Winds and Rachel Abigail’s ode to New York, Love, Brooklyn. The Marianne Faithfull documentary with George MacKay and Tilda Swinton, Broken English, is screening in the special presentations category.
At LFF this year, 103 works are made by female and non-binary filmmakers, making up 42 percent of the program. Screen Talks with Daniel Day-Lewis, Lanthimos, Linklater, Ramsay, Panahi, Tessa Thompson and Chinese filmmaker Zhao were confirmed earlier this week.
The fest returns to its home at the heart of London, BFI Southbank, and The Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. It will also run in cinemas and venues across central London and 11 U.K.-wide partner venues.
“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,” said Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival director. “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.”
The full program for the BFI London Film Festival is available here.