A Program Built Around Premieres
Running October 7–18, the festival has unveiled 169 feature films in its main lineup, up modestly from last year's 166, alongside a total slate of 251 titles spanning features, shorts, series, and immersive works drawn from 88 countries. What strikes us immediately is the uptick in world premieres: nine this year, against seven in 2025 — a small but meaningful vote of confidence from filmmakers trusting London as their launching pad.
The premiere slate cuts an unusually wide stylistic swath. Brad Bird returns with Ray Gunn, an animated sci-fi mystery fronted by Sam Rockwell and Scarlett Johansson and destined for Netflix in December. Travis Knight brings Laika's stop-motion fantasy Wildwood — set in a magical forest and voiced by Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, and Mahershala Ali — continuing the studio's tactile, hand-crafted lineage. Anthony Wonke's In The Shadows casts Jasmine Jobson as the UK's first female Muslim boxing champion Ramla Ali, with Finn Cole alongside, while Sean Mathias adapts the West End hit Frank And Percy for Ian McKellen and Roger Allam. Documentary work surfaces too: Ken Fero and Tariq Mehmood chronicle the Bradford 12 in Rebellion.
The Galas: Heavyweights and Cannes Echoes
The 23 Galas at the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall — plus six Special Presentations scattered across venues — form the festival's commercial spine, and this year they read like a survey of auteur cinema in mid-career. Danny Boyle opens with Ink, his Venice-launched Rupert Murdoch drama with Guy Pearce, Jack O'Connell, and Claire Foy. Martin McDonagh brings Wild Horse Nine with John Malkovich and Rockwell. Florian Zeller reunites with Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem for Bunker. Tony Gilroy's Behemoth! turns a film composer story into a showcase for Pedro Pascal, Olivia Wilde, and Will Arnett. Susanna White's adaptation of Suzie Miller's Prima Facie hands Cynthia Erivo — whose career comfortably crosses into pop and music — a role built for her particular ferocity.
Cannes casts a long shadow over the slate: Cristian Mungiu's Palme d'Or winner Fjord, Paweł Pawlikowski's Fatherland, Andrey Zvyagintsev's Minotaur, and Jordan Firstman's Club Kid all carry London galas. First-feature competition work — Ashley Walters' Animol, Olive Nwosu's Lady, Shalini Adnani's Our Share Of Sand — suggests the discovery bench is unusually deep this season.
What to Watch
The share of female filmmakers ticked upward again, to 43% from the prior year. Mike Leigh's Tender Loving Care, which was expected to premiere at Telluride, now sits among the Galas; whether it lands in London with the force of a late-period statement remains the question. And Carol Morley's 7 Miles Out arrives as a competition world premiere — precisely the kind of placement that, in a 70th-anniversary edition, signals where juries may look hardest.
London's festival has always been less a market than a mirror — reflecting what filmmakers believe the city can hold. This year's program holds considerably more than most.