Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

A Tokyo subway commuter gets lost in an endless passage, in this inventive and claustrophobic adaptation of the popular 2023 adventure game.

Directed by Genki Kawamura, who produced Your Name and The Colours Within, this tense psychological horror finds its protagonist having to reach Exit 8 without overlooking any of the anomalies that appear along the seemingly endless corridors. A tense purgatory nightmare, it is both an immersive and entertaining exploration of personal choice and the impact of environments – and people – upon us.

Japanese Language with English Subtitles

Content Warning: Contains flashing images.

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Alberto Vázquez follows up Birdboy: The Forgotten Children and Unicorn Wars with this surreal animated tale about confronting authority and status quo.

Arnold, a middle-aged mouse who challenges everything, from the ruling corporation that governs his society to the giant owl citizens live in fear of, is feeling overwhelmed. While his wife chats with the Depression Fairy, Arnold takes drastic action to prove there is truth to his paranoia. This darkly comic dystopian tale about nonconformity and questioning those in power is an animated delight.

Spanish Language with English Subtitles

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Two friends reunite over a weekend in Melbourne in this freewheeling and hilarious portrait of friendship, which navigates the ups and downs of early-twenties life.

Jessie plays tour guide to Em, who is visiting from Sydney. They try to reconnect, despite the years they have spent apart, and as they struggle to distract themselves from their many problems and the uncertainty of their futures. Sophie Somerville’s mumblecore debut is a delightful, painfully honest portrayal of the struggles of maintaining friendships and the messiness of everyday life.

English, French Language with English Subtitles

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Straddling the line between fiction and documentary, Charlie Ahearn’s film captures the exuberant spirit of hip hop in New York at the very moment it emerged.

Originating from an idea by Fab Five Freddy (who also appears) and shot entirely on location, Wild Style is celebrated as one of the first hip hop movies – a nascent cultural movement that embraced music, art, dance and fashion. Featuring Lower East Side music icons alongside DJs including Grandmaster Flash, it’s a bracing account of the genesis of what would become a global phenomenon.

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Alex Russell’s directorial debut is an unsettling thriller about a fan who worms his way into his favourite musician’s life.

When rising pop star Oliver encounters retail worker Matthew, it’s the start of a perfect bromance. But as Matthew ingratiates himself into Oliver’s inner circle, the lines between friendship and obsession begin to blur, with dire consequences. This unsettling and timely portrait of parasocial celebrity obsession by Russell, a writer on The Bear and Beef, elicits impressive performances from rising stars Archie Madekwe and Théodore Pellerin.

Content Warning: Contains flashing images

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

In this mysterious psychological gothic horror, a woman awakens from a coma and questions the events that led her there.

Diana is accompanied by her devoted husband to an experimental trauma facility deep in the wilderness.  Fragmented memories surface and she becomes increasingly unsure of her husband’s true motives. Directors Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli pay inventive and nerve-jangling homage to 1970s horror classics with their own, distinctively bold vision.

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

This Sundance award-winning film is a charming and uplifting coming-of-age tale about a young boy who finds escape in dance music.

Ahmed lives in a small village in North Macedonia, where he struggles to navigate the pressure of traditional values and his father’s expectations since his mother’s passing. Although his passion for music bring him closer to his love interest, they have already been promised to someone else. Featuring a talented young cast, Georgi M Unkovski’s debut delivers a heartwarming and frequently hilarious portrait of youth and artistic liberation.

Turkish, Macedonian Language with English Subtitles

Content Warning: Contains flashing images

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough excel in Jan Komasa’s dark, gripping and twisted thriller, where breaking the rules results in severe consequences.

Nineteen-year-old Tommy lives an unruly life of criminality until he is kidnapped by a stranger. He soon finds himself trapped in a dysfunctional family dynamic, where he is forced to change his behaviour to become a ‘good boy’. Naqqash Khalid’s (In Camera) unsettling screenplay intentionally clouds characters’ motives, accentuating the unbearable suspense as events unfold.

Content Warning: Contains flashing images.

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Yasuhiro Aoki’s anarchic anime fairytale, the new film from Japan’s STUDIO4°C, depicts a wayward mermaid with love on her mind.

In a future Shanghai, where humans and merpeople co-exist, mermaid princess ChaO proposes to Stephan, a human ship worker who finds himself caught up in a whirlwind of romance, misunderstanding and chaos. With some beautifully drawn and weirdly psychedelic character design, and an enjoyably surreal story that teases out important underlying themes, ChaO is a true original.

Japanese Language with English Subtitles

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

This gripping Italian chiller details a grief-stricken teacher’s discovery of dark secrets in a remote village community.

Sergio, a bereaved teacher, enters a village whose uncommonly happy nature appears to be linked the mysterious powers of a young teenager. A strong sense of place underpins the strangeness of this clever, increasingly tense tale, whose secrets are only gradually revealed. With its thick atmosphere of dread, it recalls both The Wicker Man and Village of the Damned.

Italian Language with English Subtitles

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Set in Macau, this hypnotic blend of ghost story and psychological thriller is a visually alluring and emotionally charged odyssey from the director of Conclave.

Edward Berger’s intoxicating adaptation of Lawrence Osborne’s thrilling 2014 gambling caper features mesmerising turns by Colin Farrell and Tilda Swinton. It chronicles the unpredictable journey of con man Lord Doyle, who becomes lost in the labyrinthine allure of a city. Berger deftly probes the metaphysical undercurrents of chance and the fragile architecture of the human psyche, threading both through the high-stakes world of baccarat.

English, Cantonese with English Subtitles

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Ghosts of the past return to haunt two brothers in Bretten Hannam’s tense supernatural thriller.

Mise’l and Ante have drifted apart in adulthood, but are forced to reunite when a supernatural presence they thought was long-buried threatens them and their loved ones. As they set off on a journey through an ancient forest rich with Mi’kmaq history, the past, present and future collide. Hannam’s (Wildhood) film is a fresh and bold ghost story.

English, Mi’kmaw, French with English Subtitles

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

This wacky, funny and fresh road movie chronicles the misadventures of a young woman on the run with a seven-year-old girl.

Holly is a misfit who, somewhat lost in life, seems to find new meaning when she picks up a not-so-lost little girl. They embark on an illicit journey, with the authorities on their tail. Replete with magical moments and comic mishaps, this witty Italian satire, with overtones of Aki Kaurismäki, also features a delicious cameo from Chris Pine.

Italian Language with English Subtitles

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

For her debut feature, Annapurna Sriram delivers a gleeful slice of queer bubblegum grindhouse on gorgeous 16mm. Be ready to get down and dirty.

AP is freaking out. Psychics have predicted she has been cursed, and the only way out is to deliver one thousand dollars and slaughter a lamb. As she rides the streets of Trashtown, encountering violence, sex and love, the spirit of John Waters never feels far away. But here, we’re treated to a staunchly female gaze. Camp, trashy, distasteful and thoroughly enjoyable, this is a cult classic in the making.

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Alexandre O. Philippe’s latest film essay is a conversation with cinema icon and mental health activist Kim Novak about Hollywood, ghosts and finding herself as an artist.

It’s in her painting studio that Novak, 92, welcomes Philippe (78/52, Lynch/Oz) for an intimate conversation. Generously illustrated with film clips, Hitchcock’s Vertigo unsurprisingly takes centre-stage, but it is also a film whose troubling themes cast a powerful shadow over her career. Novak is an excellent conversationalist and the film is a welcome portrait of one of Hollywood’s most enigmatic stars.

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani return with a high-concept, pulpy and thrillingly kaleidoscopic ride that pays tribute to classic European spy capers of yesteryear.

John, a former spy who lives in a luxury seaside hotel, is entranced by his neighbour, who reminds him of Serpentik, a nemesis from his glory days. After the woman disappears, he becomes engulfed in a swirl of gory flashbacks as he tries to piece together his past. Singularly creative, full of vintage glamour and European charm, it’s the kind of film one would expect from the directors of Amer.

French, Italian, English Language with English Subtitles

Content Warning: Contains flashing images.

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Framed within the hyper-performative world of Instagram livestreaming, this is an impressive fresh and beautifully observed debut from actor-director Bradley Banton.

In his superlative hangout film, about a group of old friends who reunite to celebrate one of their own opening a gallery show in Copenhagen, Banton manages to make the formal format of the film feel fresh, and expertly handles subtle shifts in tone and dynamic. It’s a deftly performed drama, particularly by Tuwaine Barrett, who was last seen in Hard Truths.

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Two seemingly unconnected stories come together in Ion de Sosa’s creepy tale of a summer celebration that doesn’t quite bring the euphoria some anticipated.

Four teenagers exploring a luxury new home are trapped in a pool by three aggressive Dobermanns. A summer party thrown by Juan and his two daughters at a patriarch’s impressive residence brings friends and neighbours together. But everything isn’t as congenial as surface pleasantries might suggest, and Juan may not be as infirm and distracted as his daughters believe.

Spanish Language with English Subtitles

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Kleber Mendonça Filho navigates Brazil’s painful past to paint a loving portrayal of a place and its people in this slow-burning and ridiculously entertaining political thriller.

It’s carnival week in 1977 and Marcelo, a widower on the run, arrives in Recife hoping to reunite with his son. He finds refuge in a resistance commune run by an impossibly charismatic 70-year-old woman, but soon chaos catches up with him. Unafraid of playful genre-bending detours and expertly directed by Filho (Bacurau, Aquarius), this sweaty, sun-drenched and masterfully acted ride is always grounded in love – for Brazil and for cinema.

Portuguese Language with English Subtitles

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Emirati director Majid Al Ansari’s chilling horror sees a woman pushed out of her own life.

Amani, a dedicated housewife and mother, dotes on her husband Khalid and daughter Noor. Everything seems perfect until Khalid brings home a second wife. At first, Zahra seems sweet, but her mask soon falls away to reveal a darker side. Evil forces begin to inhabit the house and Amani finds it increasingly difficult to distinguish the real from the imagined.

Arabic Language with English Subtitles

Content Warning: Contains flashing images.

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

In Ted Evans’ gripping thriller, the arrival of an outsider at an isolated Deaf community forces one of its members to question this seemingly idyllic utopia.

After leaving the hearing world for ‘the village’, Eva feels she can truly be herself in a place where sign language is the only form of communication. However, it is not long before cracks start to show in this seemingly perfect world. Evans’ bold debut, which features an all-Deaf principal cast, articulately questions notions of identity and the longing for community.

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Siobhan McCarthy’s laugh-out-loud film is a much-needed subversion of gender-swap comedies featuring a cast of largely trans, non-binary and queer actors.

It’s the final week of school and besties Alex and Ethan have come up with a plan to convince people that they’re not gay – pretending to come out as trans. As they commit to this hare-brained scheme, Ethan starts to realise that it might not be pretend after all. She’s the He is a proud middle finger to an age of transphobic panic.

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Prolific Romanian provocateur Radu Jude returns with a sharp social satire on our materialistic society, blending dark comedy, drama and giant, plastic dinosaurs.

In Cluj, Transylvania, bailiff Orsolya (a terrific Eszter Tompa) has been appointed to evict a homeless man from a cellar. When he commits suicide, guilt-ridden Orsolya tries to find comfort and redemption around her. Shot on an iPhone in just 10 days, Kontinental ’25 features some of the wittiest, irreverent and thought-provoking dialogue you’ll hear this year.

Romanian, Hungarian, German, English Language with English Subtitles

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

From heart-racing horror that will make you wince, to eerie stories that get under your skin, these short films are sure to leave you unsettled.

FILMS IN THE PROGRAMME:

Chimera
Director- Eamonn Hearns
UK - 2025 - 16min

Flock
Director- Mac Nixon
UK - 2025 - 20min

Speak with the Dead
Director - Stephanie Paris
USA - 2025 - 12min

Nostalgie
Director - Kathryn Ferguson
UK - 2025 - 19min

Shiny Precious Things
Director - Villő Krisztics
UK - 2024 - 14min

God is Shy
Director - Jocelyn Charles
France - 2025 - 15min

Grandma is Thirsty
Director - Kris Carr
UK - 2025 - 14min

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Sydney Sweeney delivers an astounding and transformative performance as queer boxing legend Christy Martin, in this true story of resilience and hope.

Setting the boxing world alight as a teen, Martin found fame, fortune and iconic status as the most successful female boxer of the 1990s. But outside the ring, she was fighting for her life. A brilliant script and David Michôd’s skill for crafting impressive set pieces is matched by Sweeney’s bravado performance, thrillingly bringing the life of this incredible trailblazer to the big screen.

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Steve Coogan stars in this fleet-footed recreation of the 2002 pre-World Cup showdown between Republic of Ireland coach Mick McCarthy and volatile captain Roy Keane.

Lacklustre preparations for the Republic of Ireland’s 2002 World Cup campaign, plus the presence of stolid English-born coach McCarthy, send captain Keane ballistic, leading to what might be football’s most infamous clash and subsequent media frenzy. Another uncanny Coogan real-life portrayal, and Éanna Hardwicke nailing Keane’s self-righteous fury, anchor this fast-paced, funny and perfectly balanced head-to-head, which dares you to pick a side.

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

The classic hangout film gets a charming, witty and politically sharp make-over with this inventive animation that explores the complex and enduring bond of family.

Half-brothers Seth and Peter Scriver love to chat, giggle and reminisce. One Indigenous, one white, their shared and divergent heritages offer a fascinating view of the world. Jam-packed with joyful and surprising moments, with animation that recalls a freewheeling 1990s slacker aesthetic, this documentary skilfully navigates the gross inequity of post-colonial societies with the precision of a sniper and the heart of a poet.

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Tensions escalate between two opposing soldiers manning a remote desert outpost, in award-winning director Oscar Hudson’s blackly comic and surreal feature debut.

The paradoxical absurdity of warfare is manifest from the opening scene of this sharp, stylish allegory. Duelling military ceremonies on a featureless border inexorably descend into mounting hysteria and see psychological breakdowns of a pair of rival soldiers. Hudson’s formally inventive storytelling is a timely – and timeless – interrogation of why we fight.

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

Richard Linklater and Ethan Hawke reunite for this witty and heartfelt portrait of a man down on his luck but who refuses to bow out.

On the opening night of Oklahoma!, renowned lyricist Lorenz Hart storms out of the performance to regale his trusty barkeep with his acidic charm. Hart knows he must face former creative partner Richard Rogers and his new collaborator Oscar Hammerstein II, but first a moment for dreams and romance. Revelling in its deceptive simplicity, Blue Moon is awash with hilarity and heartbreak, delivered to perfection by Linklater and his impressive ensemble cast.

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am:: Click Here To Book

Jim Jarmusch’s rewarding multi-narrative chronicle of familial estrangement finds emotionally distant parents and their siblings reuniting in an attempt to reconnect.

A return to the interlinked stories and international panorama format of Night on Earth, Jarmusch’s drama features a series of stories that concern familial relationships marked by emotional detachment. An engaging character study whose connecting motifs subtly reveal themselves, it’s beautifully shot by Frederick Elmes and Yorick le Saux, and features a fine cast, including the director’s lucky charm, Tom Waits.

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

One man’s desperation to secure a new job finds him exploring unique ways to eliminate his competitors, in Park Chan-wook’s compelling and madcap thriller.

When paper expert Yoo Man-soo is abruptly laid off, he loses the perfect life he’s worked hard for. So, when a new job comes along, he realises a perfect plan – by getting rid of his competition via any available means. Director Park’s delightfully wicked film features his signature twists, dark humour and exquisite imagery – everything that has made him such a unique cinematic presence.

Korean Language with English Subtitles

Content Warning: Contains flashing images

Tickets Are Only Available via BFI London Film Festival Website from Tuesday 16 September 2025 10:00am: Click Here To Book

A shy young man finds his place in the world as the submissive to a handsome biker, in Harry Lighton’s charming, sexy and tender debut.

Colin is a quiet, unassuming man with supportive parents whose world is rocked when he enters a dom-sub relationship with towering, attractive biker Ray. Navigating his new role, he learns about its pleasures and pains, including those that come with love, and in the process understanding his own boundaries. Sensitively directed, with captivating performances, this is a moving and surprisingly funny film that you will gladly submit to.