BFI London Film Festival: 10 Films at Southbank in October
The 70th BFI London Film Festival will run from Wednesday 7 October to Sunday 18 October 2026, with its ten Official Competition films screening at BFI Southbank, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XT. The programme brings together filmmakers from ten countries and is aimed at film enthusiasts and general audiences interested in international cinema.
Tickets go on general sale on 17 September, while BFI Members can book earlier. Ticket prices have not yet been stated, and the announcement does not include individual screening times, detailed transport guidance or accessibility arrangements.
Ten films will compete for the Best Film Award
The Official Competition moves between personal histories, political tensions, creative partnerships and coming-of-age stories. Its ten nominated films are:
- 7 Miles Out — Carol Morley’s semi-autobiographical story follows a teenager in Stockport confronting grief and finding an escape through friendship, creativity and the emerging new-wave punk movement.
- Act 3 — Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor examine ageing, memory and artistic partnership through a cinematic essay connecting their lives with artists Claude Cahun and Marcel Moore.
- Glaxo — Benjamín Naishtat’s period-noir thriller traces the consequences of betrayal among friends in the Argentine city of Chivilcoy.
- Imperium — Sergei Loznitsa uses footage recorded by Italian cameramen in the Soviet Union during the early 1970s to examine imperial power and history.
- Ketticè — Giovanni Tortorici follows a dissatisfied 16-year-old in early-2000s Palermo. Monica Bellucci plays his frustrated mother.
- Look Back — Hirokazu Koreeda’s story spans more than a decade as two girls pursue their shared ambition of becoming manga artists.
- My Notes on Mars — Lili Horvát centres a suspenseful domestic drama on a missing scientist who returns home remembering only her research on Mars.
- The Difficult Bride — Rubaiyat Hossain combines feminist body horror with a story about the beauty rituals and social pressures surrounding a wedding in Bangladesh.
- The Idiot(s) — Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert cast Aimee Lou Wood and Johnny Flynn as Anna and Fyodor Dostoevsky in a period film about love, creativity, gambling and financial insecurity.
- Woman Unknown — May el-Toukhy’s post-war drama follows a young housemaid whose relationship with a German soldier during the Second World War threatens her new position.
A competition spanning fiction, documentary and archival film
The selection includes work from the UK, Ireland, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan and Poland. Its settings stretch from post-war Europe and early-2000s Palermo to Bangladesh, Argentina and Japan, while its forms range from fiction and body horror to cinematic essay and archival documentary.
Several directors are returning festival alumni, while others are appearing at the BFI London Film Festival for the first time. Festival director Kristy Matheson said the selection brings together a wide array of filmmaking styles and that the team is looking forward to sharing the works with audiences in October.
The Best Film Award was established in 2009 to recognise inventive and distinctive filmmaking. Previous recipients include Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet, 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.
Key dates for planning a festival visit
The full festival programme will be revealed on Wednesday 2 September, giving visitors the individual screening information needed to plan their visit. General ticket sales begin on 17 September, with earlier booking available to BFI Members.
Further shortlists are due in September for the Grierson Award for Best Documentary, the Sutherland Award for Best First Feature and the Short Film Award. The Audience Awards will also return in 2026. Official Competition juries will select the four jury-award winners, and the Best Film Award will be announced on Sunday 18 October, the festival’s final day.
Source: British Film Institute News
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Event dates, venue, competition titles and ticket-sale information were checked against the British Film Institute announcement.
- Confirmed the festival runs from 7 to 18 October 2026.
- Confirmed BFI Southbank as the Official Competition venue.
- Matched all ten competition titles with their listed directors.
- Confirmed the full programme and general ticket-sale dates.
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- 2026-08-17 13:44
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