The BFI London Film Festival has announced the ten films competing in its Official Competition this year, a showcase of daring and distinctive cinema that reflects the breadth of global filmmaking in 2025. The winner of the festival’s prestigious Best Film Award will be revealed on 19 October , during the closing night celebrations.
Now in its 69th edition, the festival runs from 8 to 19 October in partnership with American Express, once again turning London into an international stage for filmmakers and audiences. This year’s Official Competition selection draws works from 12 countries, ranging from satirical comedies and political documentaries to formally inventive hybrids of fiction and non-fiction.
Festival director Kristy Matheson praised the boldness of the lineup, noting that the ten films “offer a bold and innovative approach to the medium.” She added: “We are delighted to welcome filmmakers into the competition who’ve previously screened with the LFF alongside those making their first appearance at the festival. Featuring fiction, documentary and hybrid works drawn from global and UK talents, our 2025 Official Competition is sure to excite.”
The Best Film Award, first introduced in 2009, has recognisedsome of the most compelling international cinema of recent years. Early winners included Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet, while more recent honorees have included Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist in 2023 and Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail in 2024. The award will once again be decided by the LFF Awards Jury, with jury members to be announced in the coming weeks.
Among this year’s contenders is Jonatan Etzler’s Bad Apples, a UK production starring Saoirse Ronan as a teacher whose attempts to inspire her students descend into darkly comic territory when she is forced to confront one particularly disruptive pupil. Yemi Bamiro’s Black is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story, a UK-US documentary, revisits the life and legacy of the Harlem photographer and activist who helped shape the “Black is Beautiful” movement, featuring commentary from family, friends and artists including Gabrielle Union and Alicia Keys.
Tajik director Shahram Mokri brings Black Rabbit, White Rabbit, an enigmatic drama interweaving stories of a suspicious firearm, a mysterious audition and a conspiratorial road incident, all delivered with surreal humor and bravura cinematography. Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh Quý’s Hair, Paper, Water…, a Belgian-French-Vietnamese co-production, takes a poetic non-fiction approach in chronicling the life of an elderly healer while celebrating Rục, her endangered native language.
The United States is represented by Nia DaCosta’s Hedda, an inventive reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler set in mid-century England, with Tessa Thompson in the title role. Lucrecia Martel, one of Argentina’s most acclaimed filmmakers, presents Landmarks, a documentary investigating the 2009 death of indigenous activist Javier Chocobar and the political reverberations that followed.
British cinema features strongly in this year’s competition. Mark Jenkin’s Rose of Nevada imagines the sudden reappearance of a long-lost Cornish fishing vessel, plunging its crew into a haunted odyssey through time. Mona Fastvold directs The Testament of Ann Lee, a sweeping historical epic starring Amanda Seyfried as the revolutionary preacher who founded the Shaker movement.
From North Africa, Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab combines documentary and drama to revisit the tragic 2024 death of a young girl in Gaza, using real audio recordings from emergency phone calls. South Korean filmmaker Yoon Ga-eun contributes The World of Love, an intimate drama following a high school student navigating friendship, first love and the lingering impact of childhood trauma.
All Official Competition screenings will take place at BFI Southbank, the festival’s main hub. Alongside this showcase, further competitive categories, including the Grierson Award for Best Documentary, the Sutherland Award for Best First Feature and the Short Film Award, will be announced on 3 September. The festival’s Audience Awards also return after last year’s wins for Darren Thornton’s Four Mothers and Sophie Compton and Daisy-May Hudson’s Holloway.
The full festival programme will be unveiled on 3 September , with public tickets on sale from 16 September , and early booking available for BFI Members. For filmmakers and audiences alike, the 69th BFI London Film Festival promises to be a vibrant celebration of cinema’s power to challenge, inspire and connect. And for the ten contenders in this year’s Official Competition, it is also an opportunity to stand alongside some of the most celebrated names in contemporary film.
Images courtesy of British Film Institute
