ICA is closed from the 30 May – 3 June inclusive.
9 - 20 October 2024
The BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express returns to the ICA for its 68th edition running from 9 to 20 October.
Discover the full programme at bfi.org.uk/lff
The BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express returns to the ICA for its 68th edition running from 9 to 20 October.
Discover the full programme at bfi.org.uk/lff
Programme
Wed 9 Oct, 6.15pm
Cidade; Campo
The latest film by Juliana Rojas is a captivating diptych showcasing two women’s contrasting lives within urban and rural locations.
Wed 9 Oct, 9pm
Praia Formosa
A slave finds herself transported to contemporary Brazil in this experimental and richly rewarding exploration of the legacies of Brazil’s part in the transatlantic slave trade.
Thu 10 Oct, 6.30pm
Sanatorium Under the Signs of the Hourglass
The Quay Brothers’ new feature is a distinctive stop-motion work where dreams, fantasies and memories blur, creating a wondrous alternative reality.
Thu 10 Oct, 8.30pm
Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other
Acclaimed photographer Joel Meyerowitz and artist Maggie Barrett are still in love after 30 years. Now they’re having a documentary made about their relationship.
Fri 11 Oct, 6.30pm
The Stimming Pool
Director Steven Eastwood and the Neurocultures Collective invite you to experience the oscillating beat of the neurodiverse experience.
Fri 11 Oct, 8.30pm
Holloway
Holloway follows six women who were formerly incarcerated at what was once the largest women’s prison in Europe.
Sat 12 Oct, 1.30pm
Sofa, So Good
Two cousins’ attempts to move a second-hand sofa across Dayton, Ohio, turns into an absurdist odyssey in this boldly original, delightfully weird US indie comedy.
Sat 12 Oct, 3.30pm
Collective Monologue
Intimately observing a community of zoos and animal rescue centres across Argentina, Jessica Sarah Rinland’s feature-length debut refutes the simple boundaries between human and non-human.
Sat 12 Oct, 6pm
Black Box Diaries
Japanese journalist Shiori Itō’s self-documented journey to seek justice against the man who sexually assaulted her is brave and empowering beyond words.
Sat 12 Oct, 8.30pm
The Sealed Soil
This beautiful restoration, a history-making debut from Marva Nabili, follows LFF 2020’s Treasures entry The Chess of the Wind as another unearthed gem of Iranian cinema.
Sun 13 Oct, 1pm
Harvest
Athina Rachel Tsangari’s (Attenberg, Chevalier) striking adaptation of Jim Crace’s acclaimed novel finds an idyllic rural community coming under threat from outsiders.
Sun 13 Oct, 3.45pm
Misericordia
French provocateur Alain Guiraudie returns with a typically uncategorisable entertainment – a rural homecoming story mixing passion, crime, mushrooms and bedroom farce to dizzily involving effect.
Sun 13 Oct, 6.15pm
Motherboard
The twists and turns of life are captured unfiltered in Victoria Mapplebeck’s frank, witty and highly relatable personal cinematic journal, which was shot over 20 years.
Sun 13 Oct, 8.30pm
Universal Language
Cultural identities and spaces blend in this deadpan, surreal comedy that channels classic Iranian cinematic universes to achieve something unique: unity through the shared language of film.
Mon 14 Oct, 3.20pm
Rising Up at Night
Award-winning artist Nelson Makengo’s striking debut illuminates both the beauty and tragedy of contemporary Kinshasa, enlightened by the blaze of community vitality.
Mon 14 Oct, 5.45pm
Abiding Nowhere
Tsai Ming-liang returns with the tenth episode in his Walker series, featuring both protagonists from Days: the magnificent Lee Kang-sheng and singular Anong Houngheuangsy.
Mon 14 Oct, 7.50pm
Youth (Homecoming)
Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Wang Bing’s latest work is an act of witness and solidarity with young migrant workers as they seek to rise above brutal labour conditions.
Tue 15 Oct, 5.45pm
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Êtat
Johan Grimonprez’s involving film, anchored by the rhythm of American jazz, reveals disturbing truths about the decolonial struggle between global political powers.
Tue 15 Oct, 9pm
Dahomey
This Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear winner is an otherworldly account of the return of looted treasures to Africa, where their homecoming is hotly debated.
Wed 16 Oct, 6pm
Viêt and Nam
Trương Minh Quý’s achingly beautiful queer romance ruminates on ghostly spaces where personal yearnings and the suppressed collective psyche both dwell.
Wed 16 Oct, 8.55pm
Weightless
Sara Fgaier’s memorable and assured feature directorial debut finds a grief-stricken amnesiac trying to recover the memory of his marriage.
Thu 17 Oct, 4.45pm
Honouring Traditions
Highlighting perspectives from around the globe, these films delve into personal narratives linked to the power of creativity and community.
Thu 17 Oct, 6.45pm
The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire
Rooted in feminist modes of creativity and production, Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s debut brings to life the remarkable Martinican writer and activist Suzanne Césaire.
Thu 17 Oct, 8.45pm
The Nights Still Smell of Gunpowder
A testament to the emotional power of shared memory, Inadelso Cossa’s elegiac and inventive film challenges the societal silence enveloping post-civil-war Mozambique.
Fri 18 Oct, 4.45pm
It's Not Me
Short, bittersweet and altogether dazzling, elusive French auteur Leos Carax returns with a one-off marvel – at once a film essay, anti-autobiography and farewell to Jean-Luc Godard.
Fri 18 Oct, 6.15pm
A Stream of Echoes
Confronting master narratives and calling on oral histories, this programme explores encounters with the archive across colonial collections, personal testimonies and whispered counter-narratives.
Fri 18 Oct, 8.40pm
Small Hours of the Night
Composed of arresting 16mm close-ups, Daniel Hui’s sombre chamber piece implores us to find connections between divergent acts of political dissidence across history.
Sat 19 Oct, 11.45am
The Treasury of Human Inheritance
A collage of home movie archive, hand-processed abstract film and recordings of her own online calls, Alexis Kyle Mitchell’s poetic film essay centres ‘lived body’. Taking its title from the early scientific journal on eugenics, this work reverberates with bodies that move, desire, suffer and simply exist alongside each other.
Sat 19 Oct, 2.15pm
Right In the Substance of Them a Trace of What Happened
Unruly and transient paranormal phenomena surface in this programme. From breakthrough moments, hints of the imperceptible are received, with traces left for further excavation. Occasionally, difficult realities are brought into focus by the process.
Sat 19 Oct, 4.45pm
DIRECT ACTION
Celebrated filmmakers Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell capture the radical visions of environmental activists ZAD (Zone à Défendre) as embodied in their everyday communal living.
Sat 19 Oct, 9pm
Fire of Wind
Between day and night and memory and dream, Marta Mateus’s beguiling debut feature speaks to the absences that disturb the serenity of a Portuguese village.
Sun 20 Oct, 12pm
Experimenta Works in Progress presentation + discussion
Everyone is welcome to join Experimenta’s new initiative, which celebrates process and collaboration.
Sun 20 Oct, 6.15pm
A Fidai Film
Re-positioning archival fragments and burning through parts of the original image in searing red, A Fidai Film lays bare the looting of Palestinian visual history. Aljafari’s singular and striking editing technique creates a counter-narrative that reclaims and re-imagines images and footage plundered from the Palestine Research Centre in Beirut.
Sun 20 Oct, 8.30pm
Hard Truths
Mike Leigh returns to the BFI London Film Festival with this uncompromising, yet heartfelt, portrait of contemporary family life in London.
Wed 9 Oct, 6.15pm
Cidade; Campo
The latest film by Juliana Rojas is a captivating diptych showcasing two women’s contrasting lives within urban and rural locations.
Wed 9 Oct, 9pm
Praia Formosa
A slave finds herself transported to contemporary Brazil in this experimental and richly rewarding exploration of the legacies of Brazil’s part in the transatlantic slave trade.
Thu 10 Oct, 6.30pm
Sanatorium Under the Signs of the Hourglass
The Quay Brothers’ new feature is a distinctive stop-motion work where dreams, fantasies and memories blur, creating a wondrous alternative reality.
Thu 10 Oct, 8.30pm
Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other
Acclaimed photographer Joel Meyerowitz and artist Maggie Barrett are still in love after 30 years. Now they’re having a documentary made about their relationship.
Fri 11 Oct, 6.30pm
The Stimming Pool
Director Steven Eastwood and the Neurocultures Collective invite you to experience the oscillating beat of the neurodiverse experience.
Fri 11 Oct, 8.30pm
Holloway
Holloway follows six women who were formerly incarcerated at what was once the largest women’s prison in Europe.
Sat 12 Oct, 1.30pm
Sofa, So Good
Two cousins’ attempts to move a second-hand sofa across Dayton, Ohio, turns into an absurdist odyssey in this boldly original, delightfully weird US indie comedy.
Sat 12 Oct, 3.30pm
Collective Monologue
Intimately observing a community of zoos and animal rescue centres across Argentina, Jessica Sarah Rinland’s feature-length debut refutes the simple boundaries between human and non-human.
Sat 12 Oct, 6pm
Black Box Diaries
Japanese journalist Shiori Itō’s self-documented journey to seek justice against the man who sexually assaulted her is brave and empowering beyond words.
Sat 12 Oct, 8.30pm
The Sealed Soil
This beautiful restoration, a history-making debut from Marva Nabili, follows LFF 2020’s Treasures entry The Chess of the Wind as another unearthed gem of Iranian cinema.
Sun 13 Oct, 1pm
Harvest
Athina Rachel Tsangari’s (Attenberg, Chevalier) striking adaptation of Jim Crace’s acclaimed novel finds an idyllic rural community coming under threat from outsiders.
Sun 13 Oct, 3.45pm
Misericordia
French provocateur Alain Guiraudie returns with a typically uncategorisable entertainment – a rural homecoming story mixing passion, crime, mushrooms and bedroom farce to dizzily involving effect.
Sun 13 Oct, 6.15pm
Motherboard
The twists and turns of life are captured unfiltered in Victoria Mapplebeck’s frank, witty and highly relatable personal cinematic journal, which was shot over 20 years.
Sun 13 Oct, 8.30pm
Universal Language
Cultural identities and spaces blend in this deadpan, surreal comedy that channels classic Iranian cinematic universes to achieve something unique: unity through the shared language of film.
Mon 14 Oct, 3.20pm
Rising Up at Night
Award-winning artist Nelson Makengo’s striking debut illuminates both the beauty and tragedy of contemporary Kinshasa, enlightened by the blaze of community vitality.
Mon 14 Oct, 5.45pm
Abiding Nowhere
Tsai Ming-liang returns with the tenth episode in his Walker series, featuring both protagonists from Days: the magnificent Lee Kang-sheng and singular Anong Houngheuangsy.
Mon 14 Oct, 7.50pm
Youth (Homecoming)
Acclaimed documentary filmmaker Wang Bing’s latest work is an act of witness and solidarity with young migrant workers as they seek to rise above brutal labour conditions.
Tue 15 Oct, 5.45pm
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Êtat
Johan Grimonprez’s involving film, anchored by the rhythm of American jazz, reveals disturbing truths about the decolonial struggle between global political powers.
Tue 15 Oct, 9pm
Dahomey
This Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear winner is an otherworldly account of the return of looted treasures to Africa, where their homecoming is hotly debated.
Wed 16 Oct, 6pm
Viêt and Nam
Trương Minh Quý’s achingly beautiful queer romance ruminates on ghostly spaces where personal yearnings and the suppressed collective psyche both dwell.
Wed 16 Oct, 8.55pm
Weightless
Sara Fgaier’s memorable and assured feature directorial debut finds a grief-stricken amnesiac trying to recover the memory of his marriage.
Thu 17 Oct, 4.45pm
Honouring Traditions
Highlighting perspectives from around the globe, these films delve into personal narratives linked to the power of creativity and community.
Thu 17 Oct, 6.45pm
The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire
Rooted in feminist modes of creativity and production, Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s debut brings to life the remarkable Martinican writer and activist Suzanne Césaire.
Thu 17 Oct, 8.45pm
The Nights Still Smell of Gunpowder
A testament to the emotional power of shared memory, Inadelso Cossa’s elegiac and inventive film challenges the societal silence enveloping post-civil-war Mozambique.
Fri 18 Oct, 4.45pm
It's Not Me
Short, bittersweet and altogether dazzling, elusive French auteur Leos Carax returns with a one-off marvel – at once a film essay, anti-autobiography and farewell to Jean-Luc Godard.
Fri 18 Oct, 6.15pm
A Stream of Echoes
Confronting master narratives and calling on oral histories, this programme explores encounters with the archive across colonial collections, personal testimonies and whispered counter-narratives.
Fri 18 Oct, 8.40pm
Small Hours of the Night
Composed of arresting 16mm close-ups, Daniel Hui’s sombre chamber piece implores us to find connections between divergent acts of political dissidence across history.
Sat 19 Oct, 11.45am
The Treasury of Human Inheritance
A collage of home movie archive, hand-processed abstract film and recordings of her own online calls, Alexis Kyle Mitchell’s poetic film essay centres ‘lived body’. Taking its title from the early scientific journal on eugenics, this work reverberates with bodies that move, desire, suffer and simply exist alongside each other.
Sat 19 Oct, 2.15pm
Right In the Substance of Them a Trace of What Happened
Unruly and transient paranormal phenomena surface in this programme. From breakthrough moments, hints of the imperceptible are received, with traces left for further excavation. Occasionally, difficult realities are brought into focus by the process.
Sat 19 Oct, 4.45pm
DIRECT ACTION
Celebrated filmmakers Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell capture the radical visions of environmental activists ZAD (Zone à Défendre) as embodied in their everyday communal living.
Sat 19 Oct, 9pm
Fire of Wind
Between day and night and memory and dream, Marta Mateus’s beguiling debut feature speaks to the absences that disturb the serenity of a Portuguese village.
Sun 20 Oct, 12pm
Experimenta Works in Progress presentation + discussion
Everyone is welcome to join Experimenta’s new initiative, which celebrates process and collaboration.
Sun 20 Oct, 6.15pm
A Fidai Film
Re-positioning archival fragments and burning through parts of the original image in searing red, A Fidai Film lays bare the looting of Palestinian visual history. Aljafari’s singular and striking editing technique creates a counter-narrative that reclaims and re-imagines images and footage plundered from the Palestine Research Centre in Beirut.
Sun 20 Oct, 8.30pm
Hard Truths
Mike Leigh returns to the BFI London Film Festival with this uncompromising, yet heartfelt, portrait of contemporary family life in London.
no. 236848.