LONDRES 2024

Le Festival BFI de Londres annonce le programme de son édition 2024

par Laurence Boyce

05/09/2024 - Parmi les nouveaux films sélectionnés à l'événement, qui se tiendra du 9 au 20 octobre, le petit dernier de Steve McQueen, Blitz, sera projeté en première mondiale

Blitz de Steve McQueen

Cet article est disponible en anglais.

The BFI London Film Festival (LFF) has announced the 253 titles that will make up its 2024 programme. The event, to be held from 9-20 October in various cinemas across the UK capital, including the iconic BFI Southbank, promises several world premieres amongst a slew of festival favourites as well as TV series and immersive works.

The event will open with the world premiere of Steve McQueen’s Blitz, which follows the journey of a nine-year-old boy in World War II-era London, whose mother sends him off to safety in the English countryside (see the news). The defiant and determined youngster wants to return home and embarks on an adventure, only to find that his journey is more dangerous than he had imagined. Newcomer Elliott Heffernan takes the lead alongside stalwart actors including Saoirse Ronan, Kathy Burke and Stephen Graham. The film will subsequently be given a limited domestic release before heading to Apple TV+ on 22 November.

The festival will close with the European premiere of Morgan Neville’s Piece by Piece, an animated documentary that examines the life of singer Pharrell Williams through the medium of Lego.

World premieres in the festival’s Official Competition include Four Mothers by Irish filmmaker Darren Thornton, the comedic story of a novelist who is forced to look after his mother after she has a stroke. Also bowing for the first time is The Extraordinary Miss Flower, the latest film from directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, perhaps best known for their 2014 film 20,000 Days on Earth [+]. Their latest work is the story of Geraldine Flower and the discovery of a suitcase of letters sent to her in the 1960s and 1970s that inspired acclaimed Icelandic singer-songwriter Emilíana Torrini to return to the studio. Described as “part film, part theatre, part fever dream”, the film sees Torrini perform ten songs as well as acting alongside the likes of Richard Ayoade, Nick Cave, Alice Lowe and Siggi Baldursson. Other films in the Official Competition include Damian Kocur’s Under the Volcano [+] and Rungano Nyoni’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl [+] (Zambia/UK/Ireland), which scooped the Directing Prize in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard this year.

The festival’s First Feature Competition includes such titles as Ariane Labed’s September Says [+] (Ireland/UK/Germany), Sylvia Le Fanu’s My Eternal Summer [+] (Denmark) and Laura Carreira’s On Falling [+] (UK/Portugal), while there will also be competition strands for documentaries and short films.

As in previous years, the rest of the feature-film programme is organised into strands entitled Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Create, Experimenta, Family, Shorts and Treasures.

The LFF will showcase TV series including Thomas Vinterberg’s first foray into the format, Families Like Ours [+] (freshly screened at Venice); the world premiere of A Thousand Blows by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight; and The Franchise from writer Jon Brown, co-directed by Sam Mendes and Liza Johnson. Meanwhile, LFF Expanded is the festival’s programme of immersive art and extended-reality works.

The Industry programme will be announced in due course, but the festival will play host to a number of recognisable names in its Screen Talks. This year, said programme will include interviews with Andrea Arnold, Sean Baker, Mike Leigh, Steve McQueen, Lupita Nyong’o, Zoe Saldaña, Denis Villeneuve, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin.

The list of films in competition can be found below, while the full programme is available here:

Official Competition

April [+] - Dea Kulumbegashvili (France/Italy/Georgia)Bring Them Down [+] - Christopher Andrews (Ireland/UK/Belgium)The Extraordinary Miss Flower - Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard (UK)Four Mothers - Darren Thornton (Ireland/UK)Living in Two Worlds - Mipo O (Japan)Memoir of a Snail - Adam Elliot (Australia)On Becoming A Guinea Fowl [+] - Rungano Nyoni (Zambia/UK/Ireland)Thank You for Banking With Us - Laila Abbas (Palestine/Germany)Under the Volcano [+] - Damian Kocur (Poland)Vermiglio, the Mountain Bride [+] - Maura Delpero (Italy/France/Belgium)The Wolves Always Come at Night [+] - Gabrielle Brady (Australia/Mongolia/Germany)

First Feature Competition

Crocodile Tears [+] - Tumpal Tampubolon (Indonesia/France/Singapore/Germany)
Hanami [+] - Denise Fernandes (Switzerland/Portugal/Cape Verde)
Happyend - Neo Sora (Japan/USA)
Last Swim [+] - Sasha Nathwani (UK)
My Eternal Summer [+] - Sylvia Le Fanu (Denmark)
Olivia & the Clouds - Tomás Pichardo Espaillat (Dominican Republic)
On Falling [+] - Laura Carreira (UK/Portugal)
Santosh [+] - Sandhya Suri (UK/France/Germany)
September Says [+] - Ariane Labed (Ireland/UK/Germany)
To a Land Unknown [+] - Mahdi Fleifel (UK/Palestine/France/Greece/Netherlands/Germany/Qatar/Saudi Arabia)
Who Do I Belong To [+] - Meryam Joobeur (France/Canada/Tunisia)

Documentary Competition

Collective Monologue [+] - Jessica Sarah Rinland (Argentina/UK)
Holloway - Sophie Compton, Daisy-May Hudson (UK)
Kamay [+] - Ilyas Yourish, Shahrokh Bikaran (Afghanistan/Belgium/France/Germany)
Mother Vera [+] - Cécile Embleton, Alys Tomlinson (UK)
Rising Up at Night [+] - Nelson Makengo (DR Congo/Belgium/Germany/Burkina Faso/Qatar)
Seeking Mavis Beacon - Jazmin Jones (USA)
The Shadow Scholars - Eloise King (UK)
Witches [+] - Elizabeth Sankey (UK)

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