The BFI London Film Festival was home to many of last year’s roaring successes, including: The Favourite, Suspiria, Roma and 2018’s surprise film, Green Book. The BFI has now revealed the stacked lineup for this October’s festival run.
As previously announced, The Personal History of David Copperfield will kick off things as the Opening premiere, alongside heavy-hitters like Rian Johnson’s Knives Out and Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, Scorsese will close off the festival as the closing film. Knives Out sees Rian Johnson back in the director’s chair, directing a stellar cast that includes Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis and Michael Shannon among others. Martin Scorsese’s long-awaited gangster film sees his return to his Goodfellas days with Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino and Harvey Keitel.
Additionally, getting a premiere at the festival is Cannes-darling, The Lighthouse. The highly-anticipated second feature from writer/director Robert Eggers, starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe. Staying in line with the horror-esc vibe that The Lighthouse has been said to behold, we see The Lodge finding a space in the stacked lineup. The Lodge premiered at Sundance earlier this year to cracking results, it stars Riley Keough (The House That Jack Built) and Jaeden Lieberher (IT).
Marielle Heller is back at the festival with her latest, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, starring Tom Hanks, whilst Timothée Chalamet returns with The King. Additionally, James Mangold’s Le Mans 66 (Ford vs Ferrari) premieres, starring Christian Bale and Matt Damon. Wash Westmoreland also returns after the blazing-success that was Colette last year, he comes with the Netflix-backed Earthquake Bird, starring Alicia Vikander and Riley Keough.
In total there are 229 feature films being shown, the full lineup for the gala premieres, the strand films and the special features are shown below.
BFI London Film Festival 2019 Full Lineup
Headline Galas:
The Personal History Of David Copperfield (opening film)
Dir. Armando Iannucci
Knives Out
Dir. Rian Johnson
The Aeronauts
Dir. Tom Harper
A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood
Dir. Marielle Heller
Greed
Dir. Michael Winterbottom
Hope Gap
Dir. William Nicholson
Jojo Rabbit
Dir. Taika Waititi
The King
Dir. David Michôd
Le Mans ’66
Dir. James Mangold
Marriage Story
Dir. Noah Baumbach
The Irishman (closing film)
Dir: Martin Scorsese
Festival Gala:
Ema
Dir. Pablo Larraín
Strand Galas:
Abominable (Family strand)
Dir. Jill Culton, Todd Wilderman
Bacurau (Thrill strand)
Dirs. Kleber Mendonça Filho, Juliano Dornelles
The Dude In Me (Laugh strand)
Dirs. Hyo-jin Kang
Judy & Punch (Dare strand)
Dir. Mirrah Foulkes
The Lighthouse (Cult strand)
Dir. Robert Eggers
Official Secrets (Debate strand)
Dir. Gavin Hood
The Peanut Butter Falcon (Love strand)
Dirs. Michael Schwartz, Tyler Nilson
The Two Popes (Journey strand)
Dir. Fernando Meirelles
Western Stars (Create strand)
Dirs. Thom Zimny, Bruce Springsteen
Special Presentations:
Bad Education
Dir. Cory Finley
Blackbird
Dir. Roger Michell
Bombay Rose
Dir. Gitanjali Rao
The Cave
Dir. Feras Fayyad
First Love
Dir. Takashi Miike
Gösta (Episodes 1,5, 6, and 8) TV series
Dir. Lukas Moodysson
Krabi, 2562
Dirs. Anocha Suwichakornpong, Ben Rivers
Love, Life And Laughter
Dirs. George Pearson
Our Ladies
Dir. Michael Caton-Jones
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire
Dir. Céline Sciamma
Rocks
Dir. Sarah Gavron
Official Competition:
Fanny Lye Deliver’d
Dir. Thomas Clay
Honey Boy
Dir. Alma Har’el
La Llorona
Dir. Jayro Bustamente
Lingua Franca
Dir. Isabel Sandoval
Moffie
Dir. Oliver Hermanus
Monos
Dir. Alejandro Landes
The Other Lamb
Dir. Małgorzata Szumowska
The Perfect Candidate
Dir. Haifaa Al Mansour
Rose Plays Julie
Dirs. Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor
Saint Maud
Dir. Rose Glass
First Feature Competition:
Atlantics
Dir. Mati Diop
Babyteeth
Dir. Shannon Murphy
Calm With Horses
Dir. Nick Rowland
House Of Hummingbird
Dir. Bora Kim
Instinct
Dir. Halina Reijn
The Last Black Man In San Francisco
Dir. Joe Talbot
Make Up
Dir. Claire Oakley
Relativity
Dir. Marikok Minoguchi
Scales
Dir. Shahad Ameen
Documentary Competition:
Cold Case Hammarkskjöld
Dir. Mads Brügger
Coup 53
Dir. Taghi Amirani
Cunningham
Dir. Alla Kovgan
I Am (Not) A Monster
Dir. Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian
The Kingmaker
Dir. Lauren Greenfield
Mystify: Michael Hutchence
Dir. Richard Lowenstein
Overseas
Dir. Sung-A Yoon
A Pleasure, Comrades!
Dir. José Filipe Costa
White Riot
Dir. Rubika Shah
Full Strand Lineup:
Love strand: (A few films to highlight)
The Peanut Butter Falcon
Dir. Michael Schwartz
La Belle Époque
Dir. Nicolas Bedos
Death Will Come and Shall have your Eyes
Dir. José Luis Torres Leiva
Matthias & Maxime
Dir. Xavier Dolan
Debate strand: (A few films to highlight)
Official Secrets
Dir. Gavin Hood
The Report
Dir. Scott Z Burns
A Hidden Life
Dir. Terrance Mallick
Luce
Dir. Julius Onah
Laugh strand: (A few films to highlight)
Lucky Grandma
Dir. Sassy Sealy
Rare Beasts
Dir. Billie Piper
Day of the Bagnold Summer
Dir. Simon Bird
The Dude in Me
Dir. Hyo-jin Kang
Dare strand: (A few films to highlight)
Judy & Punch
Dir. Mirrah Foulkes
Eternal Beauty
Dir. Craig Roberts
Family Romance, LLC
Dir. Werner Herzog
Burning Cane
Dir. Phillip Youmans
Thrill strand: (A few films to highlight)
Earthquake Bird
Dir. Wash Westmoreland
Bacurau
Dir. Kleber Mendonça Filho
Guest of Honour
Dir. Atom Egoyan
Piranhas
Dir. Claudio Giovannesi
Cult strand: (A few films to highlight)
The Lighthouse
Dir. Robert Eggers
The Lodge
Dirs. Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala
Little Monsters
Dir. Abe Forsythe
Wounds
Dir. Babak Anvari
Journey strand: (A few films to highlight)
The Two Popes
Dir. Fernando Meirelles
Adolescents
Dir. Sébastien Lifshitz
Monsoon
Dir. Hong Khaou
An Easy Girl
Dir. Rebecca Zlotowski
Create strand: (A few films to highlight)
Western Stars
Dirs. Thom Zimny, Bruce Springsteen
Sid & Judy
Dir. Stephen Kijak
Family strand: (A few films to highlight)
Abominable
Dirs. Jill Culton, Todd Wilderman
My Extraordinary Summer with Tess
Dir. Steven Wouterlood
Experimenta strand: (A few films to highlight)
Krabi, 2562
Dirs. Ben Rivers, Anocha Suwichakornpong
The Deathless Woman
Dir. Roz Mortimer
Treasures strand: (A few films to highlight)
The Elephant Man (1980)
Dirs. David Lynch
The Masque of the Red Death (1964)
Dir. Roger Corman
Surprise Film
The hottest ticket in town, last year’s film was Green Book.
Screen Talk: Rian Johnson
A talk about Johnson’s career and the making of Knives Out
For the rest of the BFI London Film Festival 2019 programme, see here.
Written by Ben Rolph
(Word count: 1019)
