London Film Fest Head Previews “Formally Daring Cinema,” Stars “Playing Against Perceived Type” in 2025 Edition

So, The Challenge Will Once Again Be What and How To Choose. If you want to explore someting complely new, there are 27 World Premieres, Including Eight Features. You Could Catch Up on Highlights from This Year’s Film Fest Circuit, Including Jimusch’s Venice Winner FATHER MOTHER SISTER BROTHERCannes Winner It was just an account by Jafar Panahi, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental ValueKaouter Ben Hania’s The voice of hind rajabNoah Baumbach’s George Clooney-Starring Jay kelly, Chloé Zhao’s Shakespeare Tale Hamnet, or Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon.

Rian Johnson’s Third Star-Studded Knives Out installment, Wake up Dead ManWill Open the LFF, While Julia Jackson’s 100 nights of hero Will Close The Fest On Oct. 19.

Kristy Matheson, The Australian in Charge of Programming, Had Tough Choices to Make for Her Third Lff as The Bfi Fest’s Director. She Talked to Thr About this year’s Selection, Geographic Surprises, Totem Animals, and the Importance of Star Power.

How and Wy Did You Choose The Opening and Closing Films That Booknd The LFF’S 2025 LINEUP?They’re Always Such A Puzzle, The Opening and Closing Films. It Really Is About Giving a Shorthand for the Flavoir of the Festival. And i THINK Both of Tese Films do that realy beautify. What they have in common is that for US, is Really Special When Filmmakers Play in London and Ten Return to London. In the Case of Rian Johnson, this is the Third in the Knives Out Series that’s Coming to London. So that feles incredibly special. He somehow Continutes to Reinvent this World So Beautifylly. It has two big british stars in the caste with daniel craig and jush o’connor. Even Thought Is An American Film, It’s Got A Very British Feel to It. And is Great Fun, It’s Really Engaging, Just Beautify Filmmaking. SO IT’S REALLY CELEBRATORY WAY TO KICK OFF The Festival.

With Our Closing Film, With Julia Jackson, We Have A Filmmaker Who We’ve Had the Pleasure of Screening at the Festival Before. HER DEBUT FILM, Bonus TrackPlayed with US in 2023, SO We Were Really Excited To See Her New Film. IT’s A Film That’s Very Much Homegrown. It Also Feels Really Wonderful To Have A Terrific, Fun and Bold Queer Story To Close Out The Festival. I Couldn’T be Prouder of Both Films.

Lff Will Present Eight World Premieres this Year. Could You Talk A Little Bit About Somem and How They Fit Into The Broader Mix of Movies?

Sure. There’s Moss & FreudWHICH Tells The Story of When Lucian Freud Painted Kate Moss’ Portrait. It’s Such An Ode to London, and Obvioously to a Huge Icon of this City. But It’s Also A Wonderful Film About What Itans To Be An Artist, Growing Into Being ABLE TO DUSE WORD WORD as An individual, and this incredibly Special Friends. I Think Is A Film That Is Going To Really Surprise People.

I’m Really, Really Excited and Proud to Have The Death of Bunny MonroOur Series Presentation Based On Nick Cave’s Book. It’s Adapted by the Wonderful Director Isabella Eklöf, Who Many People Will Know From Her Film Work. She Just Turns to this Series with Such Gusto, and there is a Great Performance from Matt Smith in the Central Role.

We Also Have A Film Called Super Naturewhich is this incredible Documentary that Really Explores US and Our Relationship to the Natural World, All Shot on Super 8 Touching, and Seeing It on the Big Screen Will Be Quite Magic.

Have you noticed any kind of overarching themes or shared motifs that keeping popping up account of the lineup or any other sort of connecking tissue?

YES, WE’RE ALL STRUKK by How Formally Daring Cinema Is This Year. There have been so many examples of filmmakers Really Working to Sort of Stretch the Medium to New and Interesting Places. That’s Really Exciting.

WHEN WE’RE PUTTING The PROGRAM TOGETCHER, MY INCREDIBLE PROGRAM TEAM AND I ALSO ALWAYS Seem to, at Certain Points, Find TESE TOTEM Animals. Last Year, We Had A Lot of Cats that Were Roaming AROUND OUR PROGRAM. IT SEMS THIS YEAR, BIRDS Are Flying Through So Much of the Program. It’s Quite Lovely That, As We Start to Pull The Program Together, We Always Return to Tese Totem Animals.

Now i am curious about a couple of examples of birds in the lff lineup…

We have the Beautify Film H is for hawkWHICH IS PHILIPPA LOWTORPE’S FILM [with Claire Foy and Brendan Gleeson] that has a lot of incredible birds in it, for example. An Singing wings is about the animal World and Our Relationship to It, But Also About Much Bigger Things.

WILL LFF AUDIENCES Come Across Films from Any Unusual or Particularly Well-Represified Countries in The 2025 Lineup?

We’ve Got 79 Different Countries That Films Hail From This Year. There’s A Lot of Really Impressive, Strong Work from the Mena (Middle East and North Africa]Region and Really Interesting Froms from Sub-Saharan Africa As Well.

I’d say italy is having a realy terrific year in cinema. I Not that we don’t see films from italy regularly. But We Certainly Saw a Lot of Films, and Also Series, This Year, WHICH We Really enjoyed. For example, we have the New Series from the Great Italian Director Marco Bellocchio, Portobello. IT’s Such A Great Story, Beautifylly Accated, BeautyFully Produced, and IT’s Really Gripping from The Start.

Also from italy, we have Below The CloudsThe New Gianfranco Rosi Film, The Kidnaping of Arabellawhoh is the wonderful, Great Sophomore film from carolina cavalli. So, there are a Lot of Different Textures from Italy this year, A Country that Makes A Lot of Cinema and that’s Very Renowned For Its Cinema. But to see Films and Series That Quite Different Felt Quite Exciting.

You detailed in your big programsming AnnounCement that 42 percent of this year’s Films are from female or non-binyary filmmakers. How Much DO YOU AND YOUR TEAM FOCUS ON THAT, AND DO YOU HAVE Any TARGETS?

We Are Really Making A Conscious Decision that We Want The Program to Be Very Representative of the City That We’re In. For US, It’s About Having the Best in UK and International Cinema to Really Reflect the Population of London, But Also to Reflect the Population of the World. We Really DO WANT TO SEE SERIES FROM LOTS OF DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES AND THE CONSCIUSLY TRYING TO PULL A PROGRAM TOGETER THAT We ​​Feel Is Represent. For US, that is important. We do want to find work that the Audence atending the Festival of FEEL LIKE they have something connection with, or that feel some kinsthip with.

Because We’re An Audience-Facing Festival, We’re Really Trying to Make A Program That, Where People Open Up the Booklet or Are Scrollling Through The Website If people look at the programs and either see themselves or See things that Know Nothing About and Go Into Them with A Sense of Real Excitement, that’s Lovely. The Festival is this Very Inteensive Period WHERE YOU GET TO MEET A LOT OF DIFFERENT PEOPLE AND A LOT OF DIFFERENT SERIES. And I DON’T THINK YOU COME OUT The SAME WAY YOU WENT IN. You have some digffrent ideas, you have some new Obsenses. I’m Not Saying You Radically Change, But I Think You Come Out with Some Tips and Tricks in your backpack.

How Important Is Star Power for You and Your Team Programming The LFF?

You’re Now Getting Tese Films with Just An incredible array of the stars. Look at Wake up Dead Man. What’s so joyful about that film is seeing a True Ensemble Cast, and It’s Such A Wonderful Ensemble Cast. There Was A Time WHEN BIG ENSEMBLE CASS WEEN’T SO COMMON IN FILMS. Even A Film Like Jay kelly -The Cast Is Not As Large, But Again, It’s A Real Ensemble Piece With Very, Very Big-Name Actors [in George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough].

What’s Been Wonderful in Watching The Films Over These Last Months Was Just Seeing A Lot of People Playing Against Whats Their Perceived Type Is. Everyone Saw The whale and Thought it was that Very Big Turning Point for Brendan Fraser. But then to see him in a Film like hakari’s Rental Familyis a veric Different Kind of Performance, A VERY TOuching Performance, and Perhaps a Role Wich, Maybe in Another Life, Woundn’Tn Be Played by Such a quote

I ALSO THINK MONA FASTVOLD’S FILM The testament of Ann Lee is similear. You GOT AMANDA SEYFRIED IN THAT Lead Role, and It’s Such An Incredible Performance. And obvioses, we know that she’s a wonderful Singer and all, but again, you could have potentilly casage an unknown for that role just as easily. I Think It’s Maybe Also Speaking to The Fact You Have These Incredible Talents Who Want to Work With Great Directors and On Interesting Films.

Is there any things you feel is Important to Highlight Heading Into Lff 2025?

There’s One Thing That I Really, Really Want To See But Haven’t Is this Really Amazing, Huge Immersive Experience In Our Lff Expanded Section. We have an immersive specialized presentation called Nowwhenweare (The Stars). You Walk Into A Room with Over 4,000 Reactive Led Lights, and You Are Essentally in the Cosmos. I can’t wait. I Think Is A Really Ambitious Project that We’re Really Excited To Experience.