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London Film Festival · 2026

London Film Festival 2026

Galas

Programme

24 films · 14 reviews

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Behemoth!

Portrait of a gifted cellist's complex life.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Tony Gilroy; Writer: Tony Gilroy; Stars: Pedro Pascal, Olivia Wilde, Eva Victor, Will Arnett, Hank Azaria, Alexa Swinton, Kaya Ralls, Erik Griffin, JoBeth Williams, Margarita Levieva, Matthew Lillard, Adam Rose, Vincent Oppido, Eden Epstein, Miles Anderson)

BFI patrons gala

Being Heumann

The story of activist Judy Heumann, 'Mother of the Disability Rights Movement'.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Siân Heder; Writer: Siân Heder, Rebekah Taussig; Stars: Ruth Madeley, Madeline Delp, Mark Ruffalo, Dylan O'Brien, Rob Delaney, Daniel Durant, Roberta Colindrez, Antwan Tolliver, Jon Beavers, Ray Fisher, Andrew Pilkington, Michael Patrick Thornton, Russell Harvard, Charlie Rush-Reese, Rio Finnegan, D'Arcee Charrington Neal, Will Brill, Matthew August Jeffers, Sienna Rafter, Rein Barcel)

The Beloved (El ser querido)

A director and his estranged daughter, a struggling actress, make a movie together, forcing them to confront their troubled past

(Country: Spain, France; Year: 2026; Director: Rodrigo Sorogoyen; Writer: Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Isabel Peña; Stars: Javier Bardem, Victoria Luengo, Raúl Arévalo, Marina Foïs, Mourad Ouani, Raúl Prieto, Melina Matthews, Núria Prims, Pablo Gómez-Pando, Malena Villa, Laura Birn, Chos, Pepa Gracia, Raquel Ferri, Conchi Albiñana Espejo)

La Bola Negra

Review preview for La Bola Negra

La Bola Negra was an unfinished work in a life cut short but the film named (variously) for it is extension and tribute and triumph.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
Drama exploring the inter-connected lives of three gay men.

(Country: Spain, France; Year: 2026; Director: Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo; Writer: Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo; Stars: Guitarricadelafuente, Miguel Bernardeau, Carlos González, Milo Quifes, Lola Dueñas, Penélope Cruz, Glenn Close, Lorenzo Zurzolo)

Full review

Bunker

When an architect accepts a morally ambiguous project - building a survivalist bunker for a tech billionaire - his wife begins to question their marriage after 17 years together.

(Country: France, Spain; Year: 2026; Director: Florian Zeller; Writer: Florian Zeller; Stars: Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Paul Dano, Stephen Graham, Eileen Atkins, Mark Gatiss, Nimmi Harasgama, Jamie Bisping, Christos Lawton, Karen Ascoe, Shelley Williams, Abe Jarman, Greta Bellamacina)

Club Kid

A washed-up party promoter is forced to take in the young son he didn't know he had.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Jordan Firstman; Writer: Jordan Firstman; Stars: Jordan Firstman, Cara Delevingne, Diego Calva, Reggie Absolom, Eldar Isgandarov)

The Debut

Review preview for The Debut

Eisenberg’s obvious love of amateur dramatics provides The Debut with a foundation that feels akin to a warm hug.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
A shy housewife is unexpectedly cast in a local am-dram original musical. Under the spell of the strong-willed and enigmatic director, she loses herself in the role.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Jesse Eisenberg; Writer: Jesse Eisenberg; Stars: Julianne Moore, Paul Giamatti, Halle Bailey, Havana Rose Liu, Jesse Eisenberg, Cara Buono, Bernadette Peters, Lilli Cooper, Colton Ryan, Maulik Pancholy, Eldar Isgandarov, Bonnie Milligan, Patrick Fabian, Danny McCarthy)

Full review

Closing night gala

Elsinore

Review preview for Elsinore

Scott’s beacon of light is swallowed up by Stone and Beresford’s heavy-handedness.

Paul Risker · 3 out of 5
Account of Ian Charleson’s life, capturing the moment when he faced his own mortality as he prepared to play Hamlet at the Royal National Theatre.

(Country: Italy, UK, US; Year: 2026; Director: Simon Stone; Writer: Stephen Beresford; Stars: Andrew Scott, Olivia Colman, Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn, Luke Thompson, Peter Mullan, Monica Dolan, Juliet Stevenson, Joe Locke, Adeel Akhtar, Matthew Beard, David Dawson, Kadiff Kirwan, Dickie Beau, John Hollingworth)

Full review

Opening night gala

Fatherland

Review preview for Fatherland

The way Zischler and Hüller play their relationship is so wonderfully real and subtle and appropriately opaque for all us non-Mann family members, that it at times brought tears to my eyes.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
Drama focusing on Thomas Mann's post-war life, as he and his daughter embark on a road-trip across Germany.

(Country: Poland, Germany, Italy, France; Year: 2026; Director: Pawel Pawlikowski; Writer: Pawel Pawlikowski; Stars: Sandra Hüller, Hanns Zischler, August Diehl, Anna Madeley, Devid Striesow, David Menkin, Joachim Meyerhoff, Enno Trebs, Theo Trebs, Waldemar Kobus, Daniel Wagner, Fritzi Haberlandt, Milan Peschel, Joanna Kulig, Christophe Falconnet)

Full review

Fjord

Review preview for Fjord

Mungiu’s eye moves between the juggernaut and the barely visible.

Edin Custo · 3.5 out of 5
Mihai and Lisbet Gheorghiu, a devout Romanian Norwegian couple, move from Romania to Norway with their children to be closer to Lisbet’s family. But tension mounts when one of the children arrives at school with bruises.

(Country: Romania, France, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Sweden; Year: 2026; Director: Cristian Mungiu; Writer: Cristian Mungiu; Stars: Sebastian Stan, Renate Reinsve, Lisa Loven Kongsli, Giulia Nahmany, Ingvild Lien, Turid Vatne, Alin Panc, Emilie Hetland, Sofie Vartdal)

Full review

Ink

Review preview for Ink

Danny Boyle brings his customary energy to James Graham’s adaptation of his own stage play, which flies along quicker than paper through a printing press.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Drama charting Rupert Murdoch's acquisition of The Sun newspaper and its upturning of the landscape under editor Larry Lamb in 1969.

(Country: 2026; Year: 2026; Director: Danny Boyle; Writer: James Graham; Stars: Jack O'Connell, Guy Pearce, Claire Foy)

Full review

The Mayor of London's gala

I Love Boosters

Review preview for I Love Boosters

I suspected there'd be ideas introduced that lesser films would attempt to spin out while this grabbed another and another and another, and so it came to pass.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
A crew of professional shoplifters takes aim at a cutthroat fashion maven.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Boots Riley; Writer: Boots Riley; Stars: Keke Palmer, Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige, Poppy Liu, Eiza González, LaKeith Stanfield, Will Poulter, Demi Moore)

Full review

I Play Rocky

Review preview for I Play Rocky

Anchored by Anthony Ippolito’s performance – he not only bears a striking resemblance to Stallone, but his physical and verbal mimicry is uncanny.

Paul Risker · 3 out of 5
Sylvester Stallone, then a failing actor, writes the ultimate underdog story and must fight for his chance to play the role of a lifetime - Rocky Balboa.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Peter Farrelly; Writer: Peter Gamble; Stars: Anthony Ippolito, AnnaSophia Robb, PJ Byrne, Toby Kebbell, Tracy Letts, Jay Duplass, Matt Dillon, Stephan James, Kiki Seto)

Full review

Klara And The Sun

Review preview for Klara And The Sun

Rarely does a character jump off the screen in the way Klara does. Ortega is luminous in the role.

Paul Risker · 3 out of 5
An Artificial Friend is desperate to find a loving home.

(Country: New Zealand, UK, US; Year: 2026; Director: Taika Waititi; Writer: Dahvi Waller, Taika Waititi, based on the book by Kazuo Ishiguro; Stars: Jenna Ortega, Mia Tharia, Amy Adams, Natasha Lyonne, Aran Murphy, Rachel House, Steve Buscemi, Davida McKenzie, Harry Greenwood, Anastasiia Aksiuta)

Full review

A Long Winter

Review preview for A Long Winter

Worse than incomplete, Haigh's film lacks a fully developed soul. This is in spite of striking aesthetic moments and sharply written scenes complemented by strong performances from the cast.

Paul Risker · 2.5 out of 5
Returning to his childhood home deep in the mountains, Mike is drawn back into the quiet rituals of family life as the clan prepares for the winter ahead.

(Country: UK, Canada; Year: 2026; Director: Andrew Haigh; Writer: Andrew Haigh; Stars: Fred Hechinger, Caitríona Balfe, D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Kit Connor, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, David Furr, Susan Serrao, Anthony Timpano, Geoff Gustafson, Camille Sullivan, Martin Freeman)

Full review

Minotaur

Review preview for Minotaur

Zvyagintsev handles this material with his familiar control: psychological realism, cold visual restraint and an aversion to overt flourish.

Edin Custo · 3 out of 5
A high-powered executive's meticulously controlled existence begins to unravel.

(Country: France, Germany, Latvia; Year: 2026; Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev; Writer: Andrey Zvyagintsev, Simon Lyashenko; Stars: Dmitriy Mazurov, Iris Lebedeva, Varvara Shmykova)

Full review

Paper Tiger

Review preview for Paper Tiger

The issue is that if you strip out the elevated craft and A-list performances, what is left is the sort of bread-and-butter plot arc Cagney & Lacey used to rely on back in the day.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
Two brothers pursue the American Dream but get entangled in a dangerous Russian mafia scheme.

(Country: US, Italy, Brazil; Year: 2026; Director: James Gray; Writer: James Gray; Stars: Adam Driver, Miles Teller, Scarlett Johansson, Joel Marsh Garland, Raphael Corkhill, Meredith Holzman, Cindy Katz, Patrick Murney, Jeff Adler, Rosslyn Luke, Dimiter D Marinov, Yelena Solovey, Yavor Vesselinov)

Full review See: James Gray, Miles Teller and Adam Driver in conversation on Paper Tiger

Possible Love (Ga-neung-han sa-rang)

A story of two married couples - a laid-off worker and his spouse, and a documentary filmmaker and her spouse - crossing paths to film a documentary and facing their different lives and hidden desires.

(Country: South Korea, US; Year: 2026; Director: Lee Chang-dong; Writer: Lee Chang-dong, Oh Jung-mi; Stars: Jeon Do-yeon, Sul Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung, Cho Yeo-jeong, Jo Yu-ri)

Prima Facie

An ambitious barrister who primarily defends those accused of sex crimes unexpectedly becomes the accuser in a sexual assault case.

(Country: Australia, UK; Year: 2026; Director: Susanna White; Writer: Suzie Miller; Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Daniel Ings, Noma Dumezweni, Toheeb Jimoh, Elizabeth Dulau, Harry Treadaway, Khalid Abdalla, Elliot Levey, Simon Russell-Beale, Sarah Junillon)

Ray Gunn

In a futuristic world where humans and aliens co-exist, a private eye drawn into a murder investigation.

(Country: US, UK; Year: 2026; Director: Brad Bird; Writer: Brad Bird, Matthew Robbins; Stars: Sam Rockwell, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Waits, Kathryn Hunter, John Ratzenberger, Jamie Costa, Patton Oswalt)

Tender Loving Care

Review preview for Tender Loving Care

Tender Loving Care is all about the little bits of conversation that make the world a bit more comfy for others.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
In contemporary London, social workers Amy and Rosie navigate the stressors and joys of life together, be that work, family or messy dating lives.

(Country: UK, US, Singapore; Year: 2026; Director: Mike Leigh; Writer: Mike Leigh; Stars: Kate O'Flynn, Alice Bailey Johnson, Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson)

Full review See: Mike Leigh and the Tender Loving Care cast on humanity and looking out for one another

Wildwood

When her baby brother is kidnapped by a large flock of crows, Prue hotfoots it to a local forest where a wondrous world of mystery and peril awaits.

(Country: US; Year: 2026; Director: Travis Knight; Writer: Chris Butler; Stars: Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Arthur Knight, Mahershala Ali, Awkwafina, Angela Bassett, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Amandla Stenberg, Jemaine Clement, Maya Erskine, Tantoo Cardinal, Tom Waits, Richard E. Grant)

Wild Horse Nine

Review preview for Wild Horse Nine

Malkovich and Rockwell are magnetic.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
Shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup, CIA agents Chris and Lee are dispatched from Santiago to Rapa Nui.

(Country: UK, US, Chile; Year: 2026; Director: Martin McDonagh; Writer: Martin McDonagh; Stars: John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey, Tom Waits, Mariana di Girolamo, Paola Giannini, Ailín Salas, Samuel Wayt)

Full review

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother

An assassin and father of three, Latif’s life is turned upside down when his wife dies. He struggles to balance his two very different worlds, but when a hit goes south and as forces close in around him, he sets off on a desperate journey to protect his children.

(Country: US, UK; Year: 2026; Director: Bassam Tariq; Writer: Bassam Tariq; Stars: Mahershala Ali, John Cho, Giancarlo Esposito, Abubakr Ali, Tramell Tillman, Tiffany Boone, Laith Nakli, Adia, Jahleel Kamara, Shakirah DeMesier, James Dormuth, Shawn Jain, Derrick Goodman Jr., Irene Santiago, Ali Alsaleh)