BFI London Film Festival line-up includes new Martin Scorsese, Hayao Miyazaki and Sofia Coppola films

The BFI London Film Festival line-up for 2023 has been announced.

New films set to premiere at this year’s edition of the event include releases from directors Martin Scorsese (Killers of the Flower Moon), David Fincher (The Killer), Alexander Payne (The Holdover) and Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things).

Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, in which the director stars alongside Carey Mulligan, will also be screened alongside Todd Haynes’s May December, starring Natalie Portman and Julianne Moore, and Jeff Nichols’s The Bikeriders, which stars Austin Butler, Jodie Comer, Tom Hardy and Norman Reedus.

They join previously announced titles Saltburn, the new film from Promising Young Woman writer-director Emerald Fennell, which will open the festival, as well as the closing film, Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya’s dystopian drama The Kitchen.

Completing the headline gala screenings are Netflix’s Chicken Run sequel Dawn of the Nugget, The Book of Clarence from Jeymes Samuel; Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Are Strangers, starring Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal; James Hawes’s One Life – a biographical drama about British humanitarian Nicholas Winton (Anthony Hopkins) – and the Jodie Foster-starring sports drama Nyad.

Highlights from the Special Presentations strand include Studio Ghibli film The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki), Priscilla (Sofia Coppola), The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer), Grime Kids (Abdou Cisse), Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki), Cobweb (Kim Jee-woon) and Hit Man (Richard Linklater).

Other strands are separated by genre, with the line-up featuring new projects from directors Lulu Wang (Prime Video series Expats, starring Nicole Kidman), Wim Wenders (Anselm), Víctor Erice (Close Your Eyes), Bertrand Bonello (The Beast), William Oldroyd (Eileen), Hirokazu Kore-eda (Monster), Randall Park (Shortcomings) and Chris Pine (Terrestrial Verses).

Over 12 days, the LFF will showcase 252 works from 92 countries, featuring 79 languages and including 99 projects made by female and non-binary filmmakers.

Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director, said of this year’s line-up: “In preparing this 2023 festival, my colleagues and I have been endlessly buoyed by the artistry, ideas and talented individuals and communities that have come into our orbit. It’s now time to share all this wonder and we can’t wait for audiences to experience it all this October here in London and across the UK with LFF on Tour and online at BFI Player.”

Meanwhile, Ben Roberts, CEO, BFI said: “Cinema has reclaimed its status as a cultural force, an art-form that can spark a conversation around the world, and which will resound loudly through the wide-ranging line-up of essential cinema that our 67th edition of the BFI London Film Festival will offer.

“I am particularly excited that the Festival will be sharing the exhilarating experience of new work from global filmmakers alongside so many debut features from the UK this year. I congratulate Kristy on her first LFF programme and the talented team who continue to find creative ways to reach new audiences, including through our free programme. 

“We couldn’t do it without our loyal supporters, including our principal partner of 14 years American Express, so huge thanks to them and our many other sponsors, funders, partners, including the UK Government and the UK’s National Lottery players who do so much to enable both the Festival and our work throughout the year.”

The 67th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express takes place from 4-15 October, 2023.