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London Film Festival · 2026

London Film Festival 2026

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Programme

17 films · 4 reviews

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Atlantic Rhapsody

A young man embarks on a surreal quest to find his long-lost father.

(Country: China; Year: 2026; Director: Zhong Kaifeng; Writer: Zhong Kaifeng; Stars: Yin Fang, Roy Wang, Li Xueqin, Huang Miyi, Zhang Benyu, Huang Ziqi, Xue Baohe,Shen Shiyu, Ding Zidi)

At Night

Six women in Paris traverse the anxiety of the city after dark.

(Country: France, UK; Year: 2026; Director: Beatrice Gibson; Stars: Arno Nguyen, Sophie Robinson)

Chronicles From The Siege

The occupants of a military-occupied war zone find the foundational things in life – food, sex, safely giving birth – become matters of life and death as they scrabble for survival.

(Country: Algeria, France, Palestinian Territory; Year: 2026; Director: Abdallah Al-Khatib; Writer: Abdallah Al-Khatib; Stars: Nadeem Rimawi, Saja Kilani, Ahmad Kontar, Maria Zreik, Idir Benaibouche, Ahmed Zitouni, Samer Bisharat, Emad Azmi, Nour Seraj, Hamzeh Shaker Mahadin, Hayat Abu Samra, Omar AlMajali, Wassim Fedriche, Omar Rammal, Abdallah Al-Khatib)

Chronovisor

Philosopher and neuroscientist Béatrice Courte investigates the extraordinary tale of a Benedictine monk who claimed to have invented a machine capable of replaying any moment in history, including Christ’s crucifixion.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Kevin Walker, Jack Auen; Writer: Kevin Walker, Jack Auen; Stars: Anne Laure Sellier, Nicholas Tebben, Nicole Dombrowski Risser, Alex Kolodkin, José Pacheco de Almeida, Sophie Queuniet, Laurence M. Marie, Jarin van Emmichoven, Gilles Turré, Thrash VA, Irene Zahariadis, Tremayne Miller, Eileen Auen, Zachary Lawrence Atticus Cohen, JBH Gantt)

A day In The life Of Jo: Chapter Phaedra

Jo, melancholic, wild and only 15 feels shy to listen to music she truly likes, yet with Phaedra’s etheric song, her heart skips a beat and all quietly shifts. It's a day of changes.

(Country: Greece, Romania, France, Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Jacqueline Lentzou; Writer: Jacqueline Lentzou)

Everytime

A tragedy brings a mother, daughter, and teenage boy together.

(Country: Austria, Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Sandra Wollner; Writer: Sandra Wollner; Stars: Birgit Minichmayr, Tristán López, Lotte Keiling, Carla Hüttermann)

Filipiñana

Review preview for Filipiñana

Sociopolitics spritzes delicately, like the water from the club's sprinklers, over the whole affair.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Tee girl Isabel feels strangely drawn to Dr. Palanca, the president of the country club where she works. However, after piecing together a violent picture of what lies beneath the club’s pristine surface, she realizes that what began as an innocent infatuation is actually rooted in a sinister shared history.

(Country: Philippines, Singapore, United Kingdom, France, Netherlands; Year: 2026; Director: Rafael Manuel; Writer: Rafael Manuel; Stars: Jorrybell Agoto, Carmen Castellanos, Teroy Guzman, Carlos Siguion-Reyna, Isabel Sicat, Nour Houshmand)

Full review

French Girls

Mia is happily aimless, working odd jobs and hanging with friends. But when she’s scouted to become a model, new people and strange conundrums enter the frame.

(Year: 2026; Director: Hyun Lee; Writer: Hyun Lee; Stars: Mia Kidis, Megan Douglas, Anya Beyersdorf, Luca Blasonato, Nash Edgerton, Joshua Mehmet)

Hearing (Thính Giác)

In his work as a mechanic who installs decibel meters in public spaces and homes, Ninh observes the silence that haunts relationships. Wishing for his parents, who live apart and do not speak to each other, to reconcile, his fear of losing connection to his loved ones forces Ninh to face life’s unpredictable rhythms.

(Country: Vietnam, Singapore, Norway, France, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Cambodia, Thailand, Taiwan; Year: 2026; Director: Lê Bảo; Writer: Lê Bảo; Stars: Nguyễn Quốc Tuấn, Ngọc Tản, Hà Vân, Linh Chi, Khánh Huyền)

I Plant My Hand In The Garden

Review preview for I Plant My Hand In The Garden

The docufictional construction can become meditative to the point of meandering, a tug-of-war between autobiography and fiction that sometimes weighs down the story.

Edin Custo · 3.5 out of 5
A pregnant Iranian woman and a Serbian man longing for fatherhood, both bisexual and living in Germany, marry. Their families, divided by language yet united by affection, come together to celebrate.

(Country: Germany, Serbia, US; Year: 2026; Director: Boris Hadžija, Hoda Taheri; Writer: Hoda Taheri, Boris Hadžija; Stars: Hoda Taheri, Boris Hadžija, Branka Hadžija, Jahandokht Taheri, Hadi Khanjanpour)

Full review

Let Them Be Seen

Hybrid film examining the changing face of the town of Tapoleng, which is negotiating shifting beliefs.

(Country: South Africa, Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Nolitha Refilwe Mkulisi; Writer: Nolitha Refilwe Mkulisi; Stars: Fresh Daabuza, Sindiswa Ngendane, Lieketseng Martins, Keneiloe Molale, Brauilo Martinez, Andile Mawabo Nhlange, Mzoli Walter Mbizeni)

Life Of Jorge Luis Borges (Biografía de Jorge Luis Borges)

An attempt to narrate the author and poet's biography through objects and places.

(Country: Argentina; Year: 2026; Director: Mariano Llinás; Stars: Jorge Luis Borges, Ernesto Montequín, Nicolás Helft, Laura Paredes, Milva Leonardi, Pablo Dacal)

A Man Of His Time (Notre Salut)

Review preview for A Man Of His Time

There exists no safe ground when you are part of a regime that uses fear and threats as casual tools.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 3 out of 5
Historical drama set against a backdrop of Vichy France as a man strives to help France's renewal.

(Country: Belgium, France; Year: 2026; Director: Emmanuel Marre; Writer: Emmanuel Marre; Stars: Swann Arlaud, Sandrine Blancke, Mathieu Perotto)

Full review

Marie Madeleine

In Jacmel, Haiti, the arrival of an evangelical church across a brothel triggers a series of conflicts. At the heart of this war of morality, Marie Madeleine, a prostitute, befriends the pastor’s son, who must hide his homosexuality.

(Year: 2026; Director: Gessica Généus; Writer: Gessica Généus)

My Wife Cries (Meine Frau Weint)

A normal working day on a construction site. Thomas, a 40-year-old crane operator, receives a call from his wife asking him to pick her up from the hospital. He finds her crying.

(Country: Germany, France; Year: 2026; Director: Angela Schanelec; Writer: Angela Schanelec; Stars: Agathe Bonitzer, Birte Schnöink, Vladimir Vulević, Pauline Rebmann, Clara Gostynski, Ninel Skrzypczyk, Thorbjörn Björnsson, Laure-Lucille Simon, Theodore Vrachas, Ben Carter)

Revolutionaries Never Die

Seeking to decode a final, unanswered invitation, a filmmaker explores why the renowned Lebanese director Jocelyne Saab reached out for a collaboration just two months before her death.

(Country: Palestinian Territory, Belgium, Qatar; Year: 2026; Director: Mohanad Yaqubi; Writer: Mohanad Yaqubi, Mathilde Rouxel)

Rose

Review preview for Rose

Apart from setting the tone and maintaining it, the strongest point of Schleinzer’s filmmaking is casting and directing the actors' interactions between one another and the environment.

Marko Stojiljkovic · 4 out of 5
A woman disguises herself as a man in 17th Century Germany.

(Country: Austria, Germany; Year: 2026; Director: Markus Schleinzer; Writer: Markus Schleinzer, Alexander Brom; Stars: Sandra Hüller, Caro Braun, Marisa Growaldt (voice), Godehard Giese, Maria Dragus, Augustino Renken, Robert Gwisdek, Sven-Eric Bechtolf, Rainer Egger, Maurice Leonhard, Bastian Trost)

Full review