The 58th BFI London Film Festival, running from October 8 through 19, has posted its full program, meaning you can now click around in there and weave your way through descriptions of, gaze at images from, or even buy tickets for 245 features and 148 shorts. Here, we’ll take a bare-bones look at some of the highlights, specifically, the galas and competitions.
Besides the opening and closing nights, it seems that every sponsor gets a gala evening:
- Opening Night: Morten Tyldum’s The Imitation Game.
- Closing Night: David Ayer’s Fury.
- Centerpiece: James Kent’s Testament of Youth.
- Festival Gala: Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner.
- American Express: Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher.
- Accenture: Damien Chazelle‘s Whiplash.
- Virgin Atlantic: Jason Reitman’s Men, Women & Children.
- May Fair Hotel: Jean-Marc Vallée’s Wild.
- Archive Gala: World Premiere of the BFI National Archive restoration of Walter Summers’s The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands (1927).
Each of the nine program strands is headlined with a gala:
- Love: Alan Rickman’s A Little Chaos.
- Debate: Jon Stewart’s Rosewater.
- Dare: Xavier Dolan’s Mommy.
- Laugh: Damián Szifron’s Wild Tales.
- Thrill: Kristian Levring’s The Salvation.
- Cult: Jacob Cheung’s The White Haired Witch of Lunar Kingdom.
- Journey: Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Winter Sleep.
- Family: Tomm Moore’s Song of the Sea.
- Sonic: Peter Strickland and Nick Fenton’s Björk: Biophilia Live.
The Official Competition:
- Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night.
- Julius Avery’s Son of a Gun.
- Daniel Barber’s The Keeping Room.
- Peter Ho-Sun Chan’s Dearest.
- Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s The President.
- Carol Morley’s The Falling.
- François Ozon’s The New Girlfriend.
- Christian Petzold‘s Phoenix.
- Céline Sciamma’s Girlhood.
- Abderrahmane Sissako’s Timbuktu.
- Peter Strickland’s The Duke of Burgundy.
- Andrey Zvyagintsev‘s Leviathan.
First Feature Competition:
- Ester Martin Bergsmark’s Something Must Break.
- Josephine Decker’s Butter on the Latch.
- Yann Demange’s ’71.
- Debbie Tucker Green’s Second Coming.
- Franco Lolli’s Gente de Bien.
- Zeresenay Berhane Mehari’s Difret.
- Sudabeh Mortezai’s Macondo.
- Guy Myhill’s The Goob.
- Naji Abu Nowar’s Theeb.
- Adityavikram Sengupta’s Labour of Love.
- Myroslav Slaboshpytskiy’s The Tribe.
- Daniel Wolfe and Matthew Wolfe’s Catch Me Daddy.
Documentary Competition:
- Sabine Lubbe Bakker and Niels van Koevorden’s Ne me quitte pas.
- Jean-François Caissy’s Guidelines.
- Debra Granik’s Stray Dog.
- Edward Lovelace and James Hall’s The Possibilities Are Endless.
- Sergei Loznitsa‘s Maidan.
- Ossama Mohammed and Wiam Simav Bedirxan’s Silvered Water, Syria Self-portrait.
- Nadav Schirman’s The Green Prince.
- Ulrich Seidl‘s In the Basement.
- Jason Sussberg and David Alvarado’s The Immortalists.
- Lynette Wallworth’s Tender.
- Frederick Wiseman’s National Gallery.
- Randall Wright’s Hockney.
Best British Newcomer:
- Sameena Jabeen Ahmed, Actor, Catch Me Daddy.
- Taron Egerton, Actor, Testament of Youth.
- Rebecca Johnson, Writer/Director, Honeytrap.
- Alex Lawther, Supporting Actor, The Imitation Game.
- Guy Myhill, Writer/Director, The Goob.
- Florence Pugh, Supporting Actor, The Falling.
- Daniel Wolfe and Matthew Wolfe, Writers/Directors, Catch Me Daddy.
There’ll also be of guests and master classes, including one led by Frederick Wiseman.For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow @KeyframeDaily. Get Keyframe Daily in your inbox by signing in at fandor.com/daily.
