Film · London
Kore-eda, Loznitsa, Morley: The LFF Names Its Ten Competition Films
The 70th BFI London Film Festival has announced its Official Competition — ten films from ten countries, all screening at BFI Southbank, 7–18 October.
The 70th BFI London Film Festival has shown its hand. On 17 August the festival announced the ten films in Official Competition — the slate that contends for the Best Film Award, decided by jury and revealed on the closing Sunday, 18 October. All ten screen at BFI Southbank, which the festival calls home for the competition this year.
The list is deliberately international: ten films from ten countries. Hirokazu Kore-eda brings 'Look Back'; Sergei Loznitsa brings 'Imperium'; Małgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert bring 'The Idiot(s)'. The British entry is Carol Morley's '7 Miles Out', and the Irish pair Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor bring 'Act 3'. Lili Horvát, Benjamín Naishtat, Giovanni Tortorici, May el-Toukhy and Rubaiyat Hossain complete the ten.
- Festival dates: 7–18 October, the festival's 70th edition.
- Full programme revealed Wednesday 2 September.
- Tickets on general sale from 17 September; BFI Members book earlier.
Ten films, ten countries, one South Bank cinema. The competition is the festival's spine — the rest of the programme lands on 2 September.
The competition announcement is the starting gun, not the whole race: the opening gala — Elsinore, with Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman — was named earlier in August, and the hundreds of titles that fill twelve days across the city arrive with the full programme next week. If a film on this list matters to you, the date that matters is 17 September, when the general public gets at the tickets.