With many prominent film festivals cancelling due to COVID-19 this year, BFI announced it’s going ahead with its 64th BFI London Film Festival. To roll with the challenges that COVID-19 has brought on, the format of this year’s festival has been altered to fit the needs and safety of press and filmmakers. This change will bring far more films into the online medium whilst still keeping some more notable films in the cinemas.
From the 58 features films and 47 short films showing throughout the 7th of October to 18th of October, there are four features that will be exclusively shown in the cinema. Those include Steven McQueen’s Mangrove, upcoming Pixar release Soul, Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland and Francis Lee’s Ammonite. Ten other features will be shown both online and in the cinema, including Bassam Tariq’s Mogul Mowgli and Michael Blyth’s Supernova starring Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci. The remaining 44 features and short films will be available online.
Like in previous years, BFI has categorised the selections into different strands, so festival-goers will have an idea of what kind of films are screening. Below is the full line-up of the feature selection, including information on the film’s directors, countries of origin, which strand they belong to and the platform they will be screened on.
Full feature line up for the 2020 BFI London Film Festival:
180° Rule | Farnoosh Samadi | Iran | 2020 | Debate | Virtual
200 Meters | Ameen Nayfeh | Palestine | 2020 | Debate | Virtual
A Common Crime | Francisco Márquez | Argentina, Brazil, Switzerland 2020 | Dare | Virtual
A Day-Off of Kasumi Arimura | d. Hirokazu Kore-eda | w. Sakura Higa | Japan 2020 |Journey (Series) | Virtual
African Apocalypse | Rob Lemkin | UK 2020 | Debate | Virtual
After Love | Aleem Khan | UK 2020 | Love | Virtual + Cinema
Ammonite | Francis Lee| UK 2020 | Closing Film | Cinema
Another Round | Thomas Vinterberg| Denmark 2020 | Journey | Virtual + Cinema
Bad Tales | Fabio D’Innocenzo, Damiano D’Innocenzo | Italy 2020 | Dare | Virtual
Bloody Nose, Empty Pocket | Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross | USA 2020 | Journey | Virtual
The Cheaters | Paulette McDonagh | Australia 1929 | Treasures | Virtual
The Chess Game of the Wind | Mohammad Reza Aslani | Iran 1976 | Treasures | Virtual
Cicada | Matt Fifer and Kieran Mulcare | USA 2020 | Love | Virtual
Days | Tsai Ming-Liang | Taiwan 2020 | Love | Virtual
David Byrne’s American Utopia | Spike Lee | USA 2020 | Create | Virtual + Cinema
Delia Derbyshire: the Myths and Legendary Tapes | Caroline Catz | UK 2020 | Create | Virtual
The Disciple | Chaitanya Tamhane | India 2020 | Create | Virtual
Farewell Amor | Ekwa Msangi | USA 2020 | Love | Virtual
Friendship’s Death | Peter Wollen | UK 1987 | Treasures | Virtual
Genus Pan | Lav Diaz | Philippines 2020 | Journey | Virtual
Gold for Dogs | Anna Cazenave Cambet | France 2020 | Journey | Virtual
Herself | Phyllida Lloyd | UK 2020 | Love | Virtual + Cinema
Honeymood | Talya Lavie | Israel 2020 | Laugh | Virtual
I Am Samuel | Pete Murimi | Kenya 2020 | Journey | Virtual
Identifying Features | Fernanda Valadez | Mexico-Spain 2020 | Journey | Virtual
If It Were Love | Patric Chiha | France 2020 | Love | Virtual
Industry | d. Lena Dunham, Tinge Krishnan, Ed Lilly | w. Mickey Down, Konrad Kay | UK 2020 | Journey (Series) | Virtual
The Intruder | Natalia Meta | Argentina-Mexico 2020 | Dare | Virtual
Kajillionaire | Miranda July | USA 2020 | Laugh | Virtual
Limbo | Ben Sharrock | UK 2020 | Journey | Virtual
Mangrove | Steve McQueen | UK 2020 | Opening Film (Series) | Cinema
Mogul Mowgli | Bassam Tariq | UK 2020 | Dare | Virtual + Cinema
Never Gonna Snow Again | Małgorzata Szumowska, Michał Englert | Poland-Germany | Laugh | Virtual
New Order | Michel Franco | Mexico 2020 | Dare | Virtual
Nomadland | Chloé Zhao | USA 2020 | Journey | Cinema
Notturno | Gianfranco Rosi | Italy-Germany-France 2020 | Journey | Virtual
One Man and His Shoes | Yemi Bamiro | UK 2020 | Debate | Virtual
The Painter and the Thief | Benjamin Ree | Norway 2020 | Create | Virtual
Possessor | Brandon Cronenberg | Canada-UK 2020 | Cult | Virtual
The Reason I Jump | Jerry Rothwell | UK 2020 | Virtual
Relic | Natalie Erika James | Australia-USA 2020 | Cult | Virtual
Rose | Jennifer Sheridan | UK 2020 | Cult | Virtual
The Salt in Our Waters | Rezwan Shahriar Sumit | Bangladesh-France 2020| Journey | Virtual
Shadow Country | Bohdan Sláma | Czech Republic 2020 | Debate | Virtual
Shirley | Josephine Decker | USA 2020 | Dare | Virtual + Cinema
Siberia | Abel Ferrara | Italy-Germany-Mexico 2020 | Dare | Virtual
Soul | Pete Docter, Kemp Powers | USA 2020 | Family | Cinema
Sound for the Future | Matt Hulse | UK-China 2020 | Experimenta | Virual
Stray | Elizabeth Lo | USA 2020 | Journey | Virtual
Striding Into the Wind | Wei Shujun | China 2020 | Create | Virtual
Supernova | Harry Macqueen | UK 2020 | Love | Virtual + Cinema
This Is My Desire (Eyimofe) | Arie Esiri, Chuko Esiri | Nigeria 2019 | Virutal
Time | Garrett Bradley | USA 2020 | Debate | Virtual + Cinema
Ultraviolence | Ken Fero | UK 2020 | Debate | Virtual
Undine | Christian Petzold | Germany 2020 | Virtual + Cinema
Wildfire | Cathy Brady | UK-Ireland 2020 | Dare | Virtual
Wolfwalkers | Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart | Ireland-Luxembourg-France 2020 |Family | Virtual
Zanka Contact | Ismaël El Iraki | France-Morocco-Belgium 2020 | Create | Virtual
For more information about the festival and the selections, please visit the official BFI website.