On October 9th, 2024, the 68th annual London Film Festival will begin and with it comes a strong lineup of films available to the public. Although not as expansive and interesting as last year’s films, the Galas and Special Presentations for this year include a variety of critically acclaimed movies that have premiered at other festivals including Cannes, Venice and Telluride.
Not only will it feature films that have been all over the world, but it will also be host to two world premieres for the British-set movies Blitz and That Christmas. With award frontrunners Anora and Conclave slated alongside highly anticipated features Queer and The Apprentice, as well as a range of films worth keeping an eye on, the lineup for this year’s London Film Festival is exciting and likely to draw a lot of attention.
The most commonly asked question and query related to the LFF is whether it is exclusively in London. Contrary to popular belief, whilst the bulk of the festival happens in Central London, there are a number of films that screen on behalf of the festival in cinemas across the UK. In this article, all of these films will be showcased as well as the venues that they will be available to be watched at. A strong lineup has been sent out to the partnered venues this year so LFF On Tour is well worth catching and the best part is that these tickets are on sale now at the respective cinemas, so don’t wait to get your tickets.
Film descriptions and synopsis’ have been taken directly from the BFI/London Film Festival programme and website.
Broadway Cinema, Nottingham
Chapter, Cardiff
Glasgow Film Theatre
HOME, Manchester
Midlands Art Centre, Birmingham
Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast
Showroom Cinema, Sheffield
Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle Upon Tyne
Watershed, Bristol
LFF On Tour Lineup:
Blitz
Dir. by Steve McQueen
114min
These cinemas don’t just get the smaller films, the films sent out to partnered cinemas are extensive and big in themselves. This year, these cinemas also get the Opening Gala premiere film Blitz, directed by the incredible Steve McQueen (Widows, Occupied City).
In the face of nightly air raids, East End mum Rita (yet another impressive turn by Saoirse Ronan) grows increasingly worried about her son George’s safety. Under the counsel of her father, Gerald (Paul Weller), she makes the heart-wrenching decision to send him to the countryside. But a few hours into his journey, George alights the train, determined to return to Stepney Green and his family. Friends and foes stalk London’s streets, but each encounter populates George’s map of his world, giving him an understanding of how his fellow citizens are affected by these tumultuous times.
McQueen’s ensemble cast includes Kathy Burke, Benjamin Clémentine, Harris Dickinson and Stephen Graham. They inhabit a war-torn London that’s impeccably realised by Adam Stockhausen’s (12 Years a Slave, Asteroid City) production design and Yorick Le Saux’s (A Bigger Splash, Irma Vep) cinematography, while Hans Zimmer’s score revels in the scale and intimacy of the director’s vision. Heightened by all of this, the eyes are on newcomer Elliott Heffernan, who captures George’s emotional strength, impish humour and sense of loyalty to his family with a wisdom beyond his years. Through him, McQueen’s Blitz represents one of the finest portrayals of life in a moment of crisis, perseverance and renewal.
Screening at all partnered venues.
Endurance
Dir. by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, and Natalie Hewit (the directors of Free Solo)
100min
In 1915, the ship Endurance sank near Antarctica. Explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew miraculously survived. In 2022, the ship was discovered, some 3000m beneath the water’s surface. Documenting contemporary polar explorers and drawing on original expedition footage preserved and restored by the BFI National Archive, Endurance is an inspiring celebration of scientific curiosity and the indefatigable human spirit of discovery.
Screening at all partnered venues.
Joy
Dir. by Ben Taylor
113min, acquired by Netflix for a late 2024 release.
In the late 1960s, nurse and embryologist Jean Purdy, scientist Robert Edwards and surgeon Patrick Steptoe conceived that advances in medicine would allow them to oversee the fertilisation of an egg in vitro. The impact should they succeed would be seismic. But for every tiny step forward, the three faced the rancour of the Church, medical and political establishment, who saw their work as an aberration. Ben Taylor’s finely tuned debut boasts an impressive cast working to Jack Thorne’s script, which covers the crucial ten-year period when three unlikely individuals and countless brave women worked together to develop this groundbreaking medical science that has changed the lives of millions across the globe.
Screening in Cardiff and Belfast.
I’m Still Here
Dir. by Walter Salles (Central Station, The Motorcycle Diaries)
137min
The Paiva family are shattered when Ernesto is abducted by the military junta and Eunice (renowned Brazilian actor Fernanda Montenegro) must lead their family and fight for justice. Salles’ adaptation of Marcelo Rubens Paiva’s 2015 memoir is a profoundly moving portrait of resistance.
Screening in Belfast, Cardiff, Birmingham and Manchester.
Anora
Dir. by Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Red Rocket)
139min
Anora, a sex worker from Brooklyn, gets her chance at a Cinderella story when she meets and marries the son of an oligarch. Once the news reaches Russia, her fairytale is threatened as the parents set out for New York to get the marriage annulled.
Baker presents a modern-day Cinderella story about Ani, a young sex worker from Brooklyn, meeting Vanya, a spoiled son of a Russian oligarch, who offers her a glamorous new life of possibility and incredible wealth. Ani’s wild ride and fairytale is soon threatened when news of their whirlwind marriage gets back to Russia, resulting in Vanya’s parents flying to New York to manage the situation. Both wildly entertaining and heartbreaking, Anora takes audiences on a freewheeling, rambunctious adventure that escalates to dizzying levels. Drawing comparisons to Pretty Woman, it constantly plays with genre and audience expectations. But what shines through most, as it does in all of his films, is Baker’s love for and unwillingness to judge his characters.
Screening at all partnered venues.
All We Imagine As Light
Dir. by Payal Kapadia
115min
Prabha and Anu are Malayali nurses living in Mumbai who are both troubled by their relationships. The two embark on a road trip to a beach town where “the mystical forest becomes a space for their dreams to manifest.
Prabha, Anu and Parvaty are employees at a hospital in Mumbai. They grapple daily with the opportunities and hardships of existence in the city. Balancing an immersive verité style with a touch of the surreal, Payal Kapadia’s Cannes Grand Prix-winning drama captures the many shades of working-class life in Mumbai. The result is a profound and deeply humanist meditation on urban migration and dislocation.
Screening in Cardiff, Birmingham, Belfast and Manchester.
Piece by Piece
Dir. by Morgan Neville
93min
Depicting one’s life story with LEGO pieces might sound crazy, but for Pharrell Williams it was the only way – employing a medium that could mirror his musical career and creative spirit, defying all genre trappings and allowing audiences to be transported to wonderful places with limitless possibilities. Through Pharrell’s LEGO-rendered first-hand account, Oscar winner Morgan Neville’s (Twenty Feet from Stardom; Won’t You Be My Neighbor?) documentary first takes us to the artist’s childhood home in Virginia Beach, where his love of music first began. Piecing together his journey, from a teenage musician playing in a garage to international superstar gracing the biggest stages, we’re guided through Pharrell’s incredibly prolific and storied career, which includes his work in the band N.E.R.D. and as part of the producing duo The Neptunes (beautifully showcased in a head-spinning sequence of hits that reminds us how wide their influence stretches).
The film also encompasses his solo endeavours, as well as collaborations with Kendrick Lamar and Daft Punk. Pictured through Neville’s sensitive gaze and featuring interviews with a star-studded LEGO-rendered cast that includes Jay-Z, Missy Elliott, Gwen Stefani, Busta Rhymes and Snoop Dogg, this is an exuberant, inventive and refreshingly self-aware celebration of creativity.
Screening at all partnered venues.
Nightbitch
Dir. by Marielle Heller
98min
An artist who pauses her career to be a stay-at-home mum seeks a new chapter in her life and encounters just that, when her nightly routine takes a surreal turn and her maternal instincts begin to manifest in canine form.
Amy Adams’ Mother puts her career on hold to parent her young toddler. The transformation of her feelings, sense of self and relationship to the world spark a change in her that is as liberating as it is radical. Adapted from Rachel Yoder’s acclaimed 2021 novel, Nightbitch is a modern feminist fable that plays on traditional tropes to examine the role of motherhood in a society where women still battle to ‘have it all’. Adams and Scoot McNairy offer fearless performances as the modern couple. But this is a tale for the sleepless and Adams gives a career best performance, embracing the heightened emotions of her character.
Screening at all partnered venues.
Bird
Dir. by Andrea Arnold
119min
12-year-old Bailey lives with her single dad Bug and brother Hunter in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids, and Bailey, who is approaching puberty, seeks attention and adventure elsewhere.
Young Bailey feels caged in her Gravesend squat home. Reckless, wannabe drug dealer dad Bug plans to marry his new girlfriend. Older brother Hunter plots to elope with his underage partner. Meanwhile, across town, Bailey’s near-feral younger siblings are menaced by her mum’s new and violent lover. Small wonder she’s intrigued by the enigmatic Bird, a flighty free spirit searching for his own roots. Arnold (Fish Tank, American Honey) once again displays her wondrous ability to infuse coming-of-age stories focused on marginalized lives with uncompromising grit and a sensual connection to nature. The pulsating soundtrack and lived-in performances (newcomer Adams is a standout) are perhaps expected. But Bird also sees Arnold pushing in new directions, incorporating not just social, but magical realism – an unexpectedly transformative addition that helps her wild, shapeshifting film soar.
Screening at all partnered venues.
The Wild Robot
Dir. by Chris Sanders
102min
Shipwrecked on a deserted island, a robot named Roz must learn to adapt to its new surroundings. Building relationships with the native animals, Roz soon develops a parental bond with an orphaned gosling.
Sentient robot Roz is marooned on an island and must learn from its animal inhabitants how to survive. When outside forces threaten the island’s ecosystem, she will do anything to protect her adopted environment and Brightbill, the young goose she has nurtured since birth. Funny, sweet and subtle in its messaging, this adaptation of Peter Brown’s book series is a treat for the whole family.
Screening at all partnered venues.
That Christmas
Dir. by Simon Otto
91min
Based on the charming trilogy of children’s books by beloved award-winning writer-director Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually, Yesterday), That Christmas follows a series of entwined tales about family and friends, love and loneliness, Santa Claus making a big mistake — and it also features an enormous number of turkeys! This heartwarming comedy from Locksmith Animation marks Curtis’ first foray into animation, serving as the film’s writer and executive producer, and it’s also the feature directorial debut of renowned animation veteran Otto (Love, Death & Robots, How to Train Your Dragon films). Nicole P. Hearon (Moana, Frozen films) and Adam Tandy (The Thick of It, Detectorists) are producers
Christmas is approaching in a small town on the Suffolk coast, but not everyone embraces the festive spirit. There’s young Danny, who is still trying to adjust to his new home and school, and whose mum works long hours in the local hospital. He lives over the road from Miss Trapper, his formidable schoolteacher, who seems intent on spoiling everyone’s fun. When a series of events disrupt many of the townspeople’s Christmas plans, it seems only a miracle can make everything right in time. Curtis adapts his three Yuletide family stories with the help of London’s Locksmith Animation (Ron’s Gone Wrong) to create this funny, moving and joyful comedy drama.
Screening at all partnered venues.
A Real Pain
Dir. by Jesse Eisenberg
89min
Mismatched cousins David and Benji reunite for a tour through Poland to honor their beloved grandmother. The adventure takes a turn when the pair’s old tensions resurface against the backdrop of their family history. Benji and David travel to Poland to pay respects to their Jewish grandmother. No sooner are they on the road, they realise why they don’t spend much time together anymore. Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin dazzle in their roles as the familial odd-couple, trading witty barbs and sobering ruminations on mid-adulthood growing pains, in this deftly scripted film full of humour and hope.
Screening at all partnered venues.
Conclave
Dir. by Edward Berger
120min
Cardinal Lawrence is tasked with one of the world’s most secretive and ancient events — selecting a new pope. Finding himself at the centre of a conspiracy, he discovers a secret that could shake the very foundation of the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope has died. Cardinal Lawrence must lead the Conclave to select the new leader of the Catholic world. But as high-ranking cardinals gather, he discovers sides have been drawn and secrets that might destroy a future pope, perhaps even the Church itself, threaten to be revealed. Following his Oscar-winning success with All Quiet on the Western Front, Edward Berger, who is in talks to direct a newly confirmed upcoming project starring two of the biggest A-Listers around, presents us with another tale of conflict, albeit one where battles are waged in hushed tones in hallowed hallways. Fiennes, Tucci and John Lithgow make the most of Peter Straughan’s (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) screenplay, based on Robert Harris’ 2016 novel, albeit with Isabella Rossellini almost stealing the film as the formidable Sister Agnes.
Screening at all partnered venues.
With that, the list is complete. There are a lot of films showing around the country so there’s plenty of places for you to go and see an early screening or watch a film you might not have seen had LFF not brought it to your cinema. Feature First will also be attending some of these screenings, so stay tuned for our thoughts and an ultimate awards guide coming later this year, which is likely to feature a number of movies part of this list.
Feature First recommends: Anora, Conclave, Piece by Piece and The Wild Robot.
Tickets for LFF On Tour screenings are on sale now online and in person at each individual partnered cinema so do not let the opportunity be wasted.
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