14 National Lottery-funded films at BFI London Film Festival

The LFF, which takes place from 8-19th October 2025, is an important showcase for new films. Last year’s event recorded the highest in-person attendance in 10 years, with an audience of 230,342.

A total of 14 films supported by funding made possible by National Lottery players, will be screened at this year’s LFF. Two of the films (Pillion and My Father’s Shadow) will also be shown the LFF’s partner cinemas in 11 cities including Edinburgh, Cardiff, Belfast, Manchester, and Bristol.

Hamlet

Director Aneil Karia sets his all-star version of Shakespeare’s great tragedy in contemporary London. Riz Ahmed stars as Hamlet, a member of a wealthy British Asian family, who is haunted by his father’s ghost. Timothy Spall and Art Malik play Polonius and Claudius and Morfydd Clark is Ophelia.

Ish

Imran Perretta’s Ish follows two 12-year-olds, ‘Ish’ and Maram, who struggle to maintain their friendship in the wake of a police stop and search. As the ripples take hold, the boys try to make sense of the men they are becoming.

My Father's Shadow

This drama by filmmaker, writer and video artist Akinola Davies Jr was selected to screen at the 78th Cannes Film Festival in May 2025. It's the semi-autobiographical tale of a father taking his two young sons on a journey around Lagos in 1993. Momentous presidential elections – the first since a military coup a decade earlier – are taking place in the background.

Palestine 36

Festival favourite Annemarie Jacir takes us back to Palestine in the 1930s, charting the lives and ambitions of those living under British rule. Jeremy Irons and Hiam Abbass are part of the film’s impressive international cast.

Pillion

Alexander Skarsgard plays Ray, an enigmatic, handsome biker, in this big screen adaptation of the 2020 novel Box Hill. Ray, who leads a gang of leather-clad riders, begins a relationship with a timid young man called Colin (Harry Melling). Pillion will have a gala screening at the LFF.

Retreat

Retreat is a thriller written and directed by Ted Evans and featuring an all-deaf lead cast. The arrival of an enigmatic outsider called Eva causes Matt, a young deaf man, to question his place in the isolated all-deaf community he was raised in.

Rose of Nevada

The new film from BAFTA-winning writer and director Mark Jenkin (Bait) is a time-travelling mystery. The Rose of Nevada, a boat that disappeared 30 years earlier, returns to its berth in a quiet Cornish fishing village. Two men played by George MacKay and Callum Turner decide to take the vessel back to sea, with baffling consequences.

The Thing with Feathers

Benedict Cumberbatch stars in this drama based on the book Grief Is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter. Cumberbatch plays a harried father raising two young sons after the unexpected death of his wife. His grief is compounded by an unwanted house guest who taunts him from the shadows.

The other National Lottery-funded films screening at the LFF are:

• Super Nature: A spellbinding film shot in Super 8 inviting the audience to marvel at nature
• Beyond the Rush, a documentary about the decline of Luton’s once-thriving Caribbean culture
• Magid/Zafar: A drama set in a busy Pakistani takeaway
• Flock: Dark forces are unleashed when the sheep in a remote community suddenly vanish
• Under the Wave Off Little Dragon: Feifei, a Chinese girl living in Wales, searches for a fish that will bring good fortune to her family’s restaurant
• Baby: Trapped in a sex trafficking network, Baby’s guilt over her complicity compels her to save someone else.

29th September 2025