The 2025 London Film Festival will present a large selection of world premieres - from Guillermo del Toro's "Frankenstein" to Luca Guadagnino's "After the Hunt" and Yorgos Lanthimos's "Bugonia."
The festival will open with a new installment of "Knives Out," UNN writes with reference to Independent.
Details
Among the new films to be shown at this year's event are releases by directors Noah Baumbach ("Marriage Story"), Philippa Lowthorpe ("The Other Boleyn Girl"), and Hikari, whose comedy-drama "Rental Family" has already been named one of the early contenders for Best Picture at next year's 98th Academy Awards, the publication writes.
The film adaptation of Shakespeare's 2020 love novel "Hamnet" by "Nomadland" director Chloé Zhao, which New York Magazine film critic Bilge Ebiri called the "most devastating" film they had seen in years, will premiere in the UK at the festival alongside James Lucas's "Moss & Freud" starring Kate Moss, with Ellie Bamber in the lead role as the British supermodel.
As previously announced, this year's festival will open with the next installment of Rian Johnson's "Knives Out" film, titled "Wake Up Dead Man." Meanwhile, the festival will close with Julia Jackman's fantasy drama "100 Nights of Heroes," which features pop star Charli XCX in her first major film role alongside Emma Corrin, Maika Monroe, and Nicholas Galitzine.
Among the gala premieres are Philippa Lowthorpe's film "H is for Hawk" starring Claire Foy and Brendan Gleeson, and Noah Baumbach's comedy-drama "Jay Kelly" starring George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, and Riley Keough.
High-profile events will also include screenings of "Golden Palm" winner Jafar Panahi's "It Was Just an Accident" and Luca Guadagnino's new film "After the Hunt" - a psychological thriller starring Julia Roberts, Ayo Edebiri, and Andrew Garfield. Also in the program is Edward Berger's "The Ballad of a Small Player" with Colin Farrell.
Star Premieres
Among other bright premieres are Richard Linklater's biographical drama "Blue Moon" with Ethan Hawke, and Yorgos Lanthimos's "Bugonia" with Emma Stone, which has already impressed critics at the Venice Film Festival.
Alan Bennett's drama "The Choir" with Ralph Fiennes will debut alongside Sydney Sweeney's queer boxing drama "Christy." Lynn Ramsay's psychological drama "Wash, Darling" with Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson has already received a nine-minute standing ovation at Cannes.
World premieres will include Isabella Eklöf's film "The Death of Bunny Munro" based on Nick Cave's novel starring Matt Smith, Bradley Benton's debut "More Life," and Rowan Athale's British boxing drama "Giant" with Amir El-Masry and Pierce Brosnan.
Also to be shown are Kalif Chong's "High Wire," Yemi Bamiro's documentary "Black Is Beautiful: The Story of Kwame Brathwaite," and Ahmed Alauddin Jamal's "Hotel London."
Loud Returns
Guillermo del Toro will return to the festival with his interpretation of Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein," and Oliver Hermanus will present the British premiere of "The History of Sound" with Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal. Mescal will also star in Chloé Zhao's "Hamnet" alongside Jessie Buckley.
The program also includes Bradley Cooper's new film "Is That So?", Park Chan-wook's thriller "No Other Choice," and Kelly Reichardt's drama "Masterful Mind" with Josh O'Connor.
Among the anticipated premieres are the biographical film about Bruce Springsteen "Deliver Me from Nowhere" with Jeremy Allen White, Derek Cianfrance's crime drama "Roofman" with Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst, and the drama "The Value of Sentiment" with Elle Fanning and Stellan Skarsgård.
Separate from the main program
Separate sections of the festival will present Siobhan McCarthy's comedy "She Is He," Majid Al Ansari's horror "The Ugly," Wincho Nchogu's film "One Woman, One Bra," and Jessie Brown and Mikayla Joy Brown's work "In Search of Optel."
In the special presentations category, a documentary about Marianne Faithfull with George MacKay and Tilda Swinton will be shown. In total, over 12 days, the LFF will present 247 works from 79 countries, including over a hundred projects by women and non-binary directors.
We look forward to welcoming you this year to experience the incredible state of the medium in 2025 – full of formal innovation, provocation, and important roadmaps for navigating the world around us
Audiences are at the heart of the LFF, and the festival offers them an incredible diversity of stories from some of the most talented and creative filmmakers from the UK and around the world
For reference
The 69th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express will take place from October 8 to 19, 2025. Tickets go on sale on September 16.