Natalia Valentina It would be no exaggeration to say that when the announcement was made that the film to close the 68th BFI London Film Festival would be Piece by Piece, a Pharrell Williams biopic conducted entirely through LEGO BRICKS, I was quivering in my boots. The London Film Festival has always occupied an unusual place within the wider festival circuit—think Cannes, Venice, Berlin, Telluride and TIFF. If the festivals had a family reunion, you might find London on Dad’s side of the family. The distributors have already pounced; the awards contenders semi-decided; the archive Chanel photographed. So, what is left for London?
Bloody fantastic film. There is little pretension, by design or otherwise— there is no overly sweeping red carpet, no lacquered boats weaving their way through Venetian canals, and the Southbank centre does not have quite the glitz of the Sala Grande. Instead, there are films and there are the people who love them. What a delight. Around 240 features and 150 shorts from over 70 countries are screened at the festival each year, squeezed into two weeks. If that doesn’t sound overwhelming to you, send me the address of your monastery. If it does, please allow me to talk you through this year’s offerings. In spite of the somewhat…random Piece by Piece closing premiere, my boots have since been stayed by the announcement of the rest of the programme. I need not have worried. Curated by Kristy Matheson, the 2024 LFF is jam-packed full of gems. Grab your popcorn, prepare for those rush ticket queues, and let’s run through the highlights.
Awards Darlings
If 2025 is the year you are finally going to get round to watching all ten Academy Best Picture contenders, the LFF has plenty to offer you. I am willing to throw my hat in the ring that come February these are the names you will be hearing.
Sean Baker’s rags to riches tale of a Russian oligarch and a sex worker, Anora,is the first American film to win at Cannes since Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life in 2013. Considering similarly warm receptions at Venice and TIFF, it would be fair to say Baker is the bookie’s favourite for the big win. Certainly, an event not to be missed.
Equally buzzy is Emilia Perez, Netflix’s primary play for the season. It’s director, Jacques Audiard, is no stranger to acclaim, having won a Palme d’Or once and the LFF’s own Best Film Award not once but twice. The cast of this cartel-centred musical includes Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascon, Adriana Paz and Selena Gomez—an ensemble who unusually all received the Cannes Best Actress prize. Quite frankly, the wackiness of a Wizards of Waverly Place to Cannes Winner pipeline alone is reason enough to go check it out.
Another contender for the little gold man is Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door. The Spanish director’s first English language film won the Leone d’oro at Venice this year—the astonishing 18-minute standing ovation received there incited a meta criticism of critics. Whether Almodóvar successfully translates his idiosyncratic sensibilities into this Swinton-Moore-led assisted suicide drama, and whether it was worth the applause, is a conversation you could well be a part of.
Amongst these vehicles for Best Actress, Pablo Larrain continues his streak of biopics with Maria. Perhaps Angelina Jolie’s turn as the opera singer will prove as successful as previous Larrain-led winner Natalie Portman’s Jackie Kennedy. Marianne Heller’s Nightbitch (as well as winning the award for my favourite and my Abuela’s least favourite film title) has Amy Adams’ Oscar hopes back up after her serious snubbing for Arrival all those years ago. Trailers for A24’s We Live in Time suggest a star turn from Florence Pugh supported by Andrew Garfield’s return to film. The Academy has a troubled relationship with the romance genre, but Pugh’s take on terminal illness could tip the scales. And Andrea Arnold’s Bird might well offer up newcomer Nykiya Adams a well-deserved nomination.
In terms of foreign language offerings, All We Imagine as Light and The Seed of the Sacred Fig were the standout subtitled stars at Cannes. Payal Kapadia’s fiction debut All We Imagine as Light was the winner of the Cannes Grand Prix Award and was quickly snatched up by the BFI for UK distribution—certainly a festival stamp of approval. The film was commended for its vibrant colours and heady atmosphere— ‘An Indian feature with the look and feel of a European arthouse classic’ announced the BFI. Despite this strange if not condescending mode of praise, the opportunity to witness Kapadia’s work is most exciting. The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a dissident drama by director Mohammad Rasoulof. Much reportage has covered how ahead of the festival, Rasoulof was sentenced to eight months in prison by the Iranian authorities. It is a film made possible by a few very brave people and attention is owed. It is the German entry for Best International Feature at this year’s Academy Awards. The BFI are also screening the Senegalese entry Dahomey which won the Berlin Golden Bear. An exploration of the ethics of museums and stolen artifacts, I know of a certain British Museum which might take heed to Mati Diop’s short but passionate doc.
On the side of adaptations, Daniel Craig continues his stellar post-Bond run with Luca Guadanigno’s Queer. The William S. Burrough’s novel marks the second collaboration between the Italian director and Challengers writer/ Past Lives muse/ star of a potion selling meme we are too young to remember, Justin Kuritzkies. Guadinigno has yet to reach again the critical acclaim of his 2017 Call Me by Your Name but if the reviews are anything to go by, Queer might be his shot. RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys, based on Coulson Whitehead’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel, was unanimously cited by Vanity Fair critics in their Best Picture predictions. Reviewers over at Roger Ebert said, ‘They take what feels like a nearly unfilmable book and reformulate the relaxed poeticism of Whitehead into a film whose cinematic prowess overwhelms the viewer…’ Sounds like a Best Adaptation winner to me.
BUT if you are only to watch one big film specifically at the LFF you may want to make it Blitz, a tale about…well the title is rather self-explanatory. Oscar-winning director Sir Steve McQueen might damn well premiere his film wherever he likes with little concern as to award impact. Blitz, tipped to tip the Best Picture race, will have its world premiere in little old London as the LFF’s opening night gala tonight! There is nothing like the collective experience of a world premiere; the forming of opinion before any of the noise. Oh, to be the first to hear a new Hans Zimmer score, as it fills the Royal Festival Hall. To see Saoirse Ronan’s sought-after side profile in action. Blitz is as impressive a piece of programming as ‘Piece by Piece’ is confusing.
LFF Competitions
There are also a flurry of smaller films competing for the festival’s localised competitions. The LFF runs four competitions: Official, First Feature, Documentary, and Short. Engagement with these shortlists can be incredibly satisfying, the prediction payoff being a fortnight, not a four-month affair. First Feature is a particular favourite as a launching pad for film’s future stars. Look out for Olivia & the Clouds, the first adult animation out of the Dominican Republic.
Strands
Having touched on maybe twelve films, there are almost four hundred more vying for your attention—I feel the monastery calling my name. Helpfully, however, the LFF programmers have curated their offerings into thematic strands. These are Live, Love, Laugh…Just kidding. These are Love, Laugh, Debate, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Create, Experimenta, Expanded, Family, Treasures, and Shorts. Exciting prospects.
I have always been a whore for ‘Love’ myself, and quite frankly won’t touch anything approaching horror with a barge pole. But I highly recommend you pick a strand that interests you, root around, and find something new to watch within it. Often it is the films we go into with the least expectation which become our firmest favourites.
Screen Talks
Alongside the screenings, the film festival also hosts a series of talks. Two hours of various titans of film talking art, life, and the industry. Speakers this year include Denis Villeneuve, Daniel Kaluuya, and Andrea Arnold. Tickets are sold out but do not fret, rush tickets are released day of for many of the events. And, while there is nothing quite like seeing your idols in real life to stoke the embers of your parasocial awe and admiration, the BFI have the kindly habit of uploading Screen Talks to YouTube a few weeks after they have occurred. Rife for rewatching and relishing in real film advice from professionals at the top of their game who you don’t have to pay. Speaking of which…
LFF for Free
Ultimately, we are students. Students love free shit. And the BFI clearly loves students. While student tickets for all screenings can be as low as a fiver, I would be remiss not to remind you that the LFF for Free programme is replete with wonders which won’t have you checking when your next maintenance loan payment is coming in. Catch me in the The Festival Café at the ‘Beginner’s Guide to Series’ on this year’s directors, and at the BFI Southbank’s free panels on film representations of sex workers, fact vs. fiction in adaptation, girlhood and witches, and Shakespeare and video games. What an eclectic mix.
Closing Credits
So, we come to the end of our whistle-stop tour, ‘whistle-stop’ having come to mean almost as long as Killers of the Flower Moon. If you made it this far, go buy some tickets. You deserve them. The first day of the festival is upon us, and there is much to look forward to.
Stay tuned for on the ground coverage and film reviews. See you at Piece by Piece!
