We offer ten films to watch out for at the London Film Festival this year.
The London Film Festival has returned with a typically outstanding lineup of movies, some of which UK filmgoers will have been waiting to feast their eyes on since the beginning of festival season. Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winning Anora has been the film on everyone’s lips since it premiered at Cannes way back in May, while Luca Guadagnino’s Queer has maintained keen anticipation since the Italian director stole our hearts with Challengers earlier in the year.
But it’s just as important to keep an eye out for the films that fly under the radar, from established arthouse auteurs and independent first-time filmmakers, and every year there are more than a few gems that demand the spotlight. Here are ten for you to watch out from the festival’s lineup.
All Shall Be Well (dir. Ray Yeung)
A queer film unlike many will have seen, Hong Kong filmmaker Ray Yeung’s All Shall Be Well is a heartbreaking meditation on grief, class, queer love and chosen family. The film follows sixty year-old Angie, who after the death of her partner Pat, must fight against those she considered family in order to keep the apartment they shared for thirty years.
A Nice Indian Boy (dir. Roshan Sethi)
A rejection of the cynical rom-com, Roshan Sethi’s A Nice Indian Boy, starring Karan Soni and Jonathan Groff, is bringing the genre back to it’s sweet and sugary roots, with a thought-provoking, hilarious queer love story about an Indian boy (Soni) who has to navigate the pratfalls of bringing his white boyfriend (Groff) home to his Indian family.
A Traveler’s Needs (dir. Hong Sang-soo)
Prolific arthouse director Hong Sang-soo is switching from soju to makgeolli in A Traveler’s Needs, which sees the Korean filmmaker reunite with Isabelle Huppert for a typically low key feature following Huppert as an expat eking out a humble but comfortable life as a French tutor to two Korean women in Seoul.
Dahomey (dir. Mati Drop)
26 royal treasures of the Kingdom of Dahomey are coming home after over a hundred years in French colonial captivity in Mati Diop’s Golden Bear winning documentary, which deftly explores the differing perspectives of the Beninese people on the matter. Artfully created, thoroughly thought provoking, and moving in a way that is unsensational yet characteristically metaphysical. Quietly, Dahomey is one of this year’s best.
Caught By The Tides (dir. Jia Zhangke)
An underrated best of Cannes this year, and a contender for best of the year, Caught By The Tides is Chinese director Jia Zhangke’s love letter to muse and wife Zhao Tao that, using archive footage, spans an entire career working together. The film stars Tao as Qiao Qiao, who leaves her home in Datong province in search for her missing boyfriend, but it’s the lyrical, meandering moments of observation in Caught by the Tides that will move you to tears, a quiet reward for those who have the patience to tune into Zhangke’s frequency. Don’t let its slow pace fool you—this is thrilling, sometimes transcendental filmmaking.
Read our review of Caught by The Tides here.
Grand Tour (dir. Miguel Gomes)
A love letter to Chris Marker’s masterpiece Sans Soleil, Miguel Gomes’ Grand Tour is a sweeping hybrid between travelogue and narrative filmmaking that continues the Portuguese filmmaker’s run as one of the most exciting cinematic voices around. The film, set in 1917 and spanning across Japan, Singapore, Myanmar and more, follows a British diplomat who abandons his fiancee on the day they’re to be married, prompting her to follow his trail through Asia.
The Colours Within (dir. Naoko Yamada)
The Colours Within is the perfect fit for the anime-heads looking to attend the festival this year. Traditionally hand-animated in a stunning candy-coloured palette, Naoko Yamada’s (A Silent Voice, Liz & The Blue Bird) latest is an emotional ride that follows a trio of teen outcasts who, in order to escape the pressures of adolescence, form a band.
Hard Truths (dir. Mike Leigh)
Mike Leigh’s latest film got rejected from many of the major festivals this year, and no one can quite figure out why, considering Hard Truths is as much an emotionally resonant gut-punch as the British auteur’s best work. The film features a standout performance from Marianne Jean-Baptiste as the thorny, flippant Pansy, who must come to terms with past traumas to save her relationship with her family. In an ideal world, Hard Truths isn’t a gem at all, but one of the most outwardly lauded movies of 2024.
Harvest (dir. Athina Rachel Tsangari)
While Yorgos Lanthimos has been busy courting the academy with recent films like Poor Things and this year’s Kinds of Kindness, filmmaker Athina Rachel Tsangari has been carefully carving out her own lane as one of Greece’s brightest contemporary filmmakers. Set in England during the Middle Ages, her latest follows three strangers who, at a time of economic turmoil, are made scapegoats by their struggling village.
You can read our review of Harvest here.
Chain Reaction (dir.Alexandre O. Philippe)
Alexandre O. Philippe offers five unique perspectives on legendary horror film The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, a film that all at once is the mad howl of a broken America, a raging Australian bushfire, a twist of fate that inadvertently birthed one of Japan’s great cult filmmakers, and a world driven to insanity by a diseased sun. If you’re a horror fan, this documentary featuring Patton Oswalt, Takeshi Miike, Stephen King, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Karyn Kusama is not to be missed.
