The 68th BFI London Film Festival was a film festival that took place from 9–20 October 2024. The competition films were announced on 29 August 2024 while the films for the galas and the strands were revealed on 4 September 2024.
Steve McQueen's historical drama Blitz opened the festival on 9 October 2024, being the third film by McQueen to do so after Widows in 2018 and Mangrove in 2020. Morgan Neville's animated documentary film Piece by Piece closed the festival on 20 October 2024.
Juries
The jury members were as follows:
Main Competition
- Alexandre O. Philippe, Swiss film director – Jury president
- Manori Ravindran, English trade journalist
- Reinaldo Marcus Green, American filmmaker
First Feature Competition (Sutherland Award)
- Dionne Edwards, British filmmaker – Jury president
- Julia Weigl, artistic co-director of the Munich Film Festival
- Bernardo Rondeau, curator of Film Programs at the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art and former Senior Director of Film Programs for the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures
Documentary Competition (Grierson Award)
- June Givanni, Guyanese-British curator, archivist, and founder of the June Givanni Pan-African Cinema Archive – Jury president
- Ella Glendining, British writer and director
- Raul Niño Zambrano, creative director of Sheffield DocFest
Short Film Competition
- Chloe Abrahams, Sri Lankan-British writer and director – Jury president
- Simisolaoluwa Akande, British director
- George Jaques, British filmmaker
Venues
The partner venues for the festival included:
Official Selection
Galas
The following films were selected for the Galas section, which screens world, European, and British premieres:
Special Presentations
The following films were selected for the Special Presentations section:
In Competition
There were four competition sections, each with a different selection of films and different juries.
Official Competition
The following films competed for the Best Film Award:
- Highlighted title indicates the section winner.
First Feature Competition
The following films competed for the Sutherland Award, which is awarded to a directorial debut:
- Highlighted title indicates the section winner.
Documentary Competition
The following films competed for the Grierson Award, which is awarded to a feature-length documentary.
- Highlighted title indicates the section winner.
Short Film Competition
The following films competed for the Short Film Award.
- Highlighted title indicates the section winner.
Strands
Most of the out-of-competition films have been organised into strands, each based on a different mood or emotion.
Love
Debate
Laugh
Dare
Thrill
Cult
Journey
Create
Experimenta
Family
Treasures
Shorts
The short film programme was divided into the following nine sections.
Family Ties
Honouring Traditions
I Don't Wanna Force a Smile
Sleepless Nights
Trials and Tribulations
Wondering, Wandering
Animated Shorts for Younger Audiences
A Stream of Echoes
Right in the Substance of Them a Trace of What Happened
Surprise Film
Saturday Night, dir. Jason Reitman
Awards
The following awards were presented:
In competition
- Best Film: Memoir of a Snail by Adam Elliot
- Special Mention: On Becoming a Guinea Fowl by Rungano Nyoni
- Best First Feature (Sutherland Award): On Falling by Laura Carreira
- Special Mention: Olivia & the Clouds by Tomás Pichardo Espaillat
- Best Documentary (Grierson Award): Mother Vera by Cécile Embleton & Alys Tomlinson
- Special Mention: The Shadow Scholars by Eloise King
- Best Short Film: Vibrations from Gaza by Rehab Nazzal
- Special Mention: Dragfox by Lisa Ott
Audience awards
Voting for the audience awards closes on 23 October. Winners will be announced later in October.
References
