Category BFI London Film Festival

Busayo Ige in ESSEX GIRLS (2023)

ESSEX GIRLS is a short but impactful film about identity, race and the power of female friendships.

When you look up the term “Essex Girl” on Google, you’ll come across a stereotype: a loud, materialistic white woman, typically with blonde hair and a fake tan. It’s a stereotype we all know, but it doesn’t fit Bisola.

Growing up in Benfleet, Essex as a British-Nigerian girl hasn’t been easy for Bisola...

Léa Drucker and Samuel Kircher in LAST SUMMER (2023)

LAST SUMMER is an oddly subdued affair about the impulsive and regrettable choices people make when desire takes control.

French filmmaker Catherine Breillat returns to the screen with LAST SUMMER, an unsettling anti-romance, which is a remake of May el-Toukhy’s award-winning Danish film QUEEN OF HEARTS.

The story revolves around Anne (Léa Drucker), a successful lawyer with a wealthy husband and two adopted daughters...

Shamelessly indulging in genre cliches, Christine Ko’s twisty thriller, THE WOMAN IN THE WHITE CAR, finds new ways to turn itself on its head.

Originally conceived as a short, two-part TV drama, Christine Ko makes her feature film debut with THE WOMAN IN THE WHITE CAR, a twisty thriller that centres around three women.

The film opens with a frantic young woman arriving at Seolwon hospital by car, carrying a limp body...

Dark, funny, and deeply disturbing, SICK GIRL is a sharp and biting satire about our desire to be seen.

Following his debut feature, DRIB (2017), writer-director Kristoffer Borgli serves up a deliciously horrid treat with SICK OF MYSELF, an extremely grotesque satire about morbid attention seeking.

On the surface, Signe (Kristine Kujath Thorp) and boyfriend Thomas (Erik Saether) look like an Insta-perfect couple, but their constant and petty attempts to outshine each other point to something m...

Strange, surreal, and deeply melancholy, THE WOODCUTTER STORY is a muted social comedy driven by Finland’s famously deadpan, dark humour.

Mikko Myllylahti delivers an unpredictable Nordic oddity with his debut feature, THE WOODCUTTER STORY, a deadpan philosophical fable with famously deadpan Finnish humour.

Set in a snowbound area of Finland surrounded by mountains and forests, THE WOODCUTTER STORY follows Pepe, a middle-aged, easy-going woodcutter who lives in contentment with his wife and yo...

Taraneh Alidoosti in SUBTRACTION (2022)

Driven by strong cast performance and impressive cinematography, Mani Haghighi’s twisty human drama SUBTRACTION keeps you guessing until the final frame.

In his latest feature film, Iranian filmmaker Mani Haghighi delivers a tense Hitchcockian thriller about a married couple who meet their doppelgangers in Tehran.

While out on a lesson, young driving instructor Farzaneh (Taraneh Alidoosti) spots her husband, Jalal, walking into a woman’s apartment...

In his directorial debut, Fran Kranz’s opts for a theatrical approach with his new film MASS, a boilerplate chamber drama held together by its incredible performances.

The parents of two boys involved in a school shooting strive for closure in Fran Kranz’s riveting directorial debut, MASS.

Set six years after a fictional school shooting that took 11 lives, the victim’s parents, Jay (Jason Isaacs) and Gail (Martha Plimpton) reach out to the parents of the shooter, Linda (Ann Dowd) and Richa...

Shot in one single, continuous take, Director-Writer Philip Barantini dazzles with his new thriller BOILING POINT.

Following his award-winning short and feature debut VILLAIN (2020), actor-turned-director Philip Barantini dazzles with his new thriller BOILING POINT, which screens at this year’s BFI London Film Festival.

Taking place across an incredibly hectic evening at a top London restaurant, BOILING POINT follows Andy (Stephen Graham), an emotionally damaged and drug-addicted head chef wh...

Full of fresh humour, poignancy, and tenderness, Nana Mensah’s self-assured comedy QUEEN OF GLORY captures the experience of a woman caught between two worlds.

A young woman’s life is thrown into disarray when she inherits her mother’s Christian bookshop in Nana Mensah’s self-assured and charming comedy QUEEN OF GLORY.

The film centres on Sarah Obeng (Nana Mensah), a Columbia science PhD candidate who is preparing to relocate to Ohio with her married boyfriend, Lyle (Adam Leon).

Lyle swears he...

Playing out entirely through phone and laptop screens, LANGUAGE LESSONS is a funny and heart-warming depiction of love and friendship in a virtually connected world.

After over 18 months of Zoom calls, Skype chats and virtual meetups, you’d be given for thinking that a film shot during the COVID-19 lockdown on phones and video calls isn’t top of your wish list...