The British Film Institute (BFI) has unveiled the titles that will make up the 69th edition of the BFI London Film Festival, which will take place from October 8 to 19 and will showcase 247 works from 29 countries. The festival will open with the highly anticipated Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, Rian Johnson’s new installment featuring detective Benoit Blanc, and will close with 100 Nights of Hero, Julia Jackman’s adaptation of the graphic novel fresh from its Venice premiere. Among the most prominent galas are the European premiere of Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, a story about Shakespeare and his wife following the death of their son, and the UK premiere of Philippa Lowthorpe’s H Is for Hawk, based on Helen MacDonald’s autobiographical book.

The program also includes world premieres such as Giant, Rowan Athale’s biopic about British boxer “Prince” Naseem Hamed, starring Amir El-Masry and Pierce Brosnan, and Moss and Freud by James Lucas, which depicts the relationship between Kate Moss and painter Lucien Freud. In the series strand, Isabella Eklöf will debut the first two episodes of The Death of Bunny Munro, an adaptation of Nick Cave’s novel starring Matt Smith. The Official Competition will feature ten international titles, including Mark Jenkin’s Rose of Nevada and Hair, Paper, Water… by Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh Quý, and will also host the world premiere of Yemi Bamiro’s Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story, a documentary about the Afrocentric movement of the 1960s and 70s.

The First Feature Competition will include British productions such as Imran Perretta’s Ish, Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor’s Dreamers, and Akinola Davies’ My Father’s Shadow, while the Documentary Competition will present Super Nature, the debut feature by Ed Sayers, produced by Asif Kapadia. The rest of the program will be organized into the sections Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Create, Experimenta, Family and Shorts, featuring a wide range of films that have triumphed in Berlin, Cannes and Venice.

Additionally, the Screen Talks cycle will bring together figures such as Yorgos Lanthimos, Daniel Day-Lewis, Richard Linklater, Jafar Panahi, Lynne Ramsay, Tessa Thompson and Chloé Zhao, with in-person sessions also available online via BFI Player and YouTube. The festival will take place at BFI Southbank, the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, and various London venues, as well as eleven partner locations across the UK, including the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, the 2025 City of Culture, and Edinburgh’s Filmhouse. Details of the Industry Forum will be announced in the coming weeks, rounding out an edition that promises to be one of the year’s key cinematic events.

Official Competition

• Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story – Yemi Bamiro (UK)

• The Voice of Hind Rajab – Kaouther Ben Hania (Tunisia/France)

• Hedda – Nia DaCosta (USA)

• Bad Apples – Jonatan Etzler (UK)

• The Testament of Ann Lee – Mona Fastvold (UK)

• Hair, Paper, Water… – Nicolas Graux, Trương Minh Quý (Belgium/France/Vietnam)

• Rose of Nevada – Mark Jenkin (UK)

• Landmarks – Lucrecia Martel (Argentina/USA/Mexico/France/Netherlands)

• Black Rabbit, White Rabbit – Shahram Mokri (Tajikistan/UAE)

• The World of Love – Yoon Ga-eun (South Korea)

First Feature Competition

• A Useful Ghost – Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke (Thailand/France/Singapore)

• My Father’s Shadow – Akinola Davies (UK/Nigeria)

• Sink – Zain Duraie (Jordan/Saudi Arabia/Qatar/France)

• Dreamers – Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor (UK)

• Becoming Human – Polen L (Cambodia)

• One Woman One Bra – Vincho Nchogu (Kenya/Nigeria)

• Ish – Imran Perretta (UK)

• Songs of Forgotten Trees – Anuparna Roy (India)

• Mad Bills to Pay – Joel Alfonso Vargas (USA)

• Diamonds in the Sand – Janus Victoria (Philippines)

Documentary Competition

• The Travelers – David Bingong (Cameroon/Spain)

• Always – Deming Chen (USA/China/France/Taiwan)

• Life After – Reid Davenport (USA)

• Singing Wings – Hemen Khaledi (Iran/Georgia/Belgium)

• Only on Earth – Robin Petré (Denmark/Spain)

• The Eyes of Ghana – Ben Proudfoot (USA)

• Super Nature – Ed Sayers (UK)

• Seeds – Brittany Shyne (USA)