London is locking in its marquee autumn showcase as the BFI London Film Festival unveils the Official Competition lineup for its historic 70th edition, running Oct. 7–18, 2026. Ten international titles will vie for the festival’s prestigious Best Film Award in a slate that festival director Kristy Matheson describes as a dynamic mix of festival veterans and first-time competition filmmakers.
Spanning ten primary production countries alongside global co-productions, the lineup ranges from period dramas and documentaries to thrillers. Heading up the slate is the world premiere of British helmer Carol Morley’s semi-autobiographical feature Seven Miles Out, adapted from her own novel. Starring Lucy Halliday and Aidan Gillen, the film follows a young girl navigating family tragedy through the 1970s and ’80s punk-rock scene. Also in the mix is Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda with Look Back, a live-action adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s acclaimed manga exploring friendship and artistic ambition.
On the non-fiction front, Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa presents Imperium, an archival documentary probing Soviet cultural life through rare footage from the early 1970s. Egyptian-Danish director May el-Toukhy brings An Unknown Woman, a post-WWII psychological period drama centered on a housekeeper guarding dark secrets. Poland’s entry, The Idiot from co-directors Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert, stars Aimee Lou Wood and Johnny Flynn in an intimate look at novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky and his wife.
The competitive slate is completed by Lili Horvát’s My Notes on Mars, Rubaiyat Hossain’s The Difficult Bride, Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s essay feature Chapter Three, Benjamin Naishtat’s Argentine entry Glaxo, and Giovanni Tortorici’s Italian drama Kittych. LFF will reveal its full lineup on Sept. 2—including sidebars for the Grierson, Sutherland, and Short Film awards—with general ticket sales opening Sept. 17.
