The London Film Festival is the perfect chance for those of us who aren’t regular attendees of Venice, Cannes, or TIFF, to catch up on a wealth of cinema, as the BFI picks from a well-acclaimed crop of the year’s prior festivals. With the BFI’s announcement of the lineup for their 68th festival, this year is no exception.
Rungano Nyoni first made waves in 2017 with her debut feature I Am Not A Witch, a superb feat of magical realism demonstrating the violent truth of superstition in Zambia. Nyoni has now returned to the festival circuit with her second feature film On Becoming A Guinea Fowl, in which a death in the family brings to light difficult truths, promising to be equally dark and bedazzling as her debut.
What is a festival season without an overtly sexual addition by everyone’s favourite living Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino? While every Guadagnino film is filled with homosexual undertones, Queer starring Daniel Craig and Drew Starkey, returns the director to the intimate dramatics of Call Me By Your Name that made Guadagnino a breakout name.
It would not be a British festival without national contenders representing the great range in British cinema. British-Iraqi writer-director Amrou Al-Kadhi’s Layla centers the Palestinian non binary drag queen (Bilal Hasna) who is forced to reckon with their identity as matters of love and family come to the fore.
Hard Truths, the first film from Mike Leigh in six years, continues his long held dedication to the reality of British life. Marianne Jean-Baptiste’s character has clinical depression and struggles to climb the bureaucratic mountain the healthcare system insists on to be approved for professional help. Although Leigh’s filmography is concerned with the bleak and mundane, what persists is a biting wit that audiences will remember from the profound Happy-Go-Lucky.
Since its success at Cannes there has been one name on everyone’s lips: Anora. Throughout Director Sean Baker’s filmmaking career, he has continuously held a fascination for the sex workers who are forced into the margins of society (Tangerine, Red Rocket). Refusing the fetishistic lens cinema has held on the adult entertainment industry, Anora is an anti-Cinderella story that serves as the antidote to Pretty Woman, continuing Baker’s brutal dismissal of the American dream. However Anora is not the only film to platform the experience of sex workers at this year’s LFF. Mikko Makela’s Sebastian, follows a London-based writer who becomes a sex worker to research his novel. Perhaps the perfect pairing with Anora, as both films focus on sex workers struggling to marry their double lives.
In recent years neurodiversity has gained widespread awareness and cinema is beginning to reflect this. Last year Stims Collective premiered at the London Film Festival to shed light on the need for relaxed screenings that accommodate those with neurodiverse conditions, including a relaxation room for those feeling overwhelmed at the festival. As LFF continues to champion diverse voices and creativity in cinema this year’s lineup includes The Stimming Pool. The film co-created by a collective of neurodivergent filmmakers and artist-filmmaker Steven Eastwood and Aftersun cinematographer Gregory Oke, is a unique demonstration of the autistic lens. The 68th LFF festival promises to offer a wide range of vivid cinematic experiences demonstrating cinema’s burgeoning talent alongside additions from the contemporary filmmakers that consistently exhibit their prowess, taking their rightful place at the festival’s helm.
The BFI London Film Festival runs from 9 - 20 October 2024
