The BFI London Film Festival (LFF) is back and boy are there plenty of brilliant genre offerings from the festival in its 66th year!
Taking place over twelve days from 5 – 16 October in a multitude of London cinemas, this year’s festival includes genre movies and TV shows from directors like Guillermo del Toro, Lars von Trier, Noah Baumbach, and more.
Here are some of the top genre picks from this year’s London Film Festival…
Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical
A brand new take on the Tony and Olivier award-winning musical. Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical tells the story of an extraordinary girl, with a vivid imagination, who dares to take a stand to change her story with miraculous results, starring Emma Thompson as Miss Trunchbull.
When?
Wednesday 05 October 2022 18:45 Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall
Thursday 06 October 2022 11:45 Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Guillermo del Toro reinvents Carlo Collodi’s classic tale of the wooden marionette who is magically brought to life in order to mend the heart of a grieving woodcarver named Geppetto. This whimsical, stop-motion film directed by Guillermo del Toro and Mark Gustafson follows the mischievous and disobedient adventures of Pinocchio in his pursuit of a place in the world.
When?
Saturday 15 October 2022 14:15 Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall
Sunday 16 October 2022 11:30 Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall
White Noise
Starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, White Noise is Noah Baumbach’s adaptation of Don DeLillo’s ‘unfilmable’ cult novel and dramatizes a contemporary American family’s attempts to deal with the mundane conflicts of everyday life while grappling with the universal mysteries of love, death, and the possibility of happiness in an uncertain world.
Thursday 06 October 2022 18:00 Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall
Friday 07 October 2022 11:45 Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall
Sunday 16 October 2022 17:35 BFI Southbank, NFT1
The Wonder
Starring Florence Pugh, The Wonder is set in The Irish Midlands in 1862 where a young girl stops eating but remains miraculously alive and well. English nurse Lib Wright is brought to a tiny village to observe eleven-year old Anna O’Donnell. Tourists and pilgrims mass to witness the girl who is said to have survived without food for months. Is the village harbouring a saint ‘surviving on manna from heaven’ or are there more ominous motives at work? A psychological thriller inspired by the 19th century phenomenon of the “fasting girls” and adapted from the acclaimed novel by Emma Donoghue (Room).
When?
Friday 07 October 2022 18:00 Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall
Saturday 08 October 2022 11:00 Southbank Centre, Royal Festival Hall
Sunday 09 October 2022 20:15 ICA, Screen 1
Attachment / NATTEN HAR ØJNE
Attachment is a horror romance about Maja, a has-been actress in Denmark, who falls in love with Leah, a young, Jewish academic visiting from the UK. When Leah suffers a mysterious seizure, Maja fears their whirlwind romance might be cut short and decides to follow Leah back to her home in London. There, Maja meets her new downstairs neighbour: Leah’s mother, Chana. An overbearing, seemingly religious and highly secretive woman, Chana seems resistant to all of Maja’s attempts to win her over. And as Maja notices strange occurrences in the building, she begins to suspect that Chana’s secrets could be much darker than first anticipated.
When?
Saturday 08 October 2022 20:15 BFI Southbank, NFT3
Sunday 09 October 2022 15:40, Prince Charles Cinema, Downstairs Screen
The Kingdom Exodus
Lars von Trier returns with the third season of his landmark supernatural hospital drama, 25 years after the first series aired. Heavily influenced by the ghostly series THE KINGDOM, the sleepwalker Karen seeks answers to the unresolved questions of the series in order to save the hospital from doom. Sound asleep one night, Karen wanders into the darkness and inexplicably ends up in front of the hospital. The gate to the Kingdom is opening once more…
When?
Thursday 13 October 2022 20:50 Curzon Mayfair, Screen 1
Saturday 15 October 2022 20:15 BFI Southbank, NFT2
Linoleum
Jim Gaffigan plays the host of a failing children’s science TV show and aspiring astronaut who finds a deep direction to his life after a Space Race satellite crashes into his back yard and he sets about rebuilding the machine into his dream rocket. As relations with his wife and daughter show signs of strain, odd events occur: a doppelgänger moves into the house next door, a car falls from the sky and the man befriends an unusual teenage boy.
When?
Wednesday 05 October 2022 20:40 BFI Southbank, NFT1
Friday 07 October 2022 13:30 BFI Southbank, NFT3
New Normal
Written and directed by JUNG Bum-shik, New Normal tells six tales of loneliness, romance and brutal murder which ared interconnected in a in social media-obsessed, post-pandemic Seoul.
When?
Saturday 15 October 2022 20:50, ODEON Luxe West End, Screen 1
Saturday 15 October 2022 21:05, ODEON Luxe West End, Screen 2
Sunday 16 October 2022 14:50, Prince Charles Cinema, Downstairs Screen
NightMare
Mona and Robby are a young couple in love in NightMare. Robby has just landed his dream job, and they’ve scored an amazing deal on a spacious, if run-down, flat. Never mind that it requires quite a bit of renovation. Never mind the neighbours’ constant fighting, and screaming baby… Never mind that Mona is suddenly plagued by night terrors which grow more intense every time she falls asleep… Robby is eager to start a family, despite Mona’s hesitation. Eventually, Mona’s issues spiral dangerously out of control as she becomes convinced that she is being attacked by a mythical demon – the Mare – intent on possessing her unborn child.
When?
Tuesday 11 October 2022 20:45, ODEON Luxe West End, Screen 1
Tuesday 11 October 2022 21:00, ODEON Luxe West End, Screen 2
Wednesday 12 October 2022 20:45, ICA, Screen 1
Sunday 16 October 2022 20:35, Curzon Soho Cinema, Screen 3
The Origin
Set in the Old Stone Age, The Origin follows a disparate gang of early humans band together in search of a new land. But when they suspect a malevolent, mystical, being is hunting them down, the clan are forced to confront a danger they never envisaged.
When?
Thursday 06 October 2022 21:05, Curzon Soho Cinema, Screen 1
Saturday 08 October 2022 15:20, BFI Southbank, NFT1
Wednesday 12 October 2022 20:45, ODEON Luxe West End, Screen 2
Unicorn Wars
Directed and written by Alberto Vázquez, Unicorn Wars follows an army of bear cubs who are training and indoctrinating young recruits for the war against the unicorns, which threatens the safety of the cubs. Brothers Bluet and Tubby, along with a group of inexperienced recruits, are sent on a dangerous mission to save the Magic Forest, where the unicorns live, and start a terrible battle.
When?
Thursday 13 October 2022 18:20, Prince Charles Cinema, Downstairs Screen
Friday 14 October 2022 15:45, BFI Southbank, NFT3
You Won’t Be Alone
Set in an isolated mountain village in 19th century Macedonia, You Won’t Be Alone follows a young girl who is kidnapped and then transformed into a witch by an ancient spirit. Curious about life as a human, the young witch accidentally kills a peasant in the nearby village and then takes her victim’s shape to live life in her skin. Her curiosity ignited, she continues to wield this horrific power in order to understand what it means to be human.
When?
Friday 14 October 2022 21:00, Curzon Soho Cinema, Screen 1
Saturday 15 October 2022 18:00, ODEON Luxe West End, Screen 1
Saturday 15 October 2022 18:15, ODEON Luxe West End, Screen 2
Sunday 16 October 2022 12:45, ICA, Screen 1
Enys Men
Enys Men is set in 1973 on an uninhabited island off the Cornish coast, where a wildlife volunteer’s daily observations of a rare flower turn into a metaphysical journey that forces her as well as the viewer to question what is real and what is nightmare…
When?
Tuesday 11 October 2022 18:10, BFI Southbank, NFT1
Wednesday 12 October 2022 15:15, BFI Southbank, NFT1
Blaze
Blaze follows a young teenager (named Blaze) who is the sole witness to a shocking crime. Struggling to make sense of what she saw, she unleashes the wrath of her imaginary dragon.
Coma
In Coma, a teenager has a special power: she can bring us into her dreams – but also her nightmares. Locked in her room, her only relationship to the outside world is virtual. She begins to go back and forth between dreams and reality, guided by a disturbing and mysterious YouTuber, Patricia Coma.
When?
Wednesday 05 October 2022 18:30, Prince Charles Cinema, Downstairs Screen
Thursday 06 October 2022 21:00, BFI Southbank, NFT2
Subtraction
In downtown Tehran, Farzaneh, a young driving instructor, spots her husband, Jalal, walking into a woman’s apartment. When she confronts him, Jalal claims he was out of town for work. He decides to check out the building for himself. There, he meets a woman who is the spitting image of Farzaneh. Her name is Bita. Stunned, the two compare family photos: Bita’s husband also looks identical to Jalal.
When?
Saturday 15 October 2022 17:45, Curzon Soho Cinema, Screen 2
Saturday 15 October 2022 18:00, Curzon Soho Cinema, Screen 3
Sunday 16 October 2022 18:00, ICA, Screen 1
Ashkal
In the Gardens of Carthage, a district of Tunis initiated by the former Regime which construction stopped at the beginning of the Revolution, two cops, Fatma and Batal, find a burnt body in one of the lots. As construction slowly resumes, they start looking into this mysterious case. When the event repeats itself, the investigation takes a puzzling turn.
When?
Wednesday 05 October 2022 18:30, BFI Southbank, NFT3
Friday 07 October 2022 18:30 ICA, Screen 1
My Father’s Dragon
Inspired by the Newbery honored book of the same title by Ruth Stiles Gannett, My Father’s Dragon follows Elmer who, after struggling to cope after a move to the city with his mother, runs away in search of Wild Island and a young dragon who waits to be rescued. Elmer’s adventures introduce him to ferocious beasts, a mysterious island and the friendship of a lifetime.
When?
Saturday 08 October 2022 12:40, BFI Southbank, NFT1
Monday 10 October 2022 18:20, BFI Southbank, Studio
My Robot Brother
My Robot Brother is set in a utopian high-tech future where the climate crisis is solved, people live in harmony with nature and robots work as personal assistants. Nevertheless, not everything is golden glitter. School life still sucks for 12-year-old Alberte. Her old teddy bear-like android Robbi is quite an embarrassment to her. With the perfect birthday present – the newest model of humanoids that is not even on the market – everything seems to change. The new robot Konrad looks and acts completely as if he were human and suddenly Alberte’s popularity spikes as she is now the kid with the most advanced technology at school. But can the connection between Alberte and Konrad hold up to a real friendship?
When?
The BFI London Film Festival 2022 will be taking place on 5-16 October. Buy tickets and find out more at the LFF website here.