London Film Festival

Latest reviews

• 
  The Summer Book

  Review preview for The Summer Book

  If you’re a Close fan, it’s a must.

  After the death of her mother, a young girl goes to live with her grieving father and her grandmother on a remote Finnish island.
• 
  Baby

  Review preview for Baby

  It is the things taken for granted, as much as the things that stand out, which shape the tale.

  After being released from a juvenile detention center, Wellington finds himself alone and adrift on the streets of São Paulo. During a visit to a porn theater, he encounters Ronaldo, a mature man, who teaches him new ways of surviving.
• Happyend

  Review preview for Happyend

  A thoughtful, shrewd examination of the impact of rapidly developing technologies.

  Best friends Yuta and Kou are on the brink of graduating from high school in a near-future Tokyo where the threat of a catastrophic earthquake casts a shadow over daily life.
• 
  The Balconettes

  Review preview for The Balconettes

  The film is a brash, vulgar, joyously realistic portrait of a three-way friendship with roots that run deep.

  Three women get stuck in a Marseille apartment during a heatwave.
• 
  The Ballad Of Suzanne Césaire

  Review preview for The Ballad Of Suzanne Césaire

  The word ballad is a good choice in the title because Hunt-Ehrlich’s film is a rhythms and muse affair.

  Hybrid biopic about the Martinican writer and activist.
• 
  Harvest

  Review preview for Harvest

  At times the discomfort that Harvest causes is not from dirt or despair but the room it leaves for interpretation.

  Over seven hallucinatory days, a village with no name, in an undefined time and place, disappears.
• 
  Weightless

  Review preview for Weightless

  Like the protagonist we are swept up by a wave of questions about aviation and identity and the unbearable heaviness of memory.

  A grief-stricken amnesiac tries to regain his memory.
• 
  Seeking Mavis Beacon

  Review preview for Seeking Mavis Beacon

  Jones and Ross are both strong personalities and the personal aspect of the film is one of its strongest suits.

  Launched in the late Eighties, educational software Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing taught millions globally, but the program's Haitian-born cover model vanished decades ago. Two DIY investigators search for the unsung cultural icon, while questioning notions of digital security, AI, and Black representation in the digital realm.
• 
  April

  Review preview for April

  It’s not unusual to say that something cuts through the silence but in Dea Kulumbegashvili’s April it’s the silence that cuts through us.

  After a newborn dies during delivery, the morals and professionalism of an ob-gyn, Nina, come under scrutiny amid rumors that she performs illegal abortions for those in need.
• 
  I'm Your Venus

  Review preview for I'm Your Venus

  From the start, there is something different about this film.

  Documentary considering the unsolved murder of Paris Is Burning star Venus Xtravaganza.

A–Z of London Film Festival 2024 reviews →

Features

• Imagine a world...
  Noémie Merlant and Sanda Codreanu on female friendships, bodies and The Balconettes
• Without words
  Elín Hall on the stripped down dialogue of When The Light Breaks
• An education
  Eloïse King on exploring the international essay industry in Shadow Scholars
• Taking the plunge as 'angel and devil'
  French actor Félix Kysyl on his first lead role in Misericordia
• 'There is a bit of me in lots of the characters I create'
  Misericordia director Guiraudie on his tale of the unexpected
• The outlaw
  Karan Kandhari on artistic inspirations and Sister Midnight
• 'She's a character who is almost experiencing performance anxiety'
  Laura Carreira on buidling character with her cast and cinematographer in On Falling
• 'There's a certain pleasure to cinematic artifice'
  Matthew Rankin on world-building and catharsis in Universal Language
• Looking back
  RaMell Ross on basketball, filmmaking, overcoming objectification and Nickel Boys
• Peering into the heart of darkness
  Jeremy Strong on playing Roy Cohn in The Apprentice
• Going for gold
  Sebastian Stan on playing Donald Trump in The Apprentice
• Beautiful and difficult
  Sandhya Suri on semi-urban outposts, moral ambiguity and Santosh
• 'I think there is a wisdom to children that adults lose sight of'
  Matthew Rankin on liminal spaces and child's play in Universal Language
• A little unpredictability
  Payal Kapadia on cinematic inspirations and All We Imagine As Light
• Reflections of a cat
  Gints Zilbalodis on Hayao Miyazaki, fairy tales and Latvia’s Oscar submission, Flow
• 'I’m still enjoying the process of talking about Julie and advocating for her silence'
  Leonardo van Dijl on Belgian Oscar nominee Julie Keeps Quiet
• Leaning to darkness
  Aislinn Clarke on the Na Sidhe, Ireland's troubled history, and Fréwaka
• Well seasoned
  François Ozon, Hélène Vincent and Josiane Balasko on creating characters of a certain age in When Fall Is Coming
• Art, friendship and nature
  Tilda Swinton on dressing for Pedro Almodóvar, and The Room Next Door
• 'I always thought that losing my mother also was discovering her'
  Sylvia Le Fanu on bringing her own experience of grief to My Eternal Summer
• 'It is impossible to escape memory'
  Director Fabrice du Welz on the lingering trauma of the real case behind Maldoror and the questions he hopes to provoke
• Last minute London Film Festival highlights
  Films to catch that still have tickets available
• 'Our life is defined by work. I think it's consuming us'
  Laura Carreira on the gig economy and loneliness in her Silver Shell-winner On Falling
• Concrete ideas
  Alessandro Nivola on Costantino Nivola, Le Corbusier, and The Brutalist
• Breaking the mould
  Memoir Of A Snail director Adam Elliot on creating textured underdogs and emotional conflict
• Audiard on a crazy musical spree in Mexico
  Director on changing identity, democracy and drug cartels
• At last Maddin makes mischief in Cannes
  G7 satire star power for Rumours filmmaker
• Arnold reveals the naked truth
  Cannes award-winning director of Bird on how images spark imagination
• 'I couldn't stay indifferent'
  Ilyas Yourish on his motivations for making documentary Kamay
• Contemplating change
  Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson on filmmaking and life choices in Mother Vera
• 'I start working from a very intellectual perspective, but then it's a lot of intuition'
  Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias on experimentation and storytelling in Pepe

News

• Memoir Of A Snail takes top prize in London
  On Falling and Mother Vera among winners
• LFF to screen restored Sherlock Holmes silents
  Trio of films to be accompanied by Royal Academy of Music ensemble