The official line-up for the 2017 BFI London Film Festival has been revealed. The programme was announced at the Odeon Leicester Square in London this morning. Alexander Payne’s Downsizing has been named as one of the headline galas at the festival following a bow at Venice and Toronto.
Also amongst the line-up are Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, with Annette Bening and Jamie Bell; Saul Dibb’s Journey’s End, Yorgis Lanthimos’ Cannes-fave The Killing of a Sacred Deer and also Last Flag Flying from Richard Linklater.
Guillermo del Toro will debut The Shape of Water, starring Sally Hawkins, for British audiences, and Lynne Ramsay’s Cannes-winning You Were Never Really Here also makes a show.
Also showing will be David Fincher’s Netflix series Mindhunter to the event, Takashi Miike’s Blade of the Immortal, Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories, Dominic Cooke’s On Chesil Beach, Michel Hazanavicius’ Redoubtable and Todd Haynes Wonderstruck. Luca Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name will also play, as will Clio Barnard’s Dark River, Michael Haneke’s Happy End, Sally Potter’s The Party, Lucrecia Martel’s Zama, Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman, Greg Barker’s The Final Year and Shirin Neshat’s Looking for Oum Kulthum.
This year, the Festival will host 28 World Premieres, 9 International Premieres and 34 European Premieres and will welcome a stellar line up of cast and crew for many of the screenings.
Films in Official Competition and Strand Galas are once again presented at the 820-seat Embankment Garden Cinema following a successful inaugural year in 2016. Alongside the Galas, Special Presentations and films in Competitions,the Festival will show a thrilling range of new cinema in sections Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Experimenta and Family – which provide pathways for you to navigate the programme.
The competition films are as follows.
120 Beats Per Minute, Robin Campillo
Angels Wear White, Vivian Qu
Beyond the Clouds, Majid Majidi
The Breadwinner, Nora Twomey
Good Manners, Juliana Rojas
The Guardians, Xavier Beauvois
Lean On Pete, Andrew Haigh
Loveless, Andrey Zvyagintsev
The Lovers, Azazel Jacobs
Sweet Country, Warwick Thornton
Thoroughbred, Cory Finley
Wajib, Annemarie Jacir
The BFI London Film Festival runs in the capital from October 4 – October 15.
