THE 70TH BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES ITS FULL 2026 PROGRAMME

The 70th BFI London Film Festival (LFF) just announced its full programme line-up, presented in cinemas, online and across the UK. Over twelve days from 7 – 18 October, the LFF invites audiences to return to its fantastic flagship venues in the heart of London, BFI Southbank and the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. The LFF Gala programme will screen at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, while BFI Southbank alongside many of Central London’s iconic cinemas will host Special Presentations, Official Competition titles and films and series from all Strands of the Festival, with global film talent from behind and in front of the camera in attendance.

Every feature and series will screen to audiences in the UK for the very first time, with many shown publicly for the first time anywhere in the world. As in previous years, the feature film programme is organised by strand to encourage discovery and to open up the Festival to new audiences. These strands are: Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Create, Experimenta, Family, and Shorts. Audiences can also find new and exciting Series programming and immersive LFF Expanded works in many of the strands. This year’s programme includes 33 World Premieres (9 features, 2 series, 2 mid-length, 19 shorts, 1 immersive), 16 International Premieres (9 features, 7 shorts) and 20 European Premieres (13 features, 7 shorts).

Further to the announcement of the films screening in Official Competition for the Best Film Award, the LFF Competition sections celebrate the most innovative new films and showcase an incredible range of filmmaking talent from across the world. Films screening in the First Feature Competition: Sutherland Award are: Sompot Chidgasornpongse’s 9 TEMPLES TO HEAVEN, Ashley Walters’ ANIMOL, Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo’s BEN’IMANA, Anna Foglietta’s A COMMON STORY, Manon Coubia’s FOREST HIGH, Aung Phyoe’s FRUIT GATHERING, Olive Nwosu’s LADY, Rachel Rose’s THE LAST DAY, Bertil Nilsson’s MASC and Shalini Adnani’s OUR SHARE OF SAND.

Now in its sixth year, LFF Expanded, the Festival's programme of Immersive Art, Extended Reality and Video Gaming works, continues to invite audiences to explore powerful new ways of telling stories on screen. These works can be found within the main Strands of the Festival programme.