The 70th BFI London Film Festival has announced the 10 films selected for its prestigious Official Competition, with filmmakers from across the globe competing for the festival’s coveted Best Film Award.
Taking place from 7th-18th October 2026, the 70th edition of the festival will bring an international selection of filmmakers to London, with this year’s Official Competition representing 10 countries, including the UK, Ireland, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan and Poland.
The selected films showcase an ambitious range of storytelling and filmmaking styles, spanning fiction and documentary and exploring stories set everywhere from post-war Europe to Dhaka, Japan and beyond.
The Official Competition will feature new work from a stellar line-up of internationally celebrated filmmakers, including Hirokazu Kore-eda, Sergei Loznitsa, Carol Morley, Lili Horvát, Benjamín Naishtat, Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, Giovanni Tortorici, Małgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert, May el-Toukhy and Rubaiyat Hossain.
The 10 films selected for the Official Competition are:
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7 MILES OUT (UK), directed by Carol Morley
ACT 3 (Ireland-UK), directed by Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor
GLAXO (Brazil-Argentina), directed by Benjamín Naishtat
IMPERIUM (Germany-France-Italy-Lithuania), directed by Sergei Loznitsa
KETTICÈ (Italy), directed by Giovanni Tortorici
LOOK BACK (Japan), directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda
MY NOTES ON MARS (Hungary-Austria), directed by Lili Horvát
THE DIFFICULT BRIDE (France-Bangladesh-Portugal-Norway-Germany), directed by Rubaiyat Hossain
THE IDIOT(S) (UK-Poland), directed by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert
WOMAN UNKNOWN (Denmark-Latvia-Sweden), directed by May el-Toukhy
Once again, BFI Southbank will provide the home for the Official Competition titles, continuing the festival’s celebration of cinema in the heart of London.
Established in 2009, the BFI London Film Festival’s Best Film Award recognises inspiring, inventive and distinctive filmmaking. Previous recipients include Jacques Audiard for ‘A Prophet,’ while more recent winners include Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s ‘Evil Does Not Exist’ in 2023, Adam Elliot’s ‘Memoir of a Snail’ in 2024 and Lucrecia Martel’s ‘Landmarks’ in 2025.
The competition line-up is just one part of the festival’s wider awards programme. The films shortlisted for the Grierson Award for Best Documentary, the Sutherland Award for Best First Feature and the Short Film Award will be announced in September. Winners across all four competitive categories will be selected by LFF Awards Juries, with jury members set to be announced in the coming weeks.
The 70th BFI London Film Festival will run from Wednesday 7th October to Sunday 18th October 2026. The full festival programme will be unveiled on Wednesday 2nd September 2026, with tickets going on general sale from 17th September. BFI Members will have the opportunity to book earlier.
