The BFI London Film Festival has unveiled the films that will screen in competition for the Best Film award at this year’s festival.
Celebrating its 70th anniversary in 2026, the annual film festival will take place from 7 to 18 October, with 10 films from across the world going head to head for the festival’s prestigious Best Film Award.
Ten countries represented
Ten countries are represented, with films from the UK, Ireland, Brazil, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, and Poland all competing and the winner being announced on Sunday 18 October.
Representing the UK is 7 Miles Out, the new semi-autobiographical film from Dreams of a Life director Carol Morley. Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s rumination on ageing, Act 3, is an Ireland-UK production, while period drama The Idiot(s), which stars Aimee Lou Wood and Johnny Flynn and is directed by Malgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert is UK-Polish.
European and global entries
Competing from Europe will be Sergei Loznitsa’s archival Imperium, Giovanni Tortorici’s coming-of-age story Ketticè, Lili Horvát’s domestic drama My Notes on Mars and May el-Toukhy’s drama Woman Unknown.
The three final entries are Benjamín Naishtat’s period-noir thriller Glaxo, a Brazilian-Argentinian production, Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Look Back, another coming-of-age story from Japan, and Rubaiyat Hossain’s body horror The Difficult Bride, a France-Bangladesh-Portugal-Norway-Germany co-production.
Festival director's comment
BFI London Film Festival director Kristy Matheson said: ”As we celebrate the 70th edition of the BFI London Film Festival, it’s an honour to have a number of alumni filmmakers represented in the Official Competition alongside those making their first appearance at the festival.
“Our 2026 competition selection brings an astounding array of filmmaking styles to the screen. As ever, it’s been creatively nourishing for myself and the team to encounter each of these works - we’re excited to share these with audiences in October.”
Previous winners and other awards
Previous winners of the Best Film award, which celebrates ”inspiring, inventive and distinctive filmmaking” have included Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist in 2023, Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail in 2024 and Landmarks by Lucrecia Martel in 2025. The Audience Awards will also be returning, which last year included Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet among its winners.
The films shortlisted for the festival’s other competitive categories – the Grierson Award for Best Documentary, the Sutherland Award for Best First Feature and the Short Film Award – will be revealed in September, with winners being chosen by the LFF Awards Juries.
