2015-09-01

Festival season is upon us, with Venice getting underway now and Toronto not far behind. LFF 2015 is only a few more weeks away as well, and the BFI has just unveiled a brilliant line-up, featuring many of the brilliant movies heading to both of those festivals.

Venice and Toronto have increasingly become launching points for films to start their awards season campaigns. The London Film Festival has similarly become a mainstay for those films to appear in the UK with an eye on the BAFTAs, and the LFF 2015 line-up is no different.

Awards contenders Suffragette, Steve Jobs, and Carol were already announced as Opening, Closing, and American Express galas, respectively. And the number of Oscar-buzzed entries has multiplied many times over, with appearances from the likes of The Lobster, Black Mass, The Program, Room, Truth, Trumbo, Brooklyn, Beasts of No Nation, and many more.

Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise, which has its world premiere in Toronto, will have its British premiere as part of the Galas line-up, and that’s definitely one not to be missed. Tom Hiddleston leads a great ensemble cast that includes Jeremy Irons, Elisabeth Moss, Luke Evans, Sienna Miller, and James Purefoy. This is Wheatley’s first time at the festival, to the best of my knowledge, making it all the more special.

While many have Carol pegged in the Best Actress race for either Cate Blanchett or Rooney Mara, the category is far from sewn up, if you ask me. Saoirse Ronan is deserving of all the attention she receives for her leading role in Brooklyn, which is definitely worthy of a Best Actress nomination, if not the win. And the expectation for Room is that Brie Larson will be entering the race as well, previously snubbed for her superb role in the indie film Short Term 12.

Christopher Nolan and Tacita Dean have been announced as the headliners for a new event series called LFF Connects. It is billed as a ‘series of thought-provoking high-impact talks intended to stimulate new collaborations and ideas by exploring both the future of film itself and how film engages with other creative industries including television, music, art, games and creative technology.’

LFF 2015 will run from October 7th to October 18th. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Thursday, September 17th.

Galas

Suffragette – Opening Night Film (Prev. announced)

Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane, Village at the End of the World) returns to the festival with an intense drama that traces the story of the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement.

Steve Jobs – Closing Night Film (Prev. announced)

With Danny Boyle’s exhilarating direction, Aaron Sorkin’s incisive screenplay, and Michael Fassbender’s scorching performance, Steve Jobs is virtuosic filmmaking.

Carol – American Express Gala (Prev. announced)

Todd Haynes presents an intoxicating and immaculate adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s beloved novel.

Trumbo – Accenture Gala

Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad, Argo) gives a cracking performance as Dalton Trumbo, the Hollywood screenwriter who was blacklisted after refusing to testify in the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947.

Black Mass – Virgin Atlantic Gala

Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch and Joel Edgerton ramp up the thrills in Scott Cooper’s (Crazy Heart) chilling crime drama.

Brooklyn – The May Fair Hotel Gala

Saoirse Ronan shines as a woman who journeys from post-war small-town Ireland to New York, in Nick Hornby’s adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s best-selling novel.

The Lady in the Van – Centrepiece Gala Supported by the Mayor of London

Award-festooned collaborators Nicholas Hytner and Alan Bennett (The Madness of King George, The History Boys), return for this witty and insightful adaptation of Bennett’s play.

High-Rise – Festival Gala in Association with Empire

Ben Wheatley meets JG Ballard head-on, in this savage and utterly brilliant satire.

Shooting Stars – Archive Gala

A fabulous silent film from Anthony Asquith (A Cottage on Dartmoor, Underground), set in a British movie studio in the 1920s.

A Bigger Splash – Love Gala

In the Sicilian sunshine, a rock star, her lover, a producer and his daughter meet in this sizzling drama from Luca Guadagnino (I Am Love).

The Lobster – Dare Gala in Association with Time Out

Following Dogtooth and Alps, Yorgos Lanthimos turns his strange lens on an all-star cast in this bleakly hilarious dystopian drama.

The Program – Debate Gala

Stephen Frears delivers a kinetic tale of cyclist Lance Armstrong’s inexorable rise to near canonisation and his subsequent vertiginous fall from grace.

Brand: A Second Coming – Laugh Gala

Russell Brand ponders Jesus, Ghandi, Malcolm X and his own political awakening in this lively doc that doesn’t forget to be funny.

Beeba Boys – Thrill Gala

A highly stylish drama about immigrant Sikh gangs fighting for supremacy on the streets of downtown Vancouver.

Bone Tomahawk – Cult Gala

Kurt Russell heads an all-star cast in this unpredictable and sometimes shocking fusion of horror and western.

The Assassin – Journey Gala

Hou Hsiao-Hsien, winner of the Best Director award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, presents his mesmerising first foray into martial arts.

The Idol – Sonic Gala in Association with MOBO Film

Twice Oscar-nominated Abu-Assad tells the incredible story of Mohammad Assaf – Gazan winner of Arab Idol who won the hearts of millions with his voice.

Goosebumps – Family Gala in Partnership with Plusnet

When Zack accidentally unleashes a deluge of monsters on a small town, mayhem ensues.

The Forbidden Room – Experimenta Special Presentation in Association with Sight & Sound

Gleeful, hypnotic and totally deranged, Guy Maddin (My Winnipeg, The Saddest Music in the World) and co-director Evan Johnson’s phantasmagoric opus… in the IMAX!

He Named Me Malala – Documentary Special Presentation

In this inspirational documentary, we follow extraordinary teenager Malala Yousafzai as she embarks on life in Britain.

Truth – Fellowship Special Presentation

Gripping docudrama about journalistic ethics starring Cate Blanchett and Robert Redford as the team behind the 60 Minutes investigation into whether George W. Bush avoided the Vietnam draft.

Official Competition

11 Minutes

Jerzy Skolimowski’s ‘catastrophic thriller’ interweaves the lives of multiple characters during a fateful eleven minutes with unexpected consequences.

Beasts of No Nation

A chilling portrait of the plight of child soldiers, told from the perspective of one young boy.

Cemetery of Splendour

Acclaimed Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul returns with a typically sublime, lyrical and visually ravishing tale of a unit of soldiers afflicted by a strange malady.

Chevalier

Athina Rachel Tsangari follows Attenberg with a biting and strange dissection of the male ego, featuring six men on a boat.

The Daughter

Ibsen’s ‘The Wild Duck’ is relocated to contemporary rural Australia, but in theatre director Simon Stone’s feature debut it still retains the Norwegian playwright’s powerful bite.

Desierto

The sophomore feature from Jonás Cuarón is an edge-of-the-seat thriller set on the Mexican/American border.

Evolution

A young islander confronts the enigmas of boyhood and the sea in this poetic horror story, the long-awaited second feature by French visionary Lucile Hadžihalilović.

Office

Hong Kong crime director par excellence Johnnie To offers up an equally exuberant, financial-world set musical that has to be seen to be believed.

Room

Jack and Ma live in Room. Now Jack is five-years-old he discovers there may be more to the world.

Son of Saul

A devastating portrait of life in a concentration camp, seen from the extremely subjective perspective of a Sonderkommando, this is a blistering debut from a new Hungarian director.

Sunset Song

Terence Davies returns to the festival with this glorious adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s 1932 novel.

Tangerine

A real-time drama, shot on iPhones in downtown LA and featuring two transsexual hookers in a vengeful mood, this is the ultimate in filmmaking on the fly.

Very Big Shot

Hilarious black comedy about a Beirut drug dealer trying to go legit for the sake of his two brothers finding himself at odds with his crime boss.

First Feature Competition

3000 Nights

Mai Masri’s fiction debut about a young Palestinian mother in detention is a poetic, compelling and raw allegory for freedom under occupation.

Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)

High-school students and their summer of orgies are the focus of Eva Husson’s no-holds-barred drama.

The Here After

Teenager John returns home after serving time. Those in his community are unwilling to forgive him his crime, or to face up to the pervasive darkness at their very core.

Krisha

In this SXSW Grand Jury prize-winner a woman arrives in a Texan suburb to stay with relatives but soon realises not everyone is happy that she’s there.

Lamb

Ephraim and his beloved pet sheep are taken by his father to live with relatives, but he soon hatches a plan to escape.

Light Years

A subtly nuanced drama that explores the toll that physical and mental illness can have on a family.

Partisan

Vincent Cassel stars as a charismatic papa leading a family of women and pint-size assassins.

Paula

A nanny struggles to find help in this insightful, beautifully observed debut feature from Argentine director Eugenio Canevari.

Tanna

The narrative debut of acclaimed documentarians Bentley Dean and Martin Butler set on the Vanuatu island of Tanna.

The Wait

Juliette Binoche shines in this emotionally rich drama about a grieving mother welcoming her son’s fiancée to her idyllic home, whilst concealing the tragedy.

Wedding Doll

Hagit is determined to build a life for herself no matter what obstacles she has to overcome, in this fascinating portrait of the relationship between a mother and daughter.

The Witch

A family in 17th century New England are torn apart by tension and the suspicion of witchcraft.

Documentary Competition

(Be)longing

The traditions that have been passed through generations of a small rural Portuguese village come face-to-face with the shifting desires of a young, mobile generation.

Censored Voices

Daunting testimonies of Israeli soldiers returning from the Six Day war revealed following 45 years of censorship.

The Fear of 13

A bold, compelling account of a Death Row convict who decides to take his case to court, not to seek freedom but to petition for his execution.

Frame by Frame

An inspiring account of four outstanding photojournalists in Afghanistan’s fledgling free press as they report on current issues from an Afghan perspective.

Francofonia

Alexander Sokurov presents an art historical tour de force, considering the Musée du Louvre under occupation in World War II.

In Jackson Heights

A plunge inside one of NYC’s busiest and multi-cultural neighbourhoods, Jackson Heights, led by great documentarian, Frederick Wiseman.

Jia Zhangke, A Guy from Fenyang

Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles paints a fascinating portrait of Chinese Sixth Generation director Jia Zhangke as they travel to the many locations featured in his films.

Mr. Gaga

Meet Ohad Naharin, prominent Israeli choreographer or ‘the man who dances like a cat’ in this visually stunning documentary.

The Pearl Button

Patricio Guzmán’s lyrical, illuminating follow-up to Nostalgia for the Light explores the fateful role played by water in Chile’s tragic history.

Public House

A triumphant genre-blending documentary that turns community action to save the local pub from gentrification into an exhilarating participatory opera.

Sherpa

Tragedy and mayhem on Mount Everest incredibly captured in this gripping and urgent documentary.

Something Better to Come

A detailed account of the life of a young girl as she grows up on one of the largest landfills in the world, on the outskirts of Moscow.

Short Film Competition

Short Film Award Programme 1

Command Action

While he is buying vegetables for his family in a local street market, a young boy observes life unfolding around him.

Edmond

Edmond goes on a reverse journey through his life, revisiting every defining moment in order to locate the origins of his desires.

The Exquisite Corpus

Footage from a variety of films that display human nudity, masterfully edited according the Surrealist principle of the exquisite corpse.

Lili

China Girls was the name given to women whose faces act as the guide for colour balance in film stocks and who, despite the moniker, almost always displayed caucasian skin tones.

Mother(s) (Maman(s))

The daily life of Aida and her family is overturned when her father comes back from Senegal. The problem is that he has not come back alone.

Operator

Gemma wakes to find her house on fire. Trapped with her son, she dials 999. The operator who answers holds Gemma’s life in her hands.

Short Film Award Programme 2

Dissonance

A genius pianist lives a lonely life in a surreal, floating world, playing the piano in a gigantic concert hall, but nobody is there to listen.

A Hole in My Heart (Un creux dans mon coeur)

A teenage boy has to confront issues on the mortality and fragility of life following a road accident.

An Old Dog’s Diary

A lyrical film portrait of Francis Newton Souza, one of the key Indian artists of the 20th-century, inspired by his personal writings, letters, drawings and possessions.

Over

A crime scene in a quiet neighbourhood is seen in reverse, with the reveal leading to an unexpected conclusion.

Red Moon Rising

Sumptuous nature is artificially created from the female imagination as if the Garden of Eden was made for the pleasure of women only. The female inhabitants perform to a soundtrack that is radically classical or vice-versa.

Tuesday (Sali)

A young girl encounters three different men on her way to school, she plays basketball and eventually takes a bus home.

Love Strand

An

Naomi Kawase’s tale of a diner cook whose life is transformed by a sweet but stubborn septuagenarian is both lyrical and affecting.

Ayanda

A young Johannesburg woman inherits a struggling garage and sets about transforming it into a business that reflects the city’s new, youthful and hip environment.

Box

A boxer and an actress enter into a subtle non-verbal relationship on the sunny streets of Bucharest.

Couple in a Hole

Forest-dwelling love endures underground in Tom Geens’ odd and beautiful drama.

Departure

When a young man and his mother clear away their French country house, the last thing he expects to find in the sleepy village is romance.

Dheepan

Jacques Audiard’s soul-stirring Palme d’Or winner tells of a makeshift Sri Lankan family fighting for their livelihood in Paris, and eventually for their lives.

Fifty

A group of women in Lagos want everything but are each challenged in a society riven by gender imbalance.

Gayby Baby

Four delightfully astute, amusing and articulate Australian children describe their lives with same-sex parents in an insightful and heart-warming account of modern families.

Hand Gestures

A visually engrossing observational study of an Italian artist and his craftsmen in the process of creating a bronze sculpture in an historic Milanese foundry.

Hitchcock/Truffaut

Excellent, thought-provoking documentary about a game-changing film interview – and why Hitchcock remains so influential.

I Am Belfast

A dreamlike evocation of Belfast with a powerful soundtrack by great Belfast DJ and film composer David Holmes.

In the Room

A Singapore hotel room plays host to the love stories of its international guests through the decades.

Ingrid Bergman – In Her Own Words

A personal portrait of Ingrid Bergman crafted from her unique home-movie footage, with insightful contributions from family and collaborators including Isabella Rossellini and Liv Ullman.

James White

An aspiring New York writer comes to terms with life – and death.

Kiss Me Kate

Shakespeare, vaudeville and men-in-tights: Cole Porter’s greatest musical is transformed into a big screen 3D extravaganza.

Legacy

A tender portrait of two women in rural Chile, between magic spells and mechanics.

My Golden Days

Mathieu Amalric’s everyman hero revisits all his yesterdays, and especially his lost loves, in Arnaud Desplechin’s elegant, haunting essay on love, youth and memory.

My Love, Don’t Cross That River

A warm and tender exploration of a 76-year marriage in South Korea.

My Skinny Sister

An intimate account of how one family member’s eating disorder can have a profound impact on everyone.

Our Little Sister

Three sisters take in a younger sibling when their father dies, in Hirokazu Kore-eda’s lovely drama.

The Romantic Exiles

A trio of Spanish dreamers head to Paris in a camper van in search of adventures in this delightfully ironic Rohmer-infused feature.

A Tale of Three Cities

Jackie Chan’s parents lived through turbulent times. This glorious wartime romance sweeps through 1930s China as their love must survive many tests.

Thirst

A mother, father, and son live in a house overlooking a small town in Bulgaria. When a man and his daughter join them to drill for water, an unexpected drama develops.

Truman

Two friends are reunited when one of them announces he is in the advanced stages of cancer.

Valley of Love

French screen legends Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu are reunited in this moody, moving duet about a former couple looking for reconciliation in Nevada’s Death Valley.

Variety

Restored at last, this great Weimar silent about a circus acrobat caught in the grip of an erotic obsession is renowned for its breathtaking cinematography.

Viaje

Costa Rican director Paz Fábrega offers an original take on the boy meets girl scenario, playfully capturing the dizzy, intoxicating early days of a new relationship.

Virgin Mountain

Is there a love out there big enough to accommodate the gentle charms of Fúsi, the man mountain?

Short films programme – Films of Love and Devotion

Elephant

Two people who are seemingly ‘just good friends’ spend the day together.

Last Door South (Dernière porte au Sud)

A child and his Siamese head live a secluded life sealed in their house and away from the outside world. Puppet animation adapted from Philippe Foerster’s comic book.

Scent of Fish Sauce

The demands of the job mean that a carer’s relationship with her patient becomes more intimate.

Offline Dating

A documentary about a single man, Tom, who challenges himself to find his next date without the use of the internet.

Forever Over

Mia and Tim have been together forever. They invent a game to help each other fulfil their secret desires, no matter what it is.

Absence

Paul McGann stars in a moving film about the grieving process.

Ernie Biscuit

Ernie, a lonely French man, makes a daring leap in his later life to find love in Venice. However, for some reason he ends up in Australia.

Debate Strand

Aligarh

A young journalist uncovers a homophobic conspiracy behind the case of an Indian college professor who is caught by the press in bed with his lover.

The Apostate

From Uruguayan director Federico Veiroj comes a droll contemplation of male solipsism pitting a thirty-something drifter against the Kafkaesque bureaucracy of the Catholic Church.

Arianna

A coming-of-age drama with a twist about a young girl searching for her real sexual identity.

Chronic

The motivations of a care giver for the terminally ill are thrown into question in Michel Franco’s complex drama.

The Club

Pablo Larrain’s Berlin prize-winner is a typically stylish, darkly witty tale of corruption, concealment and conspiracy in Chile’s Catholic church.

Dégradé

A day in the life of a Gaza beauty salon as a group of disparate women find themselves locked in after rival militants clash outside.

The Hard Stop

A humane, thought-provoking and topical documentary giving a voice to Mark Duggan’s friends and family.

Make More Noise! Suffragettes in Film

A selection representing women on film in the first decades of the 20th century.

A Man for All Seasons

Sir Thomas More vs Henry VIII in Fred Zinnemann and Robert Bolt’s sumptuous, multi-Oscar-winning slice of Tudor history.

The Measure of a Man

Vincent Lindon is superb as a man facing the realities of unemployment and the market in Stéphane Brizé’s gripping, fiercely intelligent French social drama.

Mediterranea

Ultra-topical and powerful story of two African men making the epic journey from Burkino Faso to Italy, only to find that life is no bed of roses in Western Europe either.

The Memory of Justice

This trail-blazing and significant work redefined what documentary, at its most ambitious, can do, setting standards and creating expectations.

Much Loved

Controversial, searing look at prostitution in Morocco from acclaimed director Nabil Ayouch featuring some remarkable performances.

My Scientology Movie

Louis Theroux employs his characteristic deadpan wit in his investigation into the Church of Scientology.

Nasty Baby

The director of The Maid returns with the story of a gay couple about to have their first baby with a friend, but who also face problems with their work and US immigration services.

My Nazi Legacy

And what if your father was a Nazi? This is the harrowing question raised in David Evans’ thought-provoking documentary.

Paulina

Smart political cinema from Argentina’s Santiago Mitre as a trainee lawyer sees her principles clash with the pragmatics of the challenging situation she finds herself in.

The People Vs. Fritz Bauer

Gripping portrait of Fritz Bauer, a man who defied his own country members in working with Mossad to track down Adolf Eichmann.

Salaam Bombay!

Slumdog without the Millionaire. Mira Nair’s Oscar-nominated debut feature is an authentic and unnerving portrait of Mumbai’s street children.

(T)error

A remarkable account of the way that US security forces have been coordinating a vast network of domestic ‘spies’ in order to root out and often falsely accuse its own citizens of terrorism.

Taklub

A compassionate drama detailing life for the one of the poorest communities in the Philippines, following the typhoon that hit the country in 2010.

Taxi Tehran

Jafar Panahi’s warm, witty and wise Berlin prizewinner sees the director posing as an amateur cabbie, ferrying a colourful array of passengers around Tehran.

Short films programme – Last Man Standing is a Girl

Groove Is in the Heart

A tale of music and memory is unspooled through a schoolgirl’s mixtape.

At the Jiznak Estate (Na Jižňáku)

A young girl sneaks out of the house one evening to see her classmates.

A Girl’s Day

Yasmin is searching for happiness and trying to understand her life, as well as dealing with the difficult relationship with her ex-heroin addict mother.

Tuesday (Sali)

A young girl encounters three different men on her way to school, she plays basketball and eventually takes a bus home.

Catwalk

Ella realises the importance of fashion and starts rebelling against her childhood.

The Face of Ukraine: Casting Oksana Baiul

Adorned in pink sequins, little girls from across a divided Ukraine audition to play the role of Olympic champion figure skater Oksana Baiul.

Beneath the Spaceship (Under Rymdskeppet)

A teenage girl has a friendly relationship with an older neighbour, but things begin to take a darker turn.

A Few Seconds (Quelques seconds)

Five girls living in a women’s centre are all haunted by their traumatised past, which has included sexual and physical assault as well as abandonment.

Rate Me

A fascinating portrait of teenage escort, Coco.

Dare Strand

Arabian Nights

Miguel Gomes’s uniquely imaginative response to Portugal’s economic crisis: an encyclopedic, shape-shifting, hugely entertaining triptych that merges true-life experience with the ancient tales of Scheherezade.

Blood of My Blood

Part period drama, part contemporary satire, this is a highly distinctive film from Italian maestro Marco Bellocchio.

Body

A widower, his daughter and the family physical therapist offer three frequently wry perspectives on the notion of loss in Szumowska’s fascinating film.

Chemsex

A hard-hitting and often graphic documentary about the chemsex sub-scene in London’s gay community.

The Chosen Ones

Sex trafficking in Mexico is the subject of David Pablos’ powerful but deeply human drama.

Closet Monster

An offbeat Canadian coming-of-age drama with surrealist tendencies, featuring the voice of Isabella Rossellini as a talking hamster.

Der Nachtmahr

Visual artist AKIZ presents a phantasmagoric mind-games conundrum.

The Endless River

The director of Shirley Adams and Beauty returns with a typically challenging but rewarding drama set in a small South African town.

Entertainment

A shock-jock stand-up comedian’s toxic tour of US ghost towns triggers his own hallucinatory emotional breakdown.

Father

A charged, unsentimental account of the ralationship between a son determined to find his father, at any cost.

Flapping in the Middle of Nowhere

A wry and weirdly affecting take on teenage pregnancy that moves from realism to an altogether stranger place.

Flocking

Exploring the trend for public shaming via social media, this topical, of-the-moment drama holds back the big reveal in its account of a crime that may or may not have happened.

Happy Hour

A group of thirty-something women find their friendship tested by their differing attitudes to work, love and sex in the city of Kobe, Japan.

Homesick

The spirit of early Roman Polanski exists at the heart of this menacing claustrophobic thriller.

Kothanodi

A gruesome quartet of traditional folk fables from Assam follow women characters to the edge of sanity in this surreal debut feature.

Lucifer

Lucifer visits a village in Mexico and leaves the villagers in disarray, in this visionary drama, filmed within a circular frame.

Madame Courage

A gritty yet delicate portrait of solitary and unhinged petty thief Omar and his addiction to Madame Courage pills, by veteran Algerian director Merzak Allouache.

Madonna

Hospital thriller meets character portrait in this stylish Korean tale of a woman who never fitted in.

A Monster with a Thousand Heads

A desperate woman, keen to secure life-saving treatment for her desperately ill husband, takes on the multinationals in this taut conspiracy thriller from Rodrigo Plá.

Neon Bull

Set in and around the Brazilian bullfighting scene, we follow a young man whose aspirations veer more towards dance than the violence of the ring.

Nicola Costantino: The Artefacta

An immersive and daring plunge into the peculiar world of one of Argentina’s most controversial artists, Nicola Costantino.

Notfilm: A Kino-Essay by Ross Lipman

Ross Lipman explores the fascinating world of Samuel Beckett in this kino-essay about the making of Film (1965), starring Buster Keaton.

Old Czech Legends

This digitally restored version of Jiří Trnka’s classic puppet feature includes six stories, including those of Princess Libuše and Přemysl the Ploughman.

One Floor Below

Romanian realism meets incisive ethical irony in Muntean’s tense tale of two neighbours wondering how much the other knows about who committed a murder.

Parabellum

A chilling vision of a holiday resort offering survivalist training for the impending apocalypse.

Poet on a Business Trip

A black and white lo-fi hybrid documentary that sees a grungy poet hit the road in China in 2002.

Queen of Earth

Following Listen Up Philip, Alex Ross Perry further mines the dark side of the psyche with this stunning drama about the reunion of two not-so-close school friends.

Schneider vs. Bax

A professional hitman who may have found the perfect work-life balance takes on a job that turns out to have unexpected consequences.

Sunrise

A police inspector, haunted by the abduction of his six year-old daughter, takes the law into his own hands in this high-style neo-noir thriller.

Take Me to the River

A young gay teen is thrust into a world of familial tension and menace at a fraught family reunion.

Under Electric Clouds

Alexey German Jr’s complex and visually compelling portrait of a Russia ‘crucified between past and present’ combines seven stories in a portrait of an absurd reality.

Wave vs Shore

Martin Štrba’s inventive documentary tells the remarkable story of a group of Slovak photographers whose groundbreaking work challenged Communist orthodoxy in the 1980s.

Women in Love

Ken Russell’s first major auteurist feature is a lyrical take on love and death as experienced by a Britain ravaged by WWI.

35mm: The Quays Meet Christopher Nolan (Short Films Programme)

Three restored 35mm prints of films from two of the world’s most original filmmakers, alongside a brand new short by Christopher Nolan.

Short Films Programme – Family at War

Coach

A father and his teenage son are in France for a football game. When their car breaks down, they accept a ride from a bus of traveling England fans.

Samuel-613

The story of Shmilu, a young Hasidic Jew torn between his faith and the romance of life in modern Hackney.

Video

Elaine is having trouble balancing life between her teenage daughter and a secret evening job.

Black Sheep

n the North of England, two adolescent brothers set out to attend an EDL street protest.

Sunday Lunch (Le Repas dominical)

At lunch, James observes his family. They ask him questions, but don’t listen to his answers. They even give him advice that they don’t follow themselves.

Mother(s) (Maman(s))

The daily life of Aida and her family is overturned when her father comes back from Senegal. The problem is that he has not come back alone.

Tamara

Tamara is a bus conductor. She has a date after work at a karaoke bar. But she brings her young son with her.

Laugh Strand

21 Nights with Pattie

A superb French cast run wild amid mountain landscapes, in the Larrieu brothers’ eccentric, witty, outrageous rural comedy about sex, death and the imagination.

The Brand New Testament

Catherine Deneuve and Benoît Poelvoorde head the cast in Jaco Van Dormael’s wildly inventive comedy, in which God’s daughter decides to rewrite the rules.

Burn Burn Burn

The tragicomic road trip of two young women, sent on a beyond-the-grave mission by their dead friend to scatter his ashes at five British locations.

Cronies

A hilarious Clerks-style take on male friendship.

From A to B

It’s not the journey but how you get there… a fitting motto for a road trip between a group of estranged childhood friends.

The Garbage Helicopter

There probably isn’t such a thing as a ‘garbage helicopter’. It’s just another on-the-road misnomer spouted by Saska, a crossword-obsessed wannabe poet.

Grandma

A raucous road movie starring Lily Tomlin as a foul-mouthed septuagenarian.

Latin Lover

Hilarious comedy about a family reuniting on the 10th anniversary of a famous actor’s death, only to reopen old wounds and reveal hidden secrets.

Live from New York!

The insider guide to forty years of Saturday Night Live, the most influential comedy sketch show in US TV history, from the stars who defined it.

Lost in Munich

Petr Zelenka’s film tells the absurd story of the French prime minister’s parrot, a witness to the Munich Conference, who reveals its secrets decades later.

Men and Chicken

Elias (Mads Mikkelsen) and his brother Gabriel get down and dirty with the oddball inhabitants of a remote Danish island in this pitch black bawdy comedy.

Our Man in Havana

Alec Guinness stars as a hapless vacuum cleaner salesman turned secret agent on the dangerous, lusty streets of old Havana.

A Perfect Day

A group of anarchic international aid workers in the Balkan war struggle to overcome booby-trapped land mines, oppressive bureaucracy and their own fraught relationships.

Rediscovered Laurel and Hardy – The Battle of the Century

A rediscovered classic accompanied by popular shorts.

Ruben Guthrie

To win back his fiancée, a cocky, fast-living advertising executive resolves to give up alcohol for one year – but an entire drinking culture has other ideas.

Ryuzo and His Seven Henchmen

A gaggle of elderly retired Yakuza attempt to relive their gory glory days by taking down the young gang who swindled one of their group.

Short Films Programme – Funny how? How Am I Funny?

Just Desserts

Three couples get together for a boozy restaurant dinner, but the mild-mannered Dennis is more interested in checking the National Lottery results.

Pink Velvet Valley

In a picturesque corner of rural Scotland Alec Calan has a serious case of addiction to Ray-Ban sunglasses.

Kung Fury

In 1985, ace detective Kung Fury goes back in time to kill Adolf Hitler aka ‘Kung Führer’. A glorious and full-on homage to VHS-era action films.

Otherwise Engaged

A young couple who are completely obsessed with social media decide to get married.

Ave Maria

Carmelite nuns at a convent in the West Bank have their silence disturbed by an Israeli settler family, whose car has broken down as the Sabbath begins.

Discipline

In a grocery store in Lausanne, a father loses patience and disciplines his disobedient child. Other customers join the conversation, which soon gets out of hand.

Interior. Family. (Interior. Familia.)

A couple of loving parents wake up their son in the middle of the night to talk about something urgent and horrifying that will change his life forever.

Crack

A new craze is taking over the estates of London. With fights, street deals and territorial warfare escalating dangerously, it won’t be long until it’s out of control.

Thrill Strand

Assassination

During occupation by the Japanese army in 1933, the Korean resistance hires three professional killers to strike back against the enemy.

Being Evel

The lives and loves of a daredevil.

Guilty

Irrfan Khan stars in this gripping police thriller based on a real-life murder case that caused international controversy.

The Ones Below

When a strange couple move in downstairs, a married pair find their happy home becomes something far more sinister.

Rattle the Cage

A former alcoholic wakes up in a jail cell with no ID and finds himself at the mercy of a homicidal killer masquerading as a sheriff.

Remember

A revenge thriller in which a dying man confronts the greatest evil of the 20th century.

Retribution

A crooked banker finds the usual school run disrupted when an anonymous caller reveals there is a bomb in his car…

Sherlock Holmes

Long thought missing, this early film version of Arthur Conan Doyle’s detective series is a key to understanding the cinematic representation of Sherlock Holmes.

Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans

A riveting account of Steve McQueen’s ambitions to make the defining motor car movie.

The Survivalist

In a post-apocalyptic world, a forest-dwelling loner is forced to reckon with two women who need him – or at least his food and shelter – to survive.

Victoria

A starry-eyed Berlin all-nighter turns into a stomach-lurching heist scenario – and this adrenalised epic of the heart plays out in one unfaked, uninterrupted take.

Warlock

Uniquely stylish and fascinating Western – restored and ripe for rediscovery on the big screen.

The Wave

Seismic rumblings in the Norwegian fjords threaten to start a chain reaction that will destroy the local area. Can it be stopped in time?

Wednesday 04:45

A Greek bar owner faces financial ruin when a ruthless investor demands he make good on his repayments. Sound familiar…?

Short Films Programme – Fight or Flight

Oh-Be-Joyful

Rita is about to kick the bucket, but before she does she has one last job to do: drag her granddaughter out of the closet.

Completo

A rural milkman insists that his significantly younger partner collect the overdue payment from their most difficult customer.

Band Call

In the last moments before he goes on stage, an ageing performer of old school cabaret rehearses in his dressing room. Or so he thinks.

Stop

A young man’s livelihood is put to the test when he gets profiled and stopped by the police on his way home one day.

The Stomach

Frank is a professional spirit medium, but wants to quit. Part body horror, part crime thriller, part ghost story, this is a great example of supernatural noir.

Operator

Gemma wakes to find her house on fire. Trapped with her son, she dials 999. The operator who answers holds Gemma’s life in her hands.

The Brain Hack

Two film students create a visual stimulant that induces hallucinations of God, but soon find themselves attracting unwanted attention from a religious cult. Warning: this film contains flashing images and strobe effects.

Cult Strand

The Boy

A young’s boys preoccupation with death takes a chilling turn in Craig William Macneill’s hypnotic debut feature.

The Corpse of Anna Fritz

A hospital morgue is the setting for this seriously nasty thriller that is not for the faint-hearted.

Don’t Grow Up

A mysterious epidemic sends all the adults mad in this genre-defying shocker from Thierry Poiraud.

Elstree 1976

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, ten actors landed themselves small roles in Star Wars. Here are their stories.

Ghost Theater

From the visionary director of J-horror classic Ringu comes a new tale of terror.

Green Room

From the director of Blue Ruin comes this ultra-violent tale of a punk band falling prey to a gang of neo-nazis.

The Invitation

A chilling chamber piece from Jennifer’s Body director, Karyn Kasuama.

Love and Peace

Punk rock, talking turtles and underground sewer communities – it must be Sion Sono time!

Observance

Almost impossible to define, this slice of surrealist horror will have you thinking for days.

Ratter

A thrilling exercise in techno terror which sees a young woman cyber-stalked by an unseen assailant.

What We Become

A small Danish town is ravaged by an unknown disease in this quiet chiller from Bo Mikkelsen.

Yakuza Apocalypse

The ever outrageous Takashi Miike fuses elements of action, horror, slapstick and exploitation in this wild gangster vampire saga.

Short Films Programme – Wild at Heart and Weird on Top

Smut Hounds

When the 1969 Sydney Film Festival attempts to programme a Swedish film that the censors believe contains actual sex, a scandal erupts.

Manoman

Glen attends a primal scream therapy session to tap into his masculine side. But surrounded by wailing men, he finds he cannot make a sound.

Teeth

A man’s life is chronicled through the loss of his teeth.

Deep Space

An intergalactic mission to discover a new intelligent species finds an astronaut undergoing severe mental and physical strain.

Sexpol

An enlightening account of the movement for the liberation from repressive sexual morals, which was lead by the psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich.

Edmond

Edmond goes on a reverse journey through his life, revisiting every defining moment in order to locate the origins of his desires.

Superior

A stranger passing through town sparks a young girl’s desire to distinguish herself from her identical twin sister.

Family Trip

A low road to heaven and a high road to hell. The perfect trip!

Lesley the Pony has an A+ Day!

Lesley has fun-filled adventures in the town of Merryville with his friend The Duke.

Copycat

In 1991, Rolfe Kanefsky released his self-aware horror film, There’s Nothing Out There. Five years later, Wes Craven released Scream.

Nasty

12-year-old Doug is drawn into the lurid world of VHS horror as he investigates the mysterious disappearance of his father.

Journey Strand

Aferim!

A dazzlingly original Romanian ‘western’, and an unusually vivid, witty demonstration of how the world has changed – or not…

Black Girl

“An astonishing movie – so ferocious, so haunting, and so unlike anything we’d ever seen.” – Martin Scorsese

Cowboys

Sometime Jacques Audiard co-writer Thomas Bidegain moves into directing with this bold, unpredictable thriller about an Americana-obsessed French family in search of their missing daughter.

Dog Lady

A witty, original portrait of a defiant maverick living with her canine companions on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.

Embrace of the Serpent

Based on real-life journals, this is a stunning journey through the heart of the Colombian Amazon.

The End of the Tour

A bittersweet dramatisation of life on the road with reluctant superstar novelist David Foster Wallace.

Exotica, Erotica, Etc.

A journey through the industrial ports of Europe re-imagined as a modern-day take on The Odyssey.

Gold Coast

A Terrence Malick-like luminous and highly personal vision of 19th century colonial Africa, and the inner life of Danish botanist and progressive thinker Wulff Joseph Wulff.

Ixcanul Volcano

A remarkable tale of rural life in Guatemala for a group of people living on the side of a volcano.

King Jack

American small town, hazy summer, local bully – a tough, but tender coming-of-age story.

Land of Mine

Morally complex story of young German POWs faced with the deadly task of landmine clearance in postwar Denmark.

Listen to Me Marlon

A glorious, affectionate, hugely enjoyable film employing extensive archive footage of the reclusive star, Marlon Brando.

Mountains May Depart

Jia Zhangke delivers another ambitious, astute and humane drama, spanning the early days of Chinese capitalism to a vision of 2025.

The Mud Woman

Catalina Saavedra (The Maid) stars in this stark and gripping social critique which attempts to restore some dignity to Chile’s migrant worker population.

Murmur of the Hearts

Sylvia Chang spins a dreamy tale of misfits trying to deal with the past, so they can find love and move on.

Necktie Youth

The post-Apartheid youth of Johannesburg may not have seen the struggles their parents lived through but they have more than enough problems of their own.

The New Classmate

A charming tale of a poor single mother who comes up with an ingenious plan to convince her rebellious daughter to study.

Petting Zoo

A portrait of life among the underbelly of Texan society, where a young girl is forced to grow up fast.

The Raging Moon

This tender love story between two young people in wheelchairs was ahead of its time in its attempts to change attitudes to disability.

Red Leaves

An aging patriarch forces himself on his family after the death of his wife only to realise that their modern ways don’t chime with his worldview.

Right Now, Wrong Then

Hong Sang-soo delivers a low-key charmer about a filmmaker, a painter, and a lot of Soju.

Rocco and His Brothers

An opera without the arias, Visconti’s masterpiece sees five brothers battle over love, passion and morality.

Sailing a Sinking Sea

Crystal clear water, legends of modern-day mermaids – meet the Mokens, a nomadic seafaring community living off the Andaman coast.

Sembene!

The godfather of African film and a cinematic pioneer gets the homage he deserves with this fascinating portrait.

Songs My Brothers Taught Me

A striking, visually sensuous account of life on a reservation in South Dakota.

Sworn Virgin

Alba Rohrwacher is astonishing as the Albanian woman who has chosen not to marry and so must live the identity of a man, only to question her existence on a trip to Italy.

Youth

From the director of The Great Beauty, this delicious bittersweet drama is set in the worlds of film and music and features a tour de force performance by Michael Caine.

Short Films Programme – In the Neighbourhood

Madeleine

A mundane event offers a glimpse into a normally unseen world of mysterious connections in a small American town.

A Hole in My Heart (Un creux dans mon coeur)

A teenage boy has to confront issues on the mortality and fragility of life following a road accident.

Command Action

While he is buying vegetables for his family in a local street market, a young boy observes life unfolding around him.

The Evolution of a Gen-X Music Purchaser

All the significant moments over the last twenty years in Zack’s life parallel the changing landscape of music buying technology.

Malaguti Phantom

With his disfigured face, minimal social skills and a crappy scooter, Jeroen must transform in order to be accepted by the bad kids of the neighbourhood.

Slingshot

An analogy of modern love in a trailer park, with young Frankie and Tayla.

Lord and Lidl

A man heads to his local Lidl supermarket after God unexpectedly shows up at his door asking for a meal.

Over

A crime scene in a quiet neighbourhood is seen in reverse, with the reveal leading to an unexpected conclusion.

Next to Me (Obok Mnie)

While a young girl is out shopping she is followed by two older girls.

Empire

Late afternoon in a city suburb, a man comes home to his wife and child. A portrait of a family captured in real time.

Short Films Programme – In the Neighbourhood

Jacked

Russell and Waylen jack a car, the wrong car, will they do the right thing?

Balcony

In a neighbourhood rife with racial tension, a local girl falls for a recent arrival.

160 Characters

When a vintage Nokia is recharged, a compelling real life story is revealed, in this mixed media documentary.

Japanese Samurai Sword

Tien is drawn into his older brother’s Triad gang but when coerced to go on a hit with a Japanese samurai sword, he begins to doubt his allegiance.

Rainbow Party

Ready. Steady. Blow.

Above

Out of prison, 19-year-old Niamh returns to her baby girl, only to face bad blood with her own mum.

The Girl in the Dress

Just hours before the wedding, Emily happens upon a Henry VIII living statue. Is it a bad sign?

Sonic Strand

The American Epic Sessions

Jack White and T Bone Burnett preside over a galaxy of music legends, as they gather in one LA studio to record on the legendary Western Electric lathe.

Danny Says

An enjoyable account of the Ramones manager who was much, much more than that.

Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock and Roll

Before the Vietnam war spilled into Cambodia, the music scene had merged both west and east to produce a strange musical concoction.

Elephant Days

Not only a record of the Maccabees recording their fourth album, this is a spirited exploration of the streets and people that populate Elephant and Castle, where the music studio is located.

Fresh Dressed

A comprehensive guide to the rise of hip hop style from its early days through to its current global dominance.

Hot Sugar’s Cold World

An offbeat muso-travelogue, following the eclectic musician as he records his new album.

Janis: Little Girl Blue

An affectionate portrait of the soul singer who died at too young an age, featuring stunning archival footage.

A Poem Is a Naked Person

This portrait of Rock and Roll hall of famer, Leon Russell is an ineffable, joyous collage of mesmerising live performance and vérité realism.

Ruined Heart: Another Love Story Between a Criminal and a Whore

The punk sound and vision of Khavn De La Cruz through the lens of Christopher Doyle, this kaleidoscope of sex, violence and crime has a banging soundtrack at its core.

Sonic DJ sets

Join Stretch Armstrong and Bobbito Garcia as they DJ in London together for the first time, creating a historic night that’s not to be missed.

Stretch and Bobbito: Radio that Changed Lives

If you loved hip hop in the 1990s then you listened to Stretch and Bobbito. Here, they tell their own story.

They Will Have to Kill Us First: Malian Music In Exile

The rise of fundamentalism has threatened the lives of Malian musicians and the music they play. However, they refuse to be silenced.

Short Films Programme – Sound Mirrors

The New Music (La Nouvelle Musique)

In a world where only one melody exists, Tom and Vilma work in industrial research and revelopment to create a new music.

C.T.R.L

A young man’s attempt at first contact with a potential love interest is hijacked by a phone app.

Blue Thunder (Bleu tonnerre)

Sawmill worker Bruno is homeless after another breakup. Driven to put his beloved blue suit back on, he rekindles an old love.

Three Stones for Jean Genet

Singer Patti Smith travels to the grave of French writer Jean Genet in Morocco. She takes three stones, which she collected for him 30 years before.

Dissonance

A genius pianist lives a lonely life in a surreal, floating world, playing the piano in a gigantic concert hall, but nobody is there to listen.

Lines

The lyrics of some favourite songs are subject to a personal interpretation. Whether good or bad, liberating or oppressing, the film’s cast tell all.

Les Bosquets

Art and social upheaval interweave in this film based on the ballet Les Bosquets. Inspired by the 2005 Parisian riots, it combines video archive, choreography, and testimony.

Midnight of My Life

In 1985, ex-Small Face Steve Marriot’s star may no longer be in the ascendant but his love of music and performing is undiminished. Starring Martin Freeman.

Let’s Dance: Bowie Down Under

The fascinating story behind one of the most celebrated music videos ever made.

Family Strand

Adama

Adama sets out from his village to find his older brother, but also discovers a fascinating and troubled world.

The Boy and the Beast

A glorious animated film about the friendship between a boy and a mythical beast.

Celestial Camel

Bayir sets out to look for his family’s missing camel and encounters beauty and adventure.

The Invisible Boy

Bullying and its impact are the focus of this imaginative teen drama.

Mune

The fate of both the sun and moon lies in the hands of Mune. Can he handle the pressure?

When Marnie Was There

The final Studio Ghibli film is up there with their highest artistic achievments.

Who Killed Nelson Nutmeg?

Loveable squirrel mascot Nelson Nutmeg may be in a lot of trouble in this British children’s film.

Short Films Programme – Animated Shorts for Younger Audiences

Lune (Lune et le loup)

Who is looking after the baby?

Ladybug (Kopoeka)

A small, beautiful ladybird longs to be free.

Guards of the Forest (Meža sargi)

Be very, very careful where you leave your litter when you visit the forest.

The Ballad of Holland Island House

The last house on the island tells its tale.

The Law of the Jungle (La loi du plus fort)

Dividing a banana, the monkey way.

Can I Stay?

The journey to a new home.

Awa’s Dream (Le rêve d’Awa)

Awa is determined to make the best of her life.

The Red Herring

Are these penguins hungry or greedy?

Sky High

A sky-high view.

The Martian (Marsietis)

Is it a toy martian or a martian toy?

Waves from the Sky (Olas del cielo)

A bird falls out of the sky and needs help.

Sanjay’s Super Team

Will Sanjay leave his comics and cartoons behind and take the world a little more seriously?

Ture the Dice (Ture Tärning)

A dice and a ladybird become friends.

Carface

Is this the future?

Experimenta Strand

Event For a Stage

The experimental document of four unusual performances staged by artist Tacita Dean and actor Stephen Dillane.

Heated Gloves

The uncompromising life of a radical, eccentric inventor is here explored through archival materials and 16mm film.

The Host

A personal investigation into family history and connections with the Anglo Iranian Oil Company (BP) begins a meditation on colonial narratives.

Invention

Canadian artist Mark Lewis presents an awe-inspiring cinematic experience that demonstrates how artists create new ways to see.

Park Lanes

The detailed study of honest day’s work used to draw out the economic, social and cultural backgrounds of a group of factory employees that we slowly get to know quite profoundly.

Remainder

Omer Fast delivers a startling adaptation of Tom McCarthy’s acclaimed first novel, starring Tom Sturridge.

The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers

The beauty of Morocco transformed into a mysterious landscape which is the site for an investigation into the creation of the cinematic imaginary.

Short Films Programme – Approaching Nature

For an Open Campus

The remarkable ‘campus world’ of Japan’s Aichi University of the Arts is here explored on camera and through the work of its students, who produce a huge drawing and a model landscape.

Shape Shifting

An exploratory cartography of the landscape found in Asia and Japan known as satoyama, highlighting exchanges in forestry and agriculture between the human and the non-human.

Now

An enlivened 16mm mediation on lush green sprouting plants and vegetation, signaling life, change and development within an urban environment otherwise preoccupied by stasis.

Gasometer 3

Relationships between energy systems, localised and national, and the weather with its own structures and rhythms are closely observed.

The Rain After (Dan hujan pun turun)

Waiting and witnessing as children pose for the camera, the viewer is confronted with a sudden change in weather.

Short Films Programme – Dream Worlds and Nightmare Visions

Five Minute Museum

The spoils of hundreds of years of colonial pillage condensed for the consumption of the digital generation.

Glass House

The artist attempts a recreation of the ideological clash that occurred when Eisenstein wanted to use film language based on the principles of Marx’s Das Kapital whilst working in Hollywood.

Bone

The relationship of inter-species image-creation and language investigated in the photographic studio where human technicians seek to communicate and control their canine subjects.

Show more