The 70th BFI London Film Festival ends on Sunday, 18 October, when the Best Film award is announced and Jesse Eisenberg’s musical comedy The Debut closes the event at the Royal Festival Hall.
The 70th BFI London Film Festival runs from 7 to 18 October 2026, with more than 200 films across several sections, according to Wikipedia’s page on the festival. It opened with Elsinore, Simon Stone’s drama about the actor Ian Charleson, and will close with Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, which has its UK premiere at the Royal Festival Hall on 18 October. The artistic director is Kristy Matheson.
Ten films are in the official competition for Best Film, according to the BFI’s announcement: 7 Miles Out from the UK, directed by Carol Morley; Act 3 from Ireland and the UK, by Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor; Glaxo from Brazil and Argentina, by Benjamín Naishtat; Imperium, a co-production of Germany, France, Italy and Lithuania directed by Sergei Loznitsa; Ketticè from Italy, by Giovanni Tortorici; and Look Back from Japan, by Hirokazu Koreeda.
The list continues with My Notes on Mars from Hungary and Austria, directed by Lili Horvát; The Difficult Bride, a co-production of France, Bangladesh, Portugal, Norway and Germany, by Rubaiyat Hossain; The Idiot(s) from Germany and Poland, by Małgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert; and Woman Unknown from Denmark, Latvia and Sweden, by May el-Toukhy. Wikipedia’s page refers to 11 titles in the official competition, so the number differs between the two sources, and the BFI list of 10 has been used here.
The jury for the main competition is led by the American filmmaker Sam Pollard and includes the Argentine filmmaker Mariano Llinás and Julie La Bassiere, chief strategy officer of DDA, according to Wikipedia. Other juries judge the Sutherland Award for the best first feature, led by the actor and producer Amir El-Masry, the Grierson Award for documentary, led by the director Sandhya Suri, and the short film award, led by the producer Helen Simmons. The winner of the Best Film award is announced on Sunday, 18 October.
The programme includes 10 first-feature competition entries, eight documentary competition films and 10 short films in competition, according to Wikipedia. There are also Audience Awards, for best feature film, best short and best British discovery, according to the BFI. The screenings are held at seven London venues, including BFI Southbank, BFI IMAX, the Royal Festival Hall, the Institute of Contemporary Arts, the Prince Charles Cinema, Vue West End and Curzon Soho.
The Debut is Eisenberg’s second film as director, following the Oscar-nominated A Real Pain, which screened at the festival in 2024, according to search results. The cast includes Julianne Moore, Paul Giamatti, Halle Bailey, Havana Rose Liu, Bernadette Peters, Colton Ryan, Lilli Cooper, Maulik Pancholy and Bonnie Milligan. It follows a shy woman who is unexpectedly cast in a local production of an original musical, and who, under the spell of a strong-willed director played by Giamatti, loses herself in the role.
The competition is notable for its international range. Films from Japan, Brazil, Hungary, Italy, Germany, Bangladesh and Denmark compete alongside British and Irish entries, which is consistent with the festival’s role as a showcase for films from other festivals, though the sources reviewed do not say which of the ten have already played at Cannes, Venice or Toronto.
The winner will be known on the final day, and Delima News will report the result once the BFI announces it.
Image: The Royal Festival Hall in London, a main venue of the festival (file photo). Photo: Cristian Bortes, edited by MenkinAlRire / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
