Opening with the International Premiere of Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn
The Festival also announces:
- In her inaugural year, new festival director Kristy Matheson and the LFF programming team present a celebration of the moving image in all its forms across the 12 days of the Festival; the exciting and wide-ranging programme of 252 titles (comprising features, shorts, XR works and series) hail from 92 countries, and feature 79 languages
- 99 works are made by female and non-binary filmmakers – 39% of the programme
- Returning to its home at the heart of London’s South Bank at BFI Southbank and The Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, the Festival will also run in cinemas and venues across central London plus 9 LFF partner cinemas across the UK
- A curated programme of 14 free short films will be available digitally across the UK on BFI Player from 4 – 15 October
- Lineup includes LFF Expanded, a programme of 14 new Immersive Art and Extended Reality works, presented at new venues – Bargehouse at Oxo Tower Wharf, Gallery@OXO, Outernet and Science Gallery London, plus free augmented reality walks around Central London
- LFF Series, which this year includes 2 World Premieres, showcases international work made for television or digital platforms in series form
- LFF for Free will offer audiences a vibrant wide-ranging programme of talks, short films and immersive works alongside imaginative, playful events and filmmaker Q&As, both in-person at BFI Southbank and at Gallery@OXO plus short films online on BFI Player – all completely free of charge
- All features and series will screen to UK audiences for the first time, including 29 World Premieres (14 features, 2 series and 13 shorts), 7 International Premieres (6 features and 1 short) and 30 European Premieres (22 features, 1 series and 7 shorts)
The 67th BFI London Film Festival (LFF) in partnership with American Express has announced the full programme line-up, which will be presented in cinemas and online, across the UK. Over twelve days from 4 – 15 October, the LFF will invite audiences to return to its fantastic flagship venues in the heart of London – BFI Southbank and the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, which between them host Galas, Special Presentations and Official Competition. Films and Series from all strands of the Festival will screen in many of central London’s iconic cinemas with a curated selection of features also being showcased at 9 partner venues across the UK.
Saltburn
The LFF will present a compelling and diverse programme of films, shorts, series and immersive works from 92 countries, featuring 79 languages playing across the 12 days of the festival. This includes 99 works made by female and non-binary filmmakers – 39% of the programme.
An impressive number of major alumni filmmakers return to LFF including: Martin Scorsese, Yorgos Lanthimos, Sally El Hosaini, Jonathan Glazer, Steve McQueen, Michel Gondry, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Adura Onashile, Bertrand Bonello, Robin Campillo, Lukas Moodysson, Maite Alberdi, William Oldroyd, DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman, James Benning, Claire Simon, Angela Schanelec, Nicolas Philibert, Lila Avilés, Tatiana Huezo, Victoria Linares Villegas, Michel Franco, Quentin Dupieux, Catherine Breillat, Mohamed Ben Attia, Molly Manning Walker, Kitty Green, Aki Kaurismäki, Marco Bellocchio, Hirokazu Koreeda, Amat Escalante, Nuhash Humayun, Kaouther Ben Hania, Trần Anh Hùng, Baloji, Marie Amachoukeli, Jesse Lewis Reece, Cédric Kahn, Alexandre O. Philippe, Ladj Ly, Alex Gibney, James Krishna Floyd, Dominic Leclerc, Frederick Wiseman, Fawzia Mirza, Pat Collins, Deepa Mehta, Bill Ross, Turner Ross and Mahalia Belo.
The Festival is also introducing audiences to a thrilling new generation of international filmmakers with 47 debut features in LFF from: Mika Gustafson, Raven Jackson, Erica Tremblay, Randall Park, Adura Onashile, Noora Niasari, Laura Moss, Mary Helena Clark, Mike Gibisser, Fox Maxy, Zeno Graton, Myriam U. Birara, Savanah Leaf, Agniia Galdanova, Cyrielle Raingou, Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, Leandro Koch, Paloma Schachmann, Michael Lukk Litwak, Chloe Abrahams, Felipe Carmona, Ramata- Toulaye, SyJulia Jackman, Moin Hussain, Naqqash Khalid, Kibwe Tavares, Mohamed Kordofani, Baloji, Zoljargal Purevdash, Amjad Al Rasheed, Lillah Halla, Amanda Nell Eu, Stéphan Castang, Rosine Mbakam, Thien An Pham, Seán Devlin, Chris Pine, Ernst De Geer, David Allen, Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine, Cyril Aris, Caroline Ingvarsson, Victor Iriarte, Neo SoraTulapop Saenjaroen, Fawzia Mirza, Ali Catterall, Jane Giles, Thomas Hyland and Dana Kavelina.
Every feature and series will screen to audiences in the UK for the very first time, with many shown publicly for the first time ever anywhere in the world. Premieres include 29 World Premieres (14 features, 2 series and 13 shorts), 7 International Premieres (6 features and 1 short) and 30 European Premieres (22 features, 1 series and 7 shorts). World Premieres from filmmakers and artists include: Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya’s The Kitchen which closes the festival, Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget by the award-winning British stop-motion giant Aardman Studios, Immersive artwork My Trip by Bjarne Melgaard, coming of age rom-com Bonus Track by Julia Jackman, Daniel Kokotajlo’s Starve Acre, The Book Of Clarence by Jeymes Samuel, The Buckingham Murders by Hansal Mehta, Theresa Ikoko’s Grime Kids from the Series strand, the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation restoration of Michael Powell’s 1960 masterpiece Peeping Tom in association with STUDIOCANAL, and the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation’s restoration of Horace Ové’s pioneering 1975 debut Pressure. International Premieres include Saltburn, directed, produced and written by Emerald Fennell which opens the festival, as well as collaboration between Deepa Mehta and Sirat Taneja I Am Sirat and This Is Going To Be Big by Thomas Charles Hyland. Major European Premieres include One Life by James Hawes starring Anthony Hopkins, Expats directed by Lulu Wang starring Nicole Kidman, Together 99 by Lukas Moodyson, Dear Jassi by Tarsem Singh, Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers and All Of Us Strangers by Andrew Haigh.
Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film festival director, 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. It’s now time to share all this wonder and we can’t wait for audiences to experience it all this October here in London and across the UK with LFF on Tour and online at BFI Player.”
Ben Roberts, CEO, BFI said: “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 UK this year. I congratulate Kristy on her first LFF programme and the talented team who continue to find creative ways to reach new audiences, including through our free programme. We couldn’t do it without our loyal supporters, including our principal partner of 14 years American Express, so huge thanks to them and our many other sponsors, funders, partners, including the UK Government and the UK’s National Lottery players who do so much to enable both the Festival and our work throughout the year.”
Audiences will enjoy a rich programme of fiction, documentary, animation, artists’ moving image, short film, newly restored classics from the world’s archives, and exciting international works made in immersive and episodic forms. LFF for Free will return to BFI Southbank with a vibrant wide-ranging programme of talks, short films and immersive works alongside imaginative, playful events and filmmaker Q&As, both in-person at BFI Southbank and at Gallery@OXO plus short films online on BFI Player – all completely free of charge. The Festival will also be accessible UK-wide via a specially curated programme of 14 free short films on BFI Player, which viewers will be able to enjoy from 4 – 15 October.
