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The newly unveiled movies bring the total lineup of the LFF 2026 edition to 251 titles, comprised of features, shorts, series and immersive works, from 88 countries. This year’s festival runs Oct. 7-18.
At LFF 2026, a total of 109 works are made by female filmmakers, making up 43 percent of the program. All features and series will screen to U.K. audiences for the first time, with the lineup including 33 world premieres (nine features, two series, two mid-length films, 19 shorts, one immersive project), 16 international premieres (nine features, seven shorts) and 20 European premieres (13 features, seven shorts).
“When this festival first sprang to life 70 years ago, little more than a decade after the end of the Second World War, British society was in a period of rapid social change,” said Kristy Matheson, the Australian in charge of programming in her role as artistic director, BFI Festivals. “Then, like now, we turn to artists to synthesize our times. And what a vision they have for us in 2026; tumults of the era live inside our program, but so too do cinematic thrills, moral conundrums and a reoccurring exploration of care and community.”
The LFF previously unveiled its 10 competition films for 2026, as well as Simon Stone’s Elsinore, starring Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman, as its opening film and Jesse Eisenberg‘s The Debut as its closing movie.
On Wednesday, organizers highlighted that world premieres at London 2026 include Bird’s animated caper Ray Gunn, which makes its global Netflix debut on the streamer in December, Anthony Wonke’s British boxing biopic In the Shadows, Laika’s new animation film Wildwood from Knight, Carol Morley’s previously announced semi-autobiographical adaptation 7 Miles Out, adaptation of the West End hit Frank and Percy from Sean Mathias, Federico Borgia’s Prince, “hilarious cinematic autofiction The Banning Curse from Mohsen Amiryousefi,” The Whisper of Sunlight from documentarian Siu-pong Wong, Ken Fero and Tariq Mehmood’s Rebellion, a documentary about the Bradford 12, Michael Winterbottom’s series The Trip to the Northern Lights with Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan, and comedian Leo Reich’s new series It Gets Worse. Another world debut is a new immersive experience from CrossLucid and Orion Facey called Red the Ocean Around U.
International premieres touted by the LFF include “Boots Riley’s anti-capitalist vision I Love Boosters, this year’s Patron’s Gala the stylishly crafted portrait of a classical musician Behemoth! from Tony Gilroy, Giovanni Tortorici’s vibrant coming-of-age story Ketticè, Hyun Lee’s fashionably hip and charming debut French Girls, the awe-inspiring documentary Carl Sagan: We Are Made of Star Stuff from Nanette Burstein, Alejandra Pérez González’ glorious Mexican animation My Friend the Sun, heartfelt hybrid documentary about filmmaker Ashley Duong’s father Ba’s Book, Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora’s richly cinematic 35mm documentary Concrete Turned to Sand and allegorical sci-fi fable Tropical Fractals from Leonardo Pirondi.”
Galas, taking place at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, include Siân Heder’s Being Heumann, Cannes Palme d’Or winner Fjord by Cristian Mungiu, such Cannes favorites as Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur, Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved, Paweł Pawlikowski’s Fatherland, Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid, as well as Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo’s La Bola Negra, Florian Zeller’s Bunker, as well as Luca Guadagnino‘s Artificial.
This year’s Mayor’s Gala is Danny Boyle’s Ink about Rupert Murdoch’s Fleet Street career, while Taika Waititi’s Klara and the Sun, Andrew Haigh’s A Long Winter, James Gray’s Paper Tiger, Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love, Susanna White’s Prima Facie, and Mike Leigh’s Tender Loving Care also get the gala treatment. Rounding out the LFF 2026 gala screenings are Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine and Bassam Tariq’s Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.
Among filmmakers returning to LFF for this year’s 70th edition are the likes of Pawlikowski, McDonagh, Waititi, Zvyagintsev, Mungiu, Lee, Boyle, Haigh, Leigh, Florian Zeller and Ava DuVernay.
Highlighted LFF organizers: “The festival is also delighted to introduce audiences to an incredible new generation of filmmakers from the U.K. and across the globe with debut feature directors in LFF 2025 including Jordan Firstman, Harvey Zielinski, Manon Coubia, Sompot Chidgasornpongse, Ashley Walters, Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, Aung Phyoe, Anna Foglietta, Shalini Adnani, Rachel Rose, Grace Harper Brighouse, David Greaves, Erik Shirai, Theo Rollason, Ankur Hooda, Asmahan Bkerat, Ian de la Rosa, Bernard Auguste Kouemo Yanghu, Kim Bartley, John Wilson, Dario Russo, Sarah Arnold, Ramzi Bashour, Rafael Manuel, Nolitha Refilwe Mkulisi, Jack Auen, Kevin Walker, Hyun Lee, Zhong Kaifeng, Hoda Taheri, Boris Hadžija, Abinash Bikram Shah, Rami Kodeih, Maryam Ataei, Andrea Pallaoro, Mokya Shin, Marine Atlan, Zou Jing, Fernanda Salgado, Paula Delsol, Adam Bonke and Louise Bagnall.”
The full program for LFF 2026 is available online here. Check out highlights for below.
FIRST FEATURE COMPETITION – SUTHERLAND AWARD
Infused with gentle humor and profound humanity, Sompot Chidgasornpongse’s fiction debut 9 Temples to Heaven presents a serene passage through family, faith and the cycles of life.
Ashley Walters’ directorial debut, Animol, set in a young offenders institute, is a strikingly shot and sensitively made depiction of survival, surprise connections and redemption.
Cannes Camera d’Or winner Ben’Imana, directed by Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo, unfolds in the shadow of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, exploring its legacy and the possibility of forgiveness.
Generations of women share different perspectives as they confront their trauma together, in an intimate and thoughtful film about resilience, sisterhood and communal healing, Anna Foglietta’s beautifully observed and impressively directed feature debut, A Common Story details the fractures that appear in a couple’s seemingly happy marriage.
In Manon Coubia’s visually arresting film Forest High, solo caretakers keep the fires burning in a remote Alpine chalet where weary hikers find modest lodgings.
Writer-director Aung Phyoe’s enthralling, visually striking drama Fruit Gathering charts a homoerotic friendship between two young Burmese women.
In a bustling Lagos, Olive Nwosu’s Lady follows a solitary female taxi driver who finds community among a group of sex workers as she transports them around the city.
Acclaimed visual artist Rachel Rose gives Mrs Dalloway a contemporary makeover in her arresting mood piece, with The Last Day, starring Alicia Vikander and Victoria Pedretti.
Bertil Nilsson’s distinctive debut Masc follows Robin as he moves through temporary jobs and tentative relationships in search of a place to belong.
Shalini Adnani’s poignant coming-of-age drama Our Share of Sand presents a unique perspective on India’s gaping class inequality, child labor and the deep corruption underpinning a family’s economic status.
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION – GRIERSON AWARD
Ashley Duong’s heartfelt hybrid Ba’s Book made in response to her father’s memoir, which recounts his experiences of the Vietnam War and Iranian Revolution.
The Calf Doll marks the arrival of a distinctive new voice in India’s slow cinema movement. Ankur Hooda’s film explores the erosion of farming as a way of life, and the impact of mass urban migration on villages and those left behind. A para-fiction featuring Hooda’s grandparents, who play improvised versions of themselves, the film observes Haryana’s fogcloaked landscapes and its people with a keen, almost anthropological eye. Asmahan Bkerat’s feature directorial debut CONCRETE LAND is an intimate, multi-generational portrait of a mixed-raced family fighting displacement and hostility in Jordan. A Bedouin family navigates the everyday indignities of being poor, Black and Palestinian. As they travel through Jordan, forced from place to place, they experience the heartbreak of displacement alongside fellow Palestinians in Gaza. This quietly powerful exploration of familial bonds across generations is a story of finding hope and the importance of a home.
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
Ten years after her Emmy Award-winning 13th, this year’s Documentary Special Presentation sees Ava DuVernay return to the U.S. Constitution with 14th, a probing look at the thorny history of the 14th amendment.
Long overshadowed within Powell and Pressburger’s canon, the major new restoration of Gone to Earth is this year’s Archive Special Presentation, revealing the visual splendour and dramatic intensity of one of their most misunderstood films.
Following a screening of her short film Ghazal-e Sorkh, in this year’s Experimenta Special Presentation Shab Nameh: Women of Iran’s Forgotten Left, Jarman Award-winning artist Maryam Tafakory will present a live film performance, which explores erased histories of women’s political resistance in Iran.
In writer-director-actor Harvey Zielinski’s coming-of-age drama Sweet Milk Lake, a young trans man’s homecoming results in unexpected consequences when he’s mistaken for his cisgender twin brother.
Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan are back on the road for the Series Special Presentation in Trip to the Northern Lights, sharing delicious meals, hilarious banter and celebrity impressions as they journey through northern Europe. Reunited with director Michael Winterbottom for the fifth insta.lment of this award-winning series, which artfully blends scripted and improvisational comedy, it’s impossible not to be charmed by Brydon and Coogan’s beloved odd couple.
This year’s Immersive Special Presentation, Water Body, is an audiovisual experience exploring water as the connective tissue of life on our planet. %!s(
