Book tickets at bfi.org.uk/lff
Odeon Leicester Square
19:15 Inside Llewyn Davis
CENTREPIECE GALA
The Coen brothers’ funny, melancholic elegy to Sixties folk music is as cinematically nimble as it is musically rich, featuring shambolic and self-absorbed musician Llewyn (Oscar Isaac) trying to make it as a solo artist.
Odeon West End 2
12:30 Abuse Of Weakness
BEST FILM COMPETITION
Isabelle Huppert plays director Maud, who following a stroke that leaves her partly paralysed chooses an unlikely lead actor for her next project. Their relationship becomes a fraught battle for control.
15:00 Ida
BEST FILM COMPETITION
Novice nun Anna is preparing to take her vows when the Mother Superior insists she makes contact with her last remaining relative.
18:00 Tracks
BEST FILM COMPETITION
Based on the true story of Robyn Davidson, who in 1977 undertook an extraordinary solo trek on foot across the Australian outback.
21:00 Night Moves
DEBATE GALA
In this taut political thriller, a radical environmentalist and a society drop-out drive halfway across Oregon and meet with an ex-marine to execute their meticulously planned act of eco-terrorism.
Vue 5
12:30 Kon Tiki
THRILL
In 1947, Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl set sail from Peru on a raft made of balsa logs to confirm his theory that South American travellers had settled in Polynesia in pre-Columbian times.
15:30 Grand Central
LOVE
Tahar Rahim (A Prophet) plays Gary, who signs on for work in a nuclear power plant (the “Central” of the title) only to discover that radiation contamination is not just a risk but an everyday hazard.
18:00 Grigris
JOURNEY
Grigris, a dancer in a Chad nightclub and a struggling photographer by day, joins a dangerous petrol-smuggling operation to raise money for his uncle’s operation.
20:30 The Sacrament
CULT
Two journalists travel to a remote commune known as Eden Paradise but discover that underneath the supposed harmony there exists a dark and terrifying truth.
Vue 7
12:45 My Fathers, My Mother and Me
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
An examination of life in Otto Muehl’s Friedrichshof commune by director Paul-Julien Robert, who spent his first 12 years there without ever knowing who his biological father was.
15:15 The Kill Team
DARE
The film focuses on a whistleblower and his family during his prosecution for leaking information about a platoon of US infantry soldiers known as “The Kill Team”.
18:15 Short Term 12
JOURNEY
Grace is a supervisor at a care home for at-risk teenagers. But when troubled Jayden comes into her care, she starts to see her own problems reflected back at her.
21:00 Manhunt
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Behind the scenes in the CIA with meet the people who tracked Osama Bin Laden for two decades.
NFT 1
18:30 Masterclass
EVENT
Stan Douglas, film artist (to be confirmed)
20:45 Child’s Pose
LOVE
Winner of the Berlin Golden Bear, Child’s Pose boasts a stand-out performance by Luminita Gheorghiu as Cornelia, a well-off architect pulling every string to prevent her lazy, disaffected son from going to jail after his reckless driving kills a child.
NFT 2
13:00 An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker
DARE
Winner of two major prizes at this year’s Berlinale, Danis Tanovic’s new film depicts the life of a Roma family living in a remote Bosnian village.
15:30 The Golden Dream
DARE
A group of Guatemalan teenagers are ill-prepared for the journey that takes them from their native country to the US.
18:15 The Last Impresario
LOVE
A tribute to Michael White, the London theatre and film impresario who has produced more than 300 shows and movies over the past 50 years.
20:30 Shiny Happy Fits of Rage
DEBATE — SHORT FILM PROGRAMME
NFT 3
13:30 Me, Myself And Mum
See Sat 12, Ciné Lumière, 18:30
15:45 A Street in Palermo
See Sun 13, Ritzy, 18:30
18:30 Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic Cowboys
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION
Director Jessica Oreck lived alongside the Aatsinki brothers for a year, observing and recording the rhythms of their life as reindeer herders in Finnish Lapland.
20:45 A Time in Quchi
LOVE
Young Taiwanese teen Bao and his kid sister Seaweed are parked with their recently bereaved grandpa in Quchi while their parents plan a divorce.
Hackney Picturehouse
18:15 Sarah Prefers to Run
FIRST FEATURE COMPETITION
Sarah is offered a place on a prestigious athletics programme. She knows she has to go, so enters a marriage of convenience with her friend Antoine to access funds for the move.
20:45 As I Lay Dying
DARE
Writer-director-actor James Franco takes on William Faulkner’s complex 1930 novel about the horrendously difficult journey of a Southern farming family to bury the mother of the household.
ICA
13:00 Shame
DARE
A community of women await the return of their submariner husbands at a rundown military base in Russia’s far north.
15:30 Our Sunhi
LAUGH
Hong Sangsoo’s second film of the year shows three men who are determined to win the affections of Sunhi, an elusive young woman who seems quite capable of getting by without help from any of them.
18:15 What Do We Do Now, Now That We Are Happy?
EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILMS
20:45 Love Me Til Monday
Laugh
Becky is an intelligent and pretty graduate. So why, at 25, is she working in a dead-end job, living at home and sleeping with average-looking men who never call her back?
Ciné Lumière
18:15 Le Grand Cahier
DEBATE
At the outbreak of the Second World War, twin 13-year-old boys are sent to a Hungarian border village where they endure the hostility of their grandmother and the violence and cruelty of local life.
21:00 Camille Claudel, 1915
DARE
An inmate of an asylum near Avignon, Camille lives a seemingly uneventful life until a visit from her brother, visionary Catholic poet Paul Claudel.
Curzon Mayfair
18:15 1
THRILL
Following in the tyre treads of Senna and Rush but with a distinct take of its own, 1 is an exciting and engrossing history of Formula One motor racing.
20:45 Tom at the Farm
BEST FILM COMPETITION
A young copywriter travels to the countryside of Quebec for the funeral of his boyfriend, only to discover that the nature of their relationship was not what he thought.
Renoir
18:10 Like Father, Like Son
BEST FILM COMPETITION
What if it were discovered, six years after the event, that a hospital had inadvertently swapped two male babies and given them to the wrong parents?
21:00 11.6
THRILL
In 2009, armoured car driver Tony Musulin made headlines with a daring bank robbery. Not because it landed him €11.6 million in banknotes but because he did it quietly, rationally and without resorting to violence.
Rich Mix
18:30 Fandry
LOVE
Nagraj Manjule’s film is a scorching indictment of the caste system that persists in modern India despite legislation introduced since independence, seen through the eyes of Jabya, an intelligent DaliT (untouchable) teenager.
21:00 It Felt Like Love
LOVE
An achingly evocative observation of sexual awakening, for which there is no guide book, as Lila lives through a languorous Brooklyn summer.
Ritzy
18:15 Of Good Report
BEST FILM COMPETITION
Parker Sithole, a newly recruited high school teacher of seemingly “good report”, meets the sexually charged Nolitha at a local bar but later learns she is an underage pupil in his class.
21:00 Grand Piano
CULT
Returning after a five-year absence, classical pianist Tom realises he is being watched by a madman and, if he hits a wrong note, both he and his wife will be killed.
Screen on the Green
18:30 Mistaken for Strangers
SONIC
Finding a documentary that offers a backstage glance at a major band has always been one of the London Film Festival’s strong points. In Mistaken for Strangers the focus is on Cincinnati indie rockers The National, who are best-known for playing classy venues like the Brooklyn Academy and provoking debate about the meaning of their lyrics. Here, however, thanks to a camera operated by Tom Berninger, younger brother of frontman Matt, we get a different view of the band. And, as Tom struggles to process his 200 hours of footage, we also get a sense of his own uncertainty about what The National sing about.
21:00 Afternoon Delight
LAUGH
Thirtysomething Rachel (Hahn) has an affluent lifestyle in LA, a successful husband, an adorable moppet… yet something’s lacking, not least sexually.
Book tickets at bfi.org.uk/lff
