FILMS TO HAVE ON YOUR RADAR AT THE 70TH BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL

From Ava DuVernay and Boots Riley to Ash­ley Wal­ters and a new gen­er­a­tion of Afric­an and dia­spora film­makers, these are the fea­tures and shorts demand­ing atten­tion at LFF 2026.

The BFI Lon­don Film Fest­iv­al returns for its 70^th edi­tion from 7 to 18 Octo­ber, bring­ing anoth­er vast pro­gramme of films, doc­u­ment­ar­ies and shorts to audi­ences across the cap­it­al and around the UK.

This year’s line-up is espe­cially rich in stor­ies about race, power, migra­tion, iden­tity and sur­viv­al. Estab­lished names return with ambi­tious new work, while emer­ging film­makers bring intim­ate per­spect­ives from Niger­ia, Haiti, the Cent­ral Afric­an Repub­lic and Britain’s own mul­ti­cul­tur­al communities.

For any­one won­der­ing where to begin, I Am Hip Hop has selec­ted 13 titles worth put­ting firmly on your radar.

Fea­tures

14^th | Dir. Ava DuVernay | USA

Ava DuVernay returns to the ter­rit­ory of power, race and Amer­ic­an his­tory with an invest­ig­a­tion into the Four­teenth Amend­ment, adop­ted after the Civil War to guar­an­tee cit­izen­ship and equal civil rights. Bring­ing togeth­er polit­ic­al thinkers, aca­dem­ics and con­tem­por­ary voices, the film exam­ines how those pro­tec­tions have been inter­preted, chal­lenged and under­mined. It prom­ises to be an urgent com­pan­ion piece to DuVernay’s earli­er work, con­nect­ing the leg­al found­a­tions of the United States to struggles that remain glob­al and ongoing.

Anim­ol | Dir. Ash­ley Wal­ters | UK

Ash­ley Wal­ters makes his fea­ture dir­ect­ori­al debut with a sens­it­ively observed drama set inside a young offend­ers insti­tu­tion. Tut Nyuot stars as Troy, whose arrival behind bars draws him into the orbit of dom­in­ant king­pin Dion and quick-wit­ted Krys­tiy­an. As those rela­tion­ships begin to shape his life inside, sur­viv­al, loy­alty and redemp­tion become increas­ingly tangled. Steph­en Gra­ham joins the cast, while Wal­ters announces him­self as a film­maker with a strong visu­al eye and deep empathy for young men nav­ig­at­ing sys­tems built to con­tain them. The film arrives at LFF after win­ning the FIPRESCI Prize at Berlinale.

Clarissa | Dirs. Arie Esiri and Chuko Esiri | USA

Vir­gin­ia Woolf’s Mrs Dal­lo­way is reima­gined in con­tem­por­ary Lagos in this sun-soaked explor­a­tion of class, gender and memory. Clarissa fol­lows a soci­ety woman pre­par­ing to host a party at home, only for the return of once-intim­ate friends from her youth to dis­turb the pol­ished sur­face of her present life. After Eyimofe, which screened at LFF in 2020, broth­ers Arie and Chuko Esiri return with a film that relo­cates a lit­er­ary clas­sic while keep­ing its ques­tions about regret, status and the lives we might have lived.

Congo Boy | Dir. Rafiki Fari­ala | Cent­ral Afric­an Republic

Music becomes both refuge and pos­sib­il­ity in Rafiki Fariala’s melod­ic, loosely auto­bi­o­graph­ic­al fea­ture. Robert is a Con­golese teen­ager dis­placed by war and liv­ing in Ban­gui, where he bal­ances rais­ing his young­er sib­lings with the pur­suit of a rap career. Polit­ic­al instabil­ity is nev­er far from view, but Congo Boy refuses to reduce its prot­ag­on­ist to hard­ship. Instead, it offers a tender por­trait of ambi­tion, fam­ily respons­ib­il­ity and cre­at­ive resi­li­ence. New­comer Dembe­as­set won the Best Act­or Award in Un Cer­tain Regard at Cannes for his cent­ral performance.

I Love Boost­ers | Dir. Boots Riley | USA

Nobody does anti-cap­it­al­ist chaos quite like Boots Riley. The Sorry to Both­er You film­maker returns with an all-star cast led by Keke Palmer and Demi Moore, a fash­ion-world set­ting and anoth­er glor­i­ously unruly attack on the sys­tem. The story fol­lows an aspir­ing design­er who leads the Vel­vet Gang, a crew of “boost­ers” steal­ing clothes from boutiques owned by fash­ion entre­pren­eur Christie Smith. Part heist movie, part polit­ic­al satire and part fever dream, I Love Boost­ers looks ready to turn con­sump­tion, aspir­a­tion and rebel­lion into com­bust­ible cinema.

In the Shad­ows | Dir. Anthony Wonke | UK

Jas­mine Job­son leads this dram­at­isa­tion of the remark­able life of Ramla Ali, the refugee who trained without her family’s know­ledge and became the first Somali Brit­ish woman to box pro­fes­sion­ally. More than a con­ven­tion­al sport­ing biop­ic, In the Shad­ows is a com­ing-of-age story about iden­tity, belong­ing, faith and the cour­age required to choose your own future. Set against the East End box­ing world, it fol­lows a young woman determ­ined to hon­our her his­tory and com­munity without allow­ing either to define the lim­its of her ambition.

Lady | Dir. Olive Nwosu | UK/Nigeria

Lady works long, sol­it­ary hours while sav­ing for an escape to Free­town. When her child­hood friend Pinky, a sex work­er, asks for help, that care­fully con­trolled exist­ence begins to unravel. Olive Nwosu’s char­ac­ter-driv­en film is both an intim­ate story of female friend­ship and a vivid por­trait of a city, car­ried by an excep­tion­al largely female cast. Their col­lect­ive per­form­ance earned the Spe­cial Jury Award for Act­ing Ensemble at Sund­ance, mak­ing Lady one of the festival’s most excit­ing show­cases for Afric­an women on screen.

Mar­ie Madeleine | Dir. Ges­sica Généus | France/Haiti

Haitian act­or and dir­ect­or Ges­sica Généus fol­lows Freda with anoth­er com­pas­sion­ate look at people liv­ing bey­ond the bound­ar­ies of social respect­ab­il­ity. Mar­ie is an out­spoken sex work­er who pro­tects her­self with razor blades; Joseph is a near-silent preacher’s son who hides behind his cam­era. Their unlikely friend­ship is tested when Joseph’s estranged fath­er begins build­ing a church beside the brothel where Mar­ie works. The res­ult is a vivid study of secrecy, judge­ment and the com­munit­ies cre­ated by society’s outcasts.

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives | Dir. Daniel Ori­ahi | Nigeria

Lola Shoneyin’s acclaimed nov­el reaches the screen in Daniel Oriahi’s engross­ing explor­a­tion of gender, power and sur­viv­al in present-day Niger­ia. Baba Segi presides over a house­hold of three wives and their chil­dren that appears har­mo­ni­ous from the out­side. Beneath that sur­face, how­ever, sit rival­ries, secrets and care­fully nego­ti­ated forms of con­trol. The adapt­a­tion prom­ises humour and drama while tak­ing a sharp look at pat­ri­archy and the strategies women use to sur­vive with­in it.

Your Moth­er Your Moth­er Your Moth­er | Dir. Bas­sam Tariq | USA

Bas­sam Tariq, the dir­ect­or behind Mogul Mowgli, returns with a styl­ish action thrill­er star­ring Mah­er­shala Ali as an assas­sin and fath­er of three. When his wife dies, the struc­tures hold­ing his dan­ger­ous double life togeth­er begin to col­lapse. Amid the may­hem, Tariq keeps grief, faith and fath­er­hood at the centre, giv­ing Ali space for a per­form­ance that is emo­tion­al as well as com­mand­ing. It is a genre film with some­thing deep­er on its mind: what remains of a man when viol­ence, fam­ily and belief collide.

Shorts

How to Hide It | Dirs. Ramla Ali and Richard A. Moore | UK

Zahra Ahmed, a 26-year-old Brit­ish-Sudanese woman, wins the lot­tery and sud­denly finds good for­tune col­lid­ing with faith, fam­ily expect­a­tions and cul­tur­al iden­tity. The short asks wheth­er a life-chan­ging oppor­tun­ity can ever be sep­ar­ated from its con­sequences, and what hap­pens when private desire no longer fits com­fort­ably along­side deeply held belief.

Laundreams | Dirs. Amber Gadd and Evie Ward-Drum­mond | UK

In an empty laundrette staffed by 20-year-olds Min­nie and Leah, noth­ing hap­pens and noth­ing changes, until the still­ness begins to reveal its own pos­sib­il­it­ies. Star­ring Paapa Essiedu, Laundreams finds cine­mat­ic poten­tial in an over­looked every­day space and the strange intim­acy of wait­ing for life to begin.

The Anim­als | Dir. Calv­in Demba | UK

Act­or and film­maker Calv­in Demba dir­ects this unset­tling premise about per­form­ance, mas­culin­ity and man­u­fac­tured hero­ism. After Miles dis­cov­ers a group that stages viol­ent attacks so men can appear brave in front of their part­ners, he asks for their help. The cast includes George MacK­ay, Louisa Har­land, Eric Kofi Abrefa and Nath­alie Emmanuel, giv­ing this darkly com­ic idea ser­i­ous dra­mat­ic weight.

Fest­iv­al information

The 70^th BFI Lon­don Film Fest­iv­al takes place from 7 to 18 Octo­ber 2026. Explore the full pro­gramme and book­ing inform­a­tion on the BFI web­site.