BFI London Film Festival: 10 films compete this October

The 70th BFI London Film Festival runs from Wednesday 7 October to Sunday 18 October 2026, with BFI Southbank at Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XT, again hosting the Official Competition titles. Ticket prices and screening times have not yet been published. General ticket sales open on 17 September, while BFI Members can book earlier.

The British Film Institute has confirmed 10 films for the competition, bringing together fiction, documentary, period drama, body horror and coming-of-age stories. Each title will contend for the festival’s Best Film Award, which is due to be announced on the closing day, Sunday 18 October.

Ten films enter the Official Competition

The selection moves between post-war Europe, early-2000s Palermo, provincial Argentina, Japan and Bangladesh. Established filmmakers appear alongside directors making their first visit to the festival.

• 7 Miles Out, directed by Carol Morley, adapts Morley’s semi-autobiographical novel about a teenager in 1970s and 1980s Stockport confronting grief, friendship and the emerging new-wave punk movement.
• Act 3, by Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, is a cinematic essay about ageing, memory, artistic relationships and the filmmakers’ work on a project concerning Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore.
• Glaxo, directed by Benjamín Naishtat, is a period-noir thriller in which betrayal unsettles a group of friends in Chivilcoy, Argentina.
• Imperium sees Sergei Loznitsa use footage recorded by Italian cameramen in the Soviet Union during the early 1970s to examine imperial power and the contrast with official Soviet productions.
• Ketticè, directed by Giovanni Tortorici, follows a dissatisfied 16-year-old in early-2000s Palermo. Monica Bellucci plays his frustrated mother.
• Look Back, from Hirokazu Koreeda, traces more than a decade in the friendship and creative partnership of two aspiring manga artists.
• My Notes on Mars, directed by Lili Horvát, centres on a missing scientist who returns home remembering only her research on Mars.
• The Difficult Bride, by Rubaiyat Hossain, combines feminist body horror with a story about a bride resisting beauty rituals and social restrictions in Bangladesh.
• The Idiot(s), directed by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert, stars Aimee Lou Wood and Johnny Flynn as Anna and Fyodor Dostoevsky.
• Woman Unknown, directed by May el-Toukhy, follows a young housemaid whose relationship with a German soldier during the Second World War threatens her new position in post-war society.

The Best Film Award crowns the closing day

Created in 2009, the Best Film Award recognises inventive and distinctive filmmaking. Previous recipients include Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet, while the three most recent winners were Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist in 2023, Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail in 2024 and Lucrecia Martel’s Landmarks in 2025.

Festival director Kristy Matheson described the anniversary selection as an array of filmmaking styles, noting that it includes returning festival alumni and filmmakers appearing at the event for the first time.

The festival’s competitive programme extends beyond these 10 titles. Shortlists for the Grierson Award for Best Documentary, the Sutherland Award for Best First Feature and the Short Film Award will be revealed in September. The Audience Awards also return in 2026, while juries will choose the winners in the four judged categories.

Programme reveal comes before ticket sales

The full festival programme is scheduled for publication on Wednesday 2 September. That release should provide the information audiences need to identify individual screening dates before general sales begin on 17 September.

The initial announcement does not give ticket prices, screening times, transport instructions or accessibility arrangements. Filmgoers planning a broader day out can also consult this London evening events guide for general booking, budget, access and transport checks, while festival-specific details should be taken from the programme when it is released.

BFI Members receive early booking access, followed by the general public on 17 September. The Best Film Award winner will be named at the festival’s close on Sunday 18 October.

Source: British Film Institute News