The program for the 60th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express launched today, with Festival Director Clare Stewart presenting this year’s diverse selection of films and events.




The BFI London Film Festival is Britain’s leading film event and one of the world’s best and most established film festivals. In its 60th year the program sees Headline Galas presented at the Odeon Leicester Square on each evening of the 12 day festival. Festival visitors will be able to enjoy a brand new cinema experience with Competition and Strand Galas presented at the new Embankment Garden Cinema, in the Victoria Embankment Gardens. With 780 cinema-style seats, Dolby 7.1 surround sound and 4k digital projection, this temporary venue brings the festival to even more people and connects screenings in the West End with the BFI’s home cinema at BFI Southbank.

This year’s festival includes an agenda-setting Symposium event that heralds the BFI’s BLACK STAR project, the UK’s biggest ever season of film and television dedicated to celebrating the range, versatility and power of black actors, coming in late October. Films within the Festival program will amplify the season, while the Symposium will ask searching questions about the continued under-representation of black actors on screen, probing why opportunities for black actors in the US and the UK remain limited and aiming to drive forward a progressive agenda by spotlighting and exploring key issues for the film industry.

Read about BFI’s BLACK STAR project on this blog here.

The Festival will screen a total of 193 fiction and 52 documentary features, including 18 World Premieres, 8 International Premieres, 39 European Premieres. There will also be screenings of 144 short films, including documentary, live action and animated works. A line-up of directors, cast and crew are expected to take part in career interviews, Screen Talks, Q&As and Industry Talks: LFF Connects during the 60th BFI London Film Festival which runs Wednesday 5 – Sunday 16 October 2016.

Taking place over 12 days, the Festival’s screenings are at venues across the capital, from the West End cinemas – Vue West End and the iconic Odeon Leicester Square; central London venues – BFI Southbank, BFI IMAX, Picturehouse Central, the ICA, Curzon Mayfair, Curzon Soho, Haymarket, Prince Charles Cinema and Ciné Lumière; and local cinemas – the Ritzy in Brixton, Hackney Picturehouse and Curzon Chelsea.



OFFICIAL COMPETITION

· Martin Koolhoven, BRIMSTONE

· Kelly Reichardt, CERTAIN WOMEN

· Mohamed Diab, CLASH

· Paul Verhoeven, ELLE

· François Ozon, FRANTZ

· Ivan Sen, GOLDSTONE (European Premiere)

· Mijke de Jong, LAYLA M. (European Premiere)

· Barry Jenkins, MOONLIGHT (European Premiere)

· Pablo Larraín, NERUDA

· Terence Davies, A QUIET PASSION

· Benedict Andrews, UNA (European Premiere)

· Makoto Shinkai, YOUR NAME

FIRST FEATURE COMPETITION

· Jorge Riquelme Serrano, CHAMELEON (International Premiere)

· Darren Thornton, A DATE FOR MAD MARY

· Houda Benyamina, DIVINES

· Johannes Nyholm, THE GIANT

· Mohamed Ben Attia, HEDI

· William Oldroyd, LADY MACBETH

· Hope Dickson Leach, THE LEVELLING (European Premiere)

· Claude Barras, MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE

· Bartosz M. Kowalski, PLAYGROUND

· Gabe Klinger, PORTO

· Julia Ducournau, RAW

· Wang Yichun, WHAT’S IN THE DARKNESS

· Daouda Coulibaly, WÙLU

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION

· Jenny Gage, ALL THIS PANIC (European Premiere)

· Eva Orner, CHASING ASYLUM (European Premiere)

· Jon Nguyen, Olivia Neergaard-Holm, DAVID LYNCH: THE ART LIFE

· Claire Simon, THE GRADUATION

· Khushboo Ranka, Vinay Shukla, AN INSIGNIFICANT MAN (European Premiere)

· Alma Har’el, LOVETRUE

· Alice Diop, ON CALL

· Ulrich Seidl, SAFARI

· Marco Del Fiol, THE SPACE IN BETWEEN – MARINA ABRAMOVIC AND BRAZIL

· Mehrdad Oskouei, STARLESS DREAMS

· Keith Maitland, TOWER

· Andreas Dalsgaard, Obaidah Zytoon, THE WAR SHOW

SHORT FILM AWARD

· Ivete Lucas, Patrick Bresnan, THE SEND OFF

· Réka Bucsi, LOVE

· João Paulo Miranda Maria, THE GIRL WHO DANCED WITH THE DEVIL

· Issa Touma, Thomas Vroe§ge, Floor van der Meulen, 9 DAYS – FROM MY WINDOW IN ALEPPO

· Patrick Tarrant, THE TREMBLING GIANT

· Anna Maguire, YOUR MOTHER AND I

· Kevin Jerome Everson, EARS, NOSE AND THROAT

· Ena Sendijarevic, IMPORT

· Amy Nicholson, PICKLE

· Ali Asgari, Farnoosh Samadi, THE SILENCE

· Jed Hart, CANDY FLOSS

· Ana Vaz, THERE IS LAND!