Festivals News

BFI Reveals the Full Line-up of the London Film Festival 2021 in Hybrid Version

A vibrant programme of 159 feature films from around the world (including 21 world premieres) will screen to audiences in cinemas across London and UK-wide through LFF partner cinemas and virtual premieres on BFI Player.

The 65th London Film Festival (LFF) in partnership with American Express today announced the full 2021 programme line-up that will be presented both in cinemas and virtually, incorporating some of the most popular elements of the successful 2020 edition into the full large-scale festival model.

Over 12 days from 6 to 17 October, flagship venue BFI Southbank and the Southbank Centre's Royal Festival Hall, the LFF gala venue for 2021, will make London's South Bank one of two London hubs at the heart of the film festival experience. Films will also screen in a number of cinemas in London's West End, with a selection of films at 10 venues in cities and towns across the UK. Audiences will enjoy a rich and varied programme of fiction, documentary, animation, artists' moving image, short film, restored classics from the world's archives as well as programmes of exciting international works made in immersive and episodic forms.

The festival will also be accessible online to audiences across the whole of the UK with a specially selected programme of feature and short films available on BFI Player, with online short films and online events free to access. The LFF Expanded programme of immersive art and XR will have a large physical exhibition at 26 Leake Street and the National Theatre and also be available UK-wide and internationally via a bespoke virtual exhibition space, The Expanse.

And now browse the selection of Asian Titles of the :

Official Competition

Hit The Road
Panah Panahi – Iran 2021
Panah Panahi's thrilling debut is by turns tender, quirky, even laugh-out-loud funny – a wondrously-observed reflection on family and the ambivalence of saying goodbye.

Belle
Mamoru Hosoda – Japan 2021
Oscar-nominated anime director Mamoru Hosoda returns with an outstanding tale, following a socially awkward girl who transforms herself into a megastar within a virtual world.

Belle

First Feature Competition

White Building
Kavich Neang – Cambodia-France-China 2021
Remarkably nuanced and emotionally engaging, Kavich Neang's film delves into the impact of gentrification in Phnom Penh and pays homage to the enduring memory of the iconic White Building.

The Alleys
Bassel Ghandour – Jordan-Egypt-Saudi Arabia-Qatar 2021
Bassel Ghandour's gripping debut is as tightly woven as the interlocking alleys it depicts – a neighbourhood where gossip circles mercilessly and reputation is everything.

Costa Brava Lebanon
Mounia Akl – Lebanon 2021
The simmering tension of unresolved disputes contrasts with the electricity of first love in Mounia Akl's dazzling debut, heralding a striking new cinematic voice.

Documentary Competition

All About My Sisters
Wang Qiong – USA 2021
Wang Qiong's impressive debut takes us to the heart of her unresolved family trauma and asks critical questions about privacy and permission in documentary practice.

Short Film Competition

Lemongrass Girl
Bunsermvicha – Thailand 2021. 17min

Tellurian Drama
Riar Rizaldi – Indonesia 2020. 26min

A Dream of Wholeness in Parts
Sin Wai Kin – Taiwan 2021. 23min

A Man Trembles
Mark Chua, Li Shuen Lam – Singapore 2021. 23min

Stiletto: ‘A Pink Family Tragedy'
Can Merdan Doğan – Turkey-Germany 2021. 18min

Special Presentations

Drive My Car
Ryusuke Hamaguchi – Japan 2021
Inspired by Haruki Murakami's short story, Ryusuke Hamaguchi takes us on an unpredictable and self-revelatory journey in this serene yet riveting drama.

Memoria
Apichatpong Weerasethakul – Colombia-Thailand-UK-Mexico-France-Germany-Qatar 2021
Shot and set in Colombia, Apichatpong Weerasethakul's meditative rumination on memory and the human condition is anchored by Tilda Swinton's enigmatic, otherworldly presence.

Memoria

Strands

LOVE

Two Friends
Prasun Chatterjee – India 2021
Two 8-year-old boys navigate a growing religious divide in this beautifully observed portrait of childhood set after the destruction of India's Babri Mosque.

Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
Ryusuke Hamaguchi – Japan 2021
Along with Drive My Car, this triptych is one of two new films from LFF favourite Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Happy Hour, Asako I & II).

DEBATE

Ahed's Knee
Nadav Lapid – France-Germany-Israel 2021
A high-intensity political drama/satire from Israeli director Nadav Lapid, about a filmmaker coming face-to-face with his conscience and the state of a nation's culture.

A Hero
Asghar Farhadi's signature cinematic web-weaving is deployed to captivating effect in his Cannes Grand Prix-winning drama – a reflection on the grey line between right and wrong.
Asghar Farhadi – Iran-France 2021

Invisible Demons
Rahul Jain – India-Finland-Germany 2021
An environmental disaster is brewing in New Delhi and this unsettling documentary details the profound impact of pollution and climate change.

Little Palestine, Diary of a Siege
Abdallah Al-Khatib – Lebanon-France-Qatar 2021
Yarmouk Camp in Damascus, Syria, was once home to the largest concentration of Palestinian refugees. Abdallah Al-Khatib's record of its brutal siege is vital viewing.

Rehana
Abdullah Mohammad – SaadBangladesh-Singapore-Qatar 2021
An assistant medical professor faces her own #MeToo moment when she discovers that her colleague has assaulted one of her students, in this gripping feminist drama from Bangladesh.

LAUGH

7 Days
Roshan Sethi – USA 2021
After an awkward first date, Rita and Ravi are forced to quarantine together, in this romantic comedy set during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Humidity Alert
Bong Soo Ko – South Korea 2021
A farcical yet highly perceptive satire of the indie film scene in South Korea, set on one long, hot summer's day.

Humidity Alert

DARE

History Ni Ha
Lav Diaz – Philippines 2021
Lav Diaz's sharp political fable testifies to the ongoing reality of exploitation, channelled through Ha, a ventriloquist's puppet who embodies art's redemptive potential.

Les Enfants Terribles
Ahmet Necdet Cupur – France -Turkey-Germany 2021
A Turkish family is on the brink of implosion when the younger generation try to break free from patriarchy and traditional values, in this engrossing documentary.

Memory Box
Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige – France-Lebanon-Canada 2021
A package of keepsakes from 1980s wartime Beirut arrives in contemporary Montreal, in this stylish intergenerational drama from acclaimed directors Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige.

Brother's Keeper
Ferit Karahan – Turkey 2021
A young boy must fight to save his sick friend in this thrillingly unpredictable boarding school drama.

Hellbound – Episodes 1 to 3
Yeon Sang-ho – South Korea 2021
Supernatural fantasy, police procedural and social satire merge in this genre-hopping South Korean mini-series from the director of Train to Busan.

Pedro
Natesh Hegde – India 2021
In a village in Southern India, Pedro, an outcast and a drunk, accidentally kills a cow and sets off a revelatory chain of events that pit him against the entire community.

CULT

The Medium
Banjong Pisanthanakun – Thailand 2021
Produced and co-written by Na Hong-jin, director of The Wailing, this chilling supernatural mockumentary will give you sleepless nights.

The Mecium

JOURNEY

A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces
Shengze Zhu – USA 2021
Composed of exquisite wide shots, Shengze Zhu's gripping, observational portrait of Wuhan offers a poetic reflection on the pandemic, set against the ever-changing Yangtze.

The Sea Ahead
Ely Dagher – France-Lebanon-Belgium-USA-Qatar 2021
Expanding on his 2015 Camera d'Or winning short Waves 98, Ely Dagher's compelling debut feature takes the pulse of present-day Beirut to extraordinarily prescient and chilling effect.

Wood and Water
Jonas Bak – Germany-France 2021
Jonas Bak's debut is a compassionate and precise record of a woman exploring Hong Kong and awakening to a new side of herself, performed by the director's mother.

CREATE

Money Has Four Legs
Maung Sun – Myanmar 2021
Witty and provocative, Maung Sun's confident feature debut takes us on a journey to the turbulent centre of the Burmese film world.

Omar Amiralay: Sorrow, Time, Silence
Hala Alabdalla – France-Syria 2021
Veteran Syrian director Hala Alabdalla returns to LFF with a moving portrait of her late friend and pioneer of Arab non-fiction cinema.

Ripples of Life
Wei Shujun – China 2021
Following Striding Into the Wind (LFF 2020), Wei Shujun returns with this impressive meta commentary on filmmaking that's full of insight and deadpan humour.

Ripples of Life

EXPERIMENTA

Anachronic Chronicles: Voyages Inside/Out Asia
Yu Araki, Lu Pan – Hong Kong (SAR of China)-Japan-South Korea 2021
An inventive rewriting of the filmmakers' home videos leaves us with the urge to open up boxes of old video cassettes.

EXPANDED

Missing Pictures: Tsai Ming-Liang
Clement Deneux, Kuan-Yuan LAI – France-Taiwan-UK 2021
The VR series finds one of Taiwan's most acclaimed filmmakers journeying into his childhood dreams.

Samsara
Hsin-Chien Huang – Taiwan 2021
Hsin-Chien Huang's latest work will transport you through space and time, blowing your mind with extraordinary visualisations of human existence in an ecstasy of colour and form.

TREASURES

Around Japan With a Movie Camera
Intense interest in Japan by the West made it a favourite destination for filmmakers from the earliest days of film. This selection of films from 1901 to 1913, newly restored by the BFI National Archive, takes us on a fascinating journey through Meiji Japan.
Japanese Schoolchildren – UK 1901. Warwick Trading Company
Japanese Funeral – UK 1904. Warwick Trading Company
Japanese State Procession – UK 1904. Hepworth Manufacturing Company
Picturesque Japan – France 1907. Pathé Frères
Japanese Dancers and Japanese Stave Duel – UK 1905. (unidentified)
Shooting the rapids on the River Ozu – France 1907. Pathé Frères
Japanese Festival – France 1909. Pathé Frères
Rice industry in Japan – France 1910. FR, Pathé Frères
Rice Festival in Kyoto – France 1910. Pathé Frères
Fishing with Cormorants. Isle of Yeso, Japan – UK 1911. Charles Urban Trading Company
Japanese Types – France 1911. Pathé Frères
Among the Japanese – France 1911. Pathé Frères
London: Late Emperor of Japan – UK 1912. UK Topical Budget Company
Some Japanese Temples – France 1912. Pathé Frères
The Ainus of Japan – US 1913. Selig Polyscope Company Director Frederick Starr

About the author

Adriana Rosati

On paper I am an Italian living in London, in reality I was born and bread in a popcorn bucket. I've loved cinema since I was a little child and I’ve always had a passion and interest for Asian (especially Japanese) pop culture, food and traditions, but on the cinema side, my big, first love is Hong Kong Cinema. Then - by a sort of osmosis - I have expanded my love and appreciation to the cinematography of other Asian countries. I like action, heroic bloodshed, wu-xia, Shaw Bros (even if it’s not my specialty), Anime, and also more auteur-ish movies. Anything that is good, really, but I am allergic to rom-com (unless it’s a HK rom-com, possibly featuring Andy Lau in his 20s)"

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