BFI London Film Festival 2026 – What We Watched

Ahh the sweet smell in the air of the film festival season (almost) coming to a close! BFI London Film Festival is held each year in October, and marks the beginning of the end of the major film festival circuit, before the clamour for prestigious awards begins in January. 

When the schedule drops each year, I (and film fans and collectors all over!) gather a list of around thirty films, whittle it down to a reasonable ten-ish to go to war for, and invariably emerge from the members booking queue with a handful of screenings. To the victor, the meagre spoils shall go. 

Check out below some of my favourites from the week, plus a handful I didn’t get to see but are ones to watch out for in the next few months. 

Josephine

The first twenty minutes of Josephine feels bowstring taut. Knowing the crux of the film hangs on a brutal sexual assault, I was primed for a jump scare; a shadowy night, a creeping assailant, and probably some sharp visual cuts through an overwhelming scene. What I watched instead was an unrelenting, painfully mundane daytime attack in a public park, witnessed by the titular Josephine, our eight-year-old protagonist. You could hear every breath in that cinema throughout. 

Played by newcomer Mason Reeves, Josephine and her family (Channing Tatum excels here as father Damien, with Gemma Chan as mother Claire) are left reeling from the trauma and ensuing criminal trial. Damien and Claire struggle to agree on the way to handle the event - how much to explain, and how much to try and bury – while normal life continues around them. Josephine herself is left to be the sole witness, haunted both emotionally and metaphysically by the man in the park.  

Screened originally at Sundance, where it won the 2026 Grand Jury Prize, Beth de Araújo’s sophomore feature is a powerful exploration on the ever-expanding ripples than one day can have on a childhood, and a lesson in the strength it takes to move forward. 

Josephine comes to UK cinemas on 20th November 2026. 

Black Church Bay

A mystery-thriller set in a small rural community in Wales, Black Church Bay opens with a teenage boy escaping for an illicit weekend with his older male teacher. Joe Locke (of Heartstopper and Marvel fame) stars as Jasper, the young sexually liberal student, alongside Tom Cullen’s (Weekend, House of the Dragon) middle aged teacher Barry. Barry is closeted, and his weekend sailing with Jasper represents not only a rare (or as we later find out, almost unheard of) yielding to his queer desire, but also an agonizing risk to his career, his social standing, and his freedom. 

In the middle of the night, still out on the boat, Jasper disappears. 

Flashbacks throughout the subsequent investigation show Jasper has been, from the offset, ambivalent to the meaning of this weekend with Barry – he surreptitiously films one of their encounters, scanning through dating apps in the immediate aftermath, and makes no effort to hide their familiarity when they come across other people over the course of the Saturday. Barry, conversely, appears envious of Jasper’s freedom and openness, and highly anxious about being found out. 

A debut feature from writer / director Rhys Marc Jones, Black Church Bay is an enthralling character study of a man deeply afraid of his own reality – Barry obfuscates about his true relationship with Jasper, and goes to every increasing lengths to keep his colleagues, the students, and the police from discovering the truth of that night. His character is simultaneously infuriating and pitiful, while Jasper is left to haunt the narrative. 

Black Church Bay is currently tipped for UK release in 2027. 

Club Kid

As an ending to my festival for the year, Club Kid was an absolute force. Jordan Firstman’s (director, writer, and lead actor of the piece) Peter is a club night promoter, living a fruitless and ineffectual lifestyle in New York City, filling his time with meaningless sex and drug-fuelled partying with his friends. He’s forced to reckon with his unhealthy habits when a 10-year-old son he didn’t know he had turns up at his door. 

What follows feels almost like a millennial coming-of-age – Peter is aimless, but the arrival of Arlo gives him purpose, both directly in his responsibility to his son, but also with the direction of his life. He suddenly not only needs to be physically there for Arlo, but emotionally too, bonding over their combined loss of parental figures and finding a middle ground together from Arlo’s previously chaotic homelife and Peter’s self-destructive existence. 

Perhaps realistically, the film is almost without end – no spoilers, but certain elements are left unresolved – but it feels the better for it. Peter’s finally growing up, but it’s an ongoing process, as it is for all of us. The film feels ruthless in its authenticity, showing us a world and characters that are far from perfect, and never pretend they’re on their way to it. It’s a powerhouse of a debut feature, an incredible showreel for Firstman, and possibly one of the best films of the year. 

Club Kid is set to release in UK cinemas in January 2027. 

The rest of the fest…

La Bola Negra – already sitting pretty with an 86% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, I’m seeing this high on a lot of “best of” lists. Pulling from unfinished work by Federico García Lorca, this Spanish drama explores interconnected narratives between 1932, 1937, and 2017 through themes of desire, sexuality, and pain. In UK cinemas 6th November 2026. 

The Debut – the closing gala at LFF, Julianne Moore stars in musical dramedy The Debut, as a mousy housewife who takes on the lead role in her local am-dram production. A study in quirky creative obsession, and losing oneself to feel real, this vision of provincial suburban drama is tipped to be a true marmite number. In UK cinemas 15th January 2027. 

Wicker – I have yet to hear a bad word said about this film and for fans of the sentient object romance genre, this is sure to deliver. Olivia Colman and Alexander Skarsgård feature as a fisherwoman and the man made of wicker that she procures and the trailer promises a fantastical, satirical, slightly bonkers love story for the ages. In UK cinemas 30th October 2026.