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Legendary Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda, Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa and the UK’s only Carol Morley will be vying for the big prize when this year’s BFI London Film Festival gets underway on October 7.
The LFF has just announced its 10 Official Competition films for the 2026 line-up, with 10 films from across the globe up for the – the festival’s answer to the Gold Lion or Palme d’Or.
On the programme are films from Ireland, the UK, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan and Poland.
Alongside Kore-eda, Loznitsa and Morley are new films from Lili Horvát, Benjamín Naishtat, Christine Molloy & Joe Lawlor, Giovanni Tortorici, Malgorzata Szumowska, May el-Toukhy & Michal Englert and Rubaiyat Hossain.
The 10 Official Competition films in full:
- 7 Miles Out 7 (UK, Dir. Carol Morley)
- Act 3 (Ireland-UK, Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor)
- Glaxo (Brazil-Argentina, Dir. Benjamín Naishtat)
- Imperium (Germany-France-Italy-Lithuania, Dir. Sergei Loznitsa)
- Ketticè (Italy, Dir. Giovanni Tortorici)
- Look Back (Japan, Dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda)
- My Notes on Mars (Hungary-Austria, Lili Horvát)
- The Difficult Bride (France-Bangladesh-Portugal-Norway-Germany, Rubaiyat Hossain)
- The Idiot(s) (UK-Poland, Dir. Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert)
- Woman Unknown (Denmark-Latvia-Sweden, Dir. May el-Toukhy)
Previous winners of the LFF’s Best Film award include Jacques Audiard for A Prophet, Ryusuke Hamaguchi for Evil Does Not Exist and, last year, Lucrecia Martel for Landmarks.
The festival opens with Elsinore, a true-life South Bank story starring Andrew Scott, on October 7, and closes with Jesse Eisenberg’s new comedy-drama, The Debut, with Julianne Moore.
The 70th BFI London Festival runs from October 7-18. Tickets go on sale to the general public from 10am on September 16 via the official festival website.
Everything you need to know about this year’s BFI London Film Festival.