All The Titles We’re Excited To See At BFI London Film Festival This Autumn

There’s a huge slate of titles for screen lovers coming in the final quarter of the year, including a plethora of fantastic new British television series. But if you are more partial to the big screen, the annual BFI London Film Festival is the place to be, returning from 8 to 19 October 2025. Boasting a whopping 247 films from 79 countries this year, whether you’re planning on going in person or you’re wondering how (and when) to catch the big hitters for yourself, here’s everything to know about the 69th edition of the BFI London Film Festival.

BFI London Film Festival 2025: A Guide

The BFI London Film Festival is an annual 12-day-long festival of movies, television and immersive storytelling that takes place in central London every autumn. Open to the public, locals and visitors alike can also enjoy a free programme of events running alongside the main programme of film screenings, with the 2025 edition boasting screenings of major filmmakers including Noah Baumback, Julia Jackman, Yorgos Lanthimos, Guillermo del Toro, Chloe Zhao, Richard Linklater, Lynne Ramsay, Bradley Cooper and plenty more.

The clue is in the name: the BFI London Film Festival is hosted by the British Film Institute at the Southbank Centre in central London, with additional screenings in 11 partner venues across the UK. Meanwhile, a curated programme of free short films will be available digitally for the full duration of the festival (from 9 to 20 October 2024).

BFI London Film Festival is also a competition, with five awards up for grabs. These are:

• Best Film Award
• First Feature Competition for the Sutherland Award, recognising the most original and imaginative directorial debut
• Grierson Award for feature-length documentaries with integrity, originality and social or cultural significance
• Short Film Award

The winners of these awards are chosen by LFF Awards Juries and announced on the final day of the festival, with a surprise screening of the winner of the Best Film Award taking place that evening. Three Audience Awards voted for by festival goers who pick their favourite work they saw at LFF in 2024: Best Feature, Best Short and Best Documentary.

In 2025, 247 films from 79 countries will be shown at the BFI London Film Festival, 42 percent of which are helmed by female and non-binary filmmakers and all of which are being shown in the UK for the very first time. This includes 27 world premieres, 11 international premieres and 20 European premieres, with BFI London Film Festival’s director Kristy Matheson describing the 2025 programme as ‘brimming with formal innovations, provocations and essential roadmaps for navigating the world around us’.

‘Audiences are at the heart of the LFF and the festival brings them an incredible breadth of stories from some of the most talented and creative filmmakers from the UK and across the world,’ adds the BFI’s chief executive Ben Roberts.

As with previous editions, the film programme is arranged by themes to encourage discovery. These themes are: Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Create, Experimenta, Family and Shorts.

12 Films On Our Radar

Josh O’Connor & Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc in Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. (John Wilson/Netflix © 2025)

Wake Up Dead Man

Opening the 2025 BFI London Film Festival is the world premiere of Rian Johnson’s follow up to Knives Out (2019) and Glass Onion (2022), Wake Up Dead Man. Starring Britain’s Josh O’Connor and Daniel Craig in the leading roles, expect a devilishly sharp and gripping twist on the classic whodunnit set in a rural town in upstate New York. Here’s exactly what to expect.

Release Date: In UK cinemas from 28 November, and streaming on Netflix from 12 December 2025.

Jessie Buckley as Agnes and Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare in director Chloé Zhao’s HAMNET. (© Agata Grzybowska/2025 FOCUS FEATURES LLC)

Hamnet

The Mayor of London’s Gala for 2025 is Hamnet, from Oscar winning director of Nomadland (2020) Chloe Zhao. Based on Maggie O’Farrell’s best selling 2020 novel of the same name. Paul Mescal leads as William Shakespeare joined by Jessie Buckley as wife Agnes, who are both struggling to come to terms with the loss of their son, Hamnet. Find out more here.

Release Date: In UK cinemas from 9 January 2026.

Jennifer Lawrence & Robert Pattinson in Die, My Love. (Mubi)

Die, My Love

Hollywood heavyweights Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson star in Lynne Ramsay’s bold and brave take on postpartum psychosis, Die, My Love. With a new baby and a home in the country, Grace and Jackson should be living in bliss. But Grace’s psyche has changed following her baby’s birth, and a new restlessness drives her to the brink of madness.

Release Date: In UK cinemas from 14 November 2025.

Stellan Skarsgård & Renate Reinsve in Sentimental Value. (Mubi)

Sentimental Value

After scooping up the Grand Prix following a 19-minute standing ovation at Cannes earlier this year, we can’t wait to see Joachim Trier’s next film, Sentimental Value. Famed for his Oslo trilogy – which concluded with 2021’s The Worst Person in the World – here Trier reunites with Renate Reinsve to tell a family drama about sisters reconnecting with their famous filmmaker of a father, Gustav (Stellan Skarsgård). Also starring Elle Fanning, Sentimental Value is expected to be Norway’s bid for an International Feature Oscar next year, so catch it early.

Release Date: In UK cinemas from 26 December 2025.

Josh O’Connor as David and Paul Mescal as Lionel in THE HISTORY OF SOUND, directed by Oliver Hermanus. (Universal Pictures)

The History Of Sound

Your second opportunity to see Hamnet’s Paul Mescal and Wake Up Dead Man’s Josh O’Connor at the 2025 BFI London Film Festival is in Oliver Hermanus’ highly anticipated romance The History of Sound. Centring on Lionel and David who meet at Boston Conservatory, we trace a decades-spanning love story underpinned by a love of music. Here’s everything else we know.

Release Date: In UK cinemas from 23 January 2025.

Josh O’Connor as James Blaine Mooney in The Mastermind. (Mubi)

The Mastermind

And the third of Josh O’Connor’s showings at BFI London Film Festival 2025 is Kelly Reichardt’s 1970s heist thriller also starring Alana Haim, John Magaro, Hope Davis, Bill Camp and Gaby Hoffmann. O’Connor is James Blaine Mooney, an unemployed carpenter turned amateur art thief planning his first big heist.

Release Date: In UK cinemas from 24 October 2025.

Maika Monroe as Cherry and Emma Corrin as Hero in 100 Nights of Hero. (Independent Film Company)

100 Nights Of Hero

And the festival will draw to a close with the UK premiere of Julia Jackson’s bold fairytale 100 Nights of Hero, based on Isabel Greenberg’s graphic novel of the same name and starring everyone from Emma Corrin, Nicholas Galitzine, Maika Monroe and Amir El-Masry to Richard E Grant and Charli XCX.

Release Date: In US cinemas from 5 December 2025, with a UK release date still TBC.

Laura Dern as Liz, George Clooney as Jay Kelly and Adam Sandler as Ron Sukenick in Jay Kelly. (Peter Mountain/Netflix © 2025)

Jay Kelly

Noah Baumbach returns to the BFI London Film Festival in 2025 with the UK premiere of Jay Kelly, which we’re told is ‘a pitch-perfect exploration of fame, fatherhood and the price of art’. George Clooney stars in the title role, a famous actor honoured with a lifetime achievement award who sets off on a journey with his team including manager Ron (Adam Sandler) and publicist Liz (Laura Dern). Additional stars in the ensemble cast include Billy Crudup, Riley Keough, Eve Hewson, Greta Gerwig, Lenny Henry, Emily Mortimer, Isla Fisher, Jamie Demetriou, Louis Partridge, Patsy Ferran and more.

Release Date: In cinemas from 14 November, streaming on Netflix from 5 December 2025.

Julia Roberts as Alma and Andrew Garfield as Hank in AFTER THE HUNT. (Amazon MGM Studios)

After The Hunt

Prolific Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino is back after recent success with Challengers and Queer (both 2024). Julia Roberts leads After The Hunt as Alma Olsson, a professor caught in the middle of a scandal when a star student makes an accusation of sexual assault against another professor. Joined by Andrew Garfield, Ayo Edebiri and Michael Stuhlbarg, Alma must confront her past, where her loyalties lie and the gravity of the situation.

Release Date: In UK cinemas from 20 October 2025.

Colin Farrell in Ballad of a Small Player. (Netflix)

Ballad Of A Small Player

After the hit that was Conclave last year, we can’t wait to see director Edward Berger’s follow-up, Ballad of a Small Player. Transporting us to Macau, we’re told to expect a ‘hypnotic blend of ghost story and psychological thriller,’ centring on con man Lord Doyle (Colin Farrell) who gets lost in the labyrinthine allure of the city. Based on Lawrence Osborne’s 2014 novel of the same name, Fala Chen, Deanie Ip, Alex Jennings and Tilda Swinton also star.

Release Date: In UK cinemas from 17 October, and streaming on Netflix from 29 October 2025.

Jesse Plemons as Teddy Gatz in Yorgos Lanthimos’ BUGONIA.
(© Focus Features)

Bugonia

Another prolific filmmaker of late is Yorgos Lanthimos, who reunites with frequent collaborator Emma Stone and Kinds of Kindness’s (2024) Jesse Plemons to bring Bugonia to the 2025 BFI London Film Festival. Loosely based on Jang Joon-hwan’s 2003 novel Save the Green Planet!, Plemons is a conspiracy-obsessed paranoiac who, with the help of his brother, kidnaps a powerful CEO (Stone), believing she is an alien intent on destroying Earth. 

Release Date: In UK cinemas from 31 October 2025.

Riz Ahmed in Hamlet. (Focus Features)

Hamlet

Riz Ahmed is time’s famed Danish prince in this bold reimagining of Shakespeare’s classic play reset in contemporary London. Directed by Aneil Karia, best known for the Oscar-winning short film The Long Goodbye (2022), Hamlet and his wealthy British Asian family are reunited, but his mind is trained on his enemies – including Polonius (Timothy Spall) and Claudius (Art Malik) – and revenge. 

Release Date: A UK release date is still TBC.

Where, When & How To Get Tickets

BFI London Film Festival will return from 8 to 19 October 2025, with BFI Southbank and the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall the main venues. Other London venues include Vue West End, the Prince Charles Cinema, Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), Curzon Soho, Curzon Mayfair and Rambert.

Booking is staggered based on membership: BFI Patrons will be able to book tickets from 8 September, followed by BFI Members on 9 September and general sale on 16 September. If you miss out, it’s not over: extra tickets will be released on 2 October too.

BOOK IT

Films will also be screened at the following partner venues across the UK:

• Broadway Cinema (14-18 Broad St, Nottingham NG1 3AL)
• Chapter Arts Centre (Market Rd, Cardiff CF5 1QE)
• Glasgow Film Theatre (12 Rose St, Glasgow G3 6RB)
• HOME Manchester (2 Tony Wilson Pl, Manchester M15 4FN)
• Midlands Art Centre (Cannon Hill Park, Birmingham B12 9QH)
• Queen’s Film Theatre (20 University Square, Belfast BT7 1PA)
• Showroom Cinema (Paternoster Row, Sheffield S1 2BX)
• Tyneside Cinema (10 Pilgrim St, Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 6QG)
• Watershed (1 Canon’s Rd, Bristol BS1 5TX)
• Filmhouse (88 Lothian Rd, Edinburgh EH3 9BZ)
• National Science and Media Museum (Pictureville, Bradford BD1 1NQ)

Find out more and book at whatson.bfi.org.uk