The 2024 BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its lineup for the films screening in Official Competition and competing for the coveted Best Film Award.
This year, selections include new features from “20,000 Days On Earth” filmmakers Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, Mipo O, and Rungano Nyoni. Actors Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott are among the casts in the curated program of 11 films.
The festival takes place from October 9 through October 20, with the winner being chosen by the LFF Awards Jury and announced on October 20. The Best Film Award was established in 2009 and first won by Jacques Audiard for “A Prophet.” Recent winners include Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Evil Does Not Exist” in 2023 and Marie Kreutzer’s “Corsage” in 2022.
The program includes “inspiring, inventive and distinctive international filmmaking,” with 13 countries represented across the selection, per the press release.
Highlights include “Bring Them Down,” directed by Christopher Andrews and starring Barry Keoghan and Christopher Abbott as two feuding farming families in rural Ireland; Forsyth and Pollard’s documentary “The Extraordinary Miss Flower” about a woman whose international love affairs inspired Icelandic songstress Emilíana Torrini’s album; and “Four Mothers” about a queer, up-and-coming novelist who is tasked with taking care of an elderly woman. “Four Mothers” is directed by Darren Thornton, who adapts Gianni Di Gregorio’s 2008 LFF winner “Mid-August Lunch.”
Rungano Nyoni’s latest “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” will also screen after its Cannes debut.
“We have a stellar lineup for audiences and our jury’s consideration,” Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director, said. “We’re immensely proud to have many UK and Irish works alongside films from across the globe. Boasting an enormous breadth in terms of cinematic styles, there’s a world of cinema to be enjoyed in our 2024 Official Competition.”
BFI Southbank will once again be home to the Official Competition titles this year. The films shortlisted for the Festival’s other competitive categories such as the Grierson Award for Best Documentary, the Sutherland Award for Best First Feature and the Short Film Award, will be revealed September 4.
Winners in all four categories will be chosen by LFF Awards Juries, the members of which will be announced in the coming weeks. The Audience Awards will also return for 2024.
Check out the lineup for the Official Competition below.
“April” (France-Georgia-Italy, dir-scr. Dea Kulumbegashvili)
“Bring Them Down” (Ireland-UK-Belgium, dir-scr. Christopher Andrews)
“The Extraordinary Miss Flower” (UK, dir. Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard)
“Four Mothers” (Ireland-UK, dir. Darren Thornton)
“Living in Two Worlds” (Japan, dir. Mipo O)
“Memoir of a Snail” (Australia, dir-scr. Adam Elliot)
“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl” (Zambia-UK-Ireland, dir-scr. Rungano Nyoni)
“Thank You for Banking with Us” (State of Palestine-Germany, dir-scr. Laila Abbas)
“The Wolves Come at Night” (Australia-Mongolia-Germany, dir. Gabrielle Brady)
“Under the Volanco” (Poland, dir. Damian Kocur)
“Vermiglio” (Italy-France-Belgium, dir-scr. Maura Delpero)
