BFI London Film Festival unveils films selected to screen in competition

Matt Smith stars in Starve Acre, which is in the running for the Best Film Award
BFI LFF
Tom Davidson30 August 2023

The BFI London Film Festival has unveiled the films that will screen in competition for the Best Film Award at this year’s festival.

Eleven films from across the world will go head to head, with the same number also in the First Feature Competition which looks at original and imaginative directorial debut efforts.

Oscar-winning director Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who earned considerable praise for 2021’s Drive My Car, heads up the entries for the main competition with his latest work from Japan, Evil Does Not Exist.

Irish husband and wife duo Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor are also in the running with their latest work Baltimore.

The UK is represented by Daniel Kokotajlo’s second film Starve Acre which stars Matt Smith.

The 11 films screening in Official Competition are:

- Baltimore (Ireland-UK, dir-scr. Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor)

- Dear Jassi (India, dir. Tarsem Singh Dhandwar)

- Europa (Austria-UK, dir-scr. Sudabeh Mortezai)

- Evil Does Not Exist (Japan, dir-scr. Ryusuke Hamaguchi)

- Fingernails (USA, dir-scr. Christos Nikou)

- Gasoline Rainbow (USA, dir-scr. Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross)

- I am Sirat (Canada, dir. A collaboration between Deepa Mehta and Sirat Taneja)

- The Royal Hotel (Australia, dir-scr. Kitty Green)

- Self Portrait: 47km 2020 (China, dir. Zhang Mengqi)

- Starve Acre (UK, dir-scr. Daniel Kokotajlo)

- Together 99 (Sweden-Denmark, dir-scr. Lukas Moodysson)

Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director, said: “The films represented in each of these competitive strands offer audiences an exciting array of UK and global filmmaking voices and cinematic forms.

“We’re so proud to be showcasing each of these films and thank all the filmmaking teams in competition for sharing their films with us.”

The festival will kick off with the premiere of Saltburn on October 4, the second film by Emerald Fennell.

Five British filmmakers feature in the First Feature Competition.

The 11 films screening in the First Feature Competition are:

- Black Dog (UK, dir-scr. George Jaques)

- Earth Mama (USA-UK, dir-scr. Savanah Leaf)

- Hoard (UK, dir-scr. Luna Carmoon)

- In Camera (UK, dir-scr. Naqqash Khalid)

- Mambar Pierrette (Belgium-Cameroon, dir-scr. Rosine Mbakam)

- Paradise is Burning (Sweden-Italy-Denmark-Finland, dir-scr. Mika Gustafson)

- Penal Cordillera (Chile-Brazil, dir-scr. Felipe Carmona)

- The Queen of my Dreams (Canada, dir-scr. Fawzia Mirza)

- Sky Peals (UK, dir-scr. Moin Hussain)

- Tiger Stripes (Malaysia-Taiwan-Singapore-FranceGermany-Netherlands-Indonesia-Qatar, dir-scr. Amanda Nell Eu)

- Tuesday (UK-USA, dir-scr. Daina O. Pusić)

The full schedule for the festival will be released later this week and tickets go on general sale on September 12 with BFI members getting advance access from September 6.

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