The 2026 London Film Festival (7-18 October) presents a rich slate of cinema, with our critic highlighting 12 outstanding films. Among them, Andrew Scott's performance in Elsinore positions him as a potential first out gay man to win the best actor Oscar.
Andrew Scott's Hamlet and Manchester Music
In Elsinore, Andrew Scott plays Ian Charleson, the Chariots of Fire star who took on Hamlet at London's National Theatre in 1989 after Daniel Day-Lewis withdrew, despite being desperately ill with Aids. Charleson knew the strain would accelerate his illness; for him, the play's themes of life and death, truth and falsehood, justice and injustice were all too real.
Carol Morley's 7 Miles Out adapts her autobiographical novel. Lucy Halliday plays Anne, a teen who takes refuge in the Manchester music scene (featuring Joy Division, New Order and Magazine) after an emotional crisis; Gemma Whelan and Aidan Gillen play her parents.
Historical Vignettes and Debut Features
Paweł Pawlikowski's Fatherland stars Hanns Zischler and Sandra Hüller as Thomas and Erika Mann. Post-war, Mann returns to Germany with his daughter to accept prizes in both the capitalist West and communist East, but he is in denial about a terrible family crisis.
Marine Atlan's La Gradiva, perhaps the year's best debut feature, follows a school trip to Pompeii where a troubled teacher manages troubled kids, including Toni, who believes he descends from a Pompeii nobleman whose castle was destroyed by the 1980 earthquake.
Social Realism and Gothic Horror
Clio Barnard's I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning is a Birmingham-set social realist drama starring Joe Cole, Daryl McCormack, Lola Petticrew, Anthony Boyle and Jay Lycurgo. The characters are loyal to their city yet long to escape, confronting life choices as they near 30.
Andrew Haigh's A Long Winter, adapted from a Colm Tóibín story, stars Caitriona Balfe as a mother who disappears in 1950s Colorado, leaving the menfolk in a strange period of bachelor freedom.
Isabelle Huppert plays Countess Elizabeth Báthory in The Blood Countess, a vampire returned to present-day Vienna, gliding through sewers more coolly than Harry Lime in The Third Man.
Comedy, Drama and Sci-Fi
Boots Riley's I Love Boosters is a hyperactive romp about fashion influencers who “boost” clothes, starring Naomi Ackie, Taylour Paige and Demi Moore as the resentful designer. Gentle Monster stars Léa Seydoux as Lucy, a musician whose husband's devices are seized by police, forcing her to contort her perceptions to match his explanations.
Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut features Julianne Moore as a neglected housewife who transforms into a diva in a community theatre musical (with songs written by Eisenberg). Lili Horvát's My Notes on Mars stars Mackenzie Davis as Margot, a scientist who vanishes on a hike and reappears at her memorial service with no memory, determined to destroy her notes on Mars.
Mike Leigh's Tender Loving Care, possibly his final film, is an intergenerational story of two west London women, Rosie and Amy, who share a flat and work in social care. The London film festival runs 7-18 October.
