The annual UK film fiesta opened on the evening of 8 October at the Royal Festival Hall with Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. The main cast attended the opening screening and interacted with audiences.
Rian Johnson’s detective mastermind, gamely portrayed by Daniel Craig, has become one of the great fictional crime solvers. Part-Agatha Christie detective, a la Poirot and Marple, with a little of Arthur Conan Doyle’s eccentric super sleuth Sherlock Holmes thrown in for good measure, yet Blanc is a singular creation.
The 69th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express will present 10 feature films in its Official Competition, contending for the Festival’s prestigious Best Film Award.
The 2025 nominated films showcase an incredible range of talent from across the world, with 12 countries represented across the selection.
This year’s Official Competition brings together new work from filmmakers across the globe, with films from the UK, USA, Argentina, Italy, South Korea, Vietnam, Tunisia and beyond. The selection showcases a wide range of voices and styles, from intimate portraits and historical epics, to formally daring hybrids of fiction and documentary.
The Best Film Award was established in 2009 to recognise inspiring, inventive and distinctive filmmaking. First won by Jacques Audiard for A Prophet, recent winners include Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist in 2023, and Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail in 2024.
The 10 films in Official Competition are:
- BAD APPLES (UK, dir. Jonatan Etzler)
- BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL: THE KWAME BRATHWAITE STORY (UK-USA 2025, dir. Yemi Bamiro)
- BLACK RABBIT, WHITE RABBIT (Tajikistan-United Arab Emirates, dir. Shahram Mokri)
- HAIR, PAPER, WATER… (Belgium-France-Vietnam, dir. Nicolas Graux, Trương Minh Quý)
- HEDDA (USA, dir-scr. Nia DaCosta)
- LANDMARKS (Argentina-USA-Mexico-France-Netherlands, dir. Lucrecia Martel)
- ROSE OF NEVADA (UK, dir-scr. Mark Jenkin)
- THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE (UK, dir. Mona Fastvold)
- THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB (Tunisia-France, dir-scr Kaouther Ben Hania)
- THE WORLD OF LOVE (South Korea, dir-scr. Yoon Ga-eun)
BFI Southbank will once again be home to the Official Competition titles this year, as the 69th BFI London Film Festival continues to celebrate the power of film in the heart of London.
Other competition categories include the Grierson Award for Best Documentary, the Sutherland Award for Best First Feature and the Short Film Award.
The popular The Audience Awards also return for 2025, following last year’s wins for Darren Thornton’s Four Mothers (Best Feature) and Sophie Compton and Daisy-May Hudson’s Holloway (Best Documentary).
Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director, said: “Each title in this selection offers a bold and innovative approach to the medium. We are delighted to welcome filmmakers into the competition who’ve previously screened with the LFF alongside those making their first appearance at the festival. Featuring fiction, documentary and hybrid works drawn from global and UK talents, our 2025 Official Competition is sure to excite.”
Further information about titles shortlisted for this year’s Official Competition:
BAD APPLES (UK, dir Jonatan Etzler)
Academy Award® nominee Saoirse Ronan plays a primary school teacher striving to inspire her students in Jonatan Etzler’s darkly humorous and biting satirical comedy.
Maria is trying her best, but her classes are constantly interrupted by one unruly, disruptive student. Without the support of her superiors, she is forced to take action, which escalates into a series of unfortunate events. Etzler creates a provocative, often unsettling portrait of a community that willingly looks the other way to serve its own interests.
BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL: THE KWAME BRATHWAITE STORY (UK-USA 2025 dir. Yemi Bamiro)
Yemi Bamiro’s documentary is a powerful tribute to photographer and activist Kwame Brathwaite, whose work helped define the transformative ‘Black is Beautiful’ movement.
A central figure in Harlem’s cultural life and a collaborator in African liberation struggles, Brathwaite shaped a visual language that celebrated Black identity, yet his contribution went largely unrecognised during his lifetime. Featuring contributions from family, friends and artists including Gabrielle Union, Alicia Keys and Jesse Williams, the film revisits his remarkable archive and reconsiders his overlooked legacy.
BLACK RABBIT, WHITE RABBIT (Tajikistan-United Arab Emirates, dir. Shahram Mokri)
A suspicious film prop, a mysterious audition, a conspiratorial road incident and multiple rabbits are woven together in this bold and beguiling drama from Tajikistan.
A film armorer suspects a fake firearm is real. An actor arrives on set demanding a role. A car crash victim fears her accident was deliberate. Three seemingly disparate stories weave into an enigmatic whole, with flowing, expertly choreographed takes, no small amount of droll humour and flashes of magic realism punctuating Iranian director Shahram Mokri’s playful, subtly provocative meta-mystery.
HAIR, PAPER, WATER… (Belgium-France-Vietnam, dir. Nicolas Graux, Trương Minh Quý)
Trương Minh Quý (Viet and Nam) and Nicolas Graux (Century of Smoke) create a mythical work of non-fiction – an ode to an elderly healer and to Rục, her endangered mother tongue.
Shot on lush 16mm and attuned to the forest’s hush, this evocative film tenderly traces the life of Cao Thi Hau, a homeopath, farmer and great-grandmother. Alone in the mountains, where she communes with the soil and tends to her grandchildren, Cao’s wisdom becomes a beacon in a world adrift from its roots. Guided by Trương and Graux’s poetic precision, the film gently dissolves the boundary between fiction and documentary.
HEDDA (USA, dir-scr. Nia DaCosta)
Tessa Thompson gives a mesmerising performance in Candyman director Nia DaCosta’s inventive and stylish reimagining of Henrik Ibsen’s renowned play.
This adaptation of Hedda Gabler is relocated to mid-century England, at a decadent party hosted by newlyweds in a house full of secrets and hidden motives, along with former suitors. DaCosta crafts a delicious game of feminine desires and power, with Hedda’s hunger to live outside societal conventions straining relations. Thomspon is supported by excellent turns from Imogen Poots and Nina Hoss.
LANDMARKS (Argentina-USA-Mexico-France-Netherlands, dir. Lucrecia Martel)
Artistic ambition and political advocacy meld in Lucrecia Martel’s documentary, a bold and beautiful reflection on the death and legacy of indigenous activist Javier Chocobar.
Chocobar died on 12 October 2009, while protecting the ancestral lands of the Chuchagasta community, in the Argentine province of Tucamán. Martel’s compelling film balances the intimate and the epic in its dissection of the events of the day, the trial that followed and the absence left by his death for his grieving family. It’s a gripping chronicle, where the legacy of colonialism is all too present.
ROSE OF NEVADA (UK, dir-scr. Mark Jenkin)
Mark Jenkin’s haunted time-travelling odyssey brings a long-lost ship unexpectedly back to harbour, only for a new crew to set sail and re-enter the past.
Thirty years ago, the Rose of Nevada was lost at sea with all hands. When it suddenly reappears in its rundown Cornish harbour, two men enlist on a new fishing expedition, but somehow return to the ship’s former era. George MacKay and Callum Turner impress in Jenkin’s bold, prismatic exploration of identity, grief and vagaries of time.
THE TESTAMENT OF ANN LEE (UK, dir. Mona Fastvold)
Mona Fastvol’s sublime film on revolutionary preacher Ann Lee is grounded by a metamorphic performance from Amanda Seyfried.
This epic, of grand scale and creative force, charts Lee’s impoverished childhood in Manchester to pre-revolutionary America, where her Shaker religion took root. Seyfried stuns alongside an impressive ensemble who shine in this richly textured world. Oscar® winner Daniel Blumberg’s music seamlessly navigates Lee’s story, which Fastvold (co-writer of The Brutalist) infuses with fervour and grace, bringing this incredible historical figure back into public view.
THE VOICE OF HIND RAJAB (Tunisia-France, dir-scr Kaouther Ben Hania)
Gathering audio from actual phone conversations, Kaouther Ben Hania’s devastating film recounts the story behind the murder of Hind Rajab.
In late January 2024, workers at the Palestine Red Crescent Society receive an emergency call from a young girl in Gaza. As the tragic events of the day unfold, they race to save her, all the while following the strictures of a complex protocol. Ben Hania’s (Four Daughters) film is an urgent and compassionate portrait of an avoidable tragedy, featuring the filmmaker’s characteristic blend of documentary and fiction.
THE WORLD OF LOVE (South Korea, dir-scr. Yoon Ga-eun)
A high school student navigates love, friendship and a traumatic past in this delicately woven and quietly powerful drama from South Korean director Yoon Ga-eun.
Joon is a mischievous, lively and popular student, who lives with her mum and little brother. She is also subject to unexpected fits of rage, revealing childhood sexual trauma she has long tried to bury. Yoon (The World of Us) continues her insightful exploration of childhood in this nuanced and ultimately hopeful portrait of resilience and female friendship.
The 69th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express takes place from Wednesday 8 October – Sunday 19 October, 2025.
Check out full festival line-up here.
