The 69th London Film Festival has revealed a robust program set for October, featuring a mix of high-profile comebacks, debut works, and politically charged films from around the globe.
Headlining the event is the return of Daniel Day-Lewis to the screen in Anemone, a project directed by his son, Ronan Day-Lewis. The film, set in the late 1980s, features the celebrated actor alongside Sean Bean and Samantha Morton. Festival director Kristy Matheson described the project as a “bold” debut that takes “big swings stylistically.”
The festival opens with the latest installment of the Knives Out series, featuring Daniel Craig, and includes prominent European and UK premieres. Among them are Chloé Zhao’s adaptation Hamnet, starring Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal; Noah Baumbach’s meta-comedy Jay Kelly with George Clooney; and Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia, which reunites him with Emma Stone. Bradley Cooper’s new directorial effort, the stand-up comedy drama Is This Thing On?, is also featured.
This year’s selection comprises 247 films from 79 countries, with 42% directed by women or non-binary filmmakers—a slight dip from the previous year. However, parity was achieved in both the official competition and the debut filmmakers’ category. Notable directorial debuts include Kristen Stewart’s The Chronology of Water, starring Imogen Poots.
A significant focus of this year’s program is on urgent political storytelling. Highlights include Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or winner It Was Just an Accident, which explores corruption in Iran, and Kleber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, set during Brazil’s military dictatorship. Also featured are Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab and Óliver Laxe’s Moroccan thriller Sirāt.
Matheson pointed to a trend of filmmakers “stretching the language of cinema,” playing with time and narrative form. She highlighted Lucrecia Martel’s documentary Landmarks as a powerful examination of colonialism’s legacy, noting that while some films appear timely, many have been years in the making.
The festival also marks the return of several acclaimed directors, including Lynne Ramsay and Kelly Reichardt, whose presence Matheson hailed as a bright spot in an industry still striving for gender balance behind the camera.
Additional world premieres include a drama about the friendship between Kate Moss and Lucian Freud, and the boxing film Giant, starring Amir El-Masry and Pierce Brosnan.
The London Film Festival will run from October 8 to 19, with screenings available both in-person across the capital and online throughout the UK.
