BFI London Film Festival 2025 Overview Interview with Kristy Matheson

The 69th edition of the BFI London Film Festival (LFF) starts on Wednesday, projecting around 250 titles.

Thus, the challenge will be again what and how to choose. If you want to explore something completely new, there are 27 worldwide, including eight features. Or you could make up for the strengths of this year’s film’s film circuit, including the winner of Jim Jarmusch in Venice Father Mother Sister BrotherCannes winner It was just an accident by Jafar Panahi, Joachim Trier Sentimental valueKaouther ben Hania’s Hind Rajab’s voiceGeorge Clooney from Noah Baumbach with Jay Kelly, Tale Shakespeare by Chloé Zhao Hamnet, or Richard Linklater Blue moon.

Rian Johnson’s third star Knives slice, Wake upwill open the LFF, while Julia Jackson 100 nights of heroes Will close the party on October 19.

Kristy Matheson, the program manager, had difficult choices for her third LFF as director of the Fest BFI. She spoke to THR About this year’s selection, geographic surprises, totemic animals and the importance of the power of stars.

How and why did you choose the opening and closing films that tighten the 2025 LFF range?

They are always such a puzzle, the opening and closing films. It is really a question of giving a shortcut for the flavor of the festival. And I think these two films do it very beautifully. What they have in common is that for us, it is really special when the filmmakers play in London and then return to London. In the case of Rian Johnson, this is the third of Knives Series arriving in London. It is therefore incredibly special. He continues to somehow reinvent this world so beautifully. He has two large British stars in the cast with Daniel Craig and Josh O’Connor. Even if it is an American film, it has a very British feeling. And it’s very fun, it’s really engaging, just a beautiful cinema. It is therefore a really festive way to launch the festival.

With our fence film, with Julia Jackson, we have a filmmaker that we have already had the pleasure of projecting at the festival. His first film, Bonus trackplayed with us in 2023, so we were really excited to see his new film. It is a film that is very important. It is also very wonderful to have a wonderful, fun and daring queer story to close the festival. I couldn’t be more proud of the two films.

LFF will present the first eight worldwide this year. Could you talk about it a bit about some and how they integrate into the wider mixture of films?

Of course. There is MOSS & FREUDWho tells the story of when Lucian Freud painted the portrait of Kate Moss. It is such an ode to London, and obviously to a huge icon in this city. But it is also a wonderful film on what an artist means, becoming able to use this word as an individual, and this incredibly special friendship between these two very different people. I think it’s a film that will really surprise people.

I’m really, really excited and proud to have The death of Bunny MonroOur presentation of the series based on the book of Nick Cave. He is adapted by the wonderful director Isabella Eklöf, that many people will know from his cinematographic work. She just turns to this series with such enthusiasm, and there is a great performance by Matt Smith in the central role.

We also have a film called GreatWho is this incredible documentary that really explores us and our relationship with the natural world, all turned on Super 8. It is a global portrait, but it was born from the United Kingdom, and it is very beautiful, very touching, and seeing it on the big screen will be quite magical.

Have you noticed a kind of global themes or shared patterns that continue to arise through the range or any other kind of connection fabric?

Yes, we are all struck by the way cinema is formally daring this year. There have been so many examples of filmmakers who really work to stretch the average and interesting average places. It’s really exciting.

When we assemble the program, my incredible program team and I also always seem, at times, find these totemic animals. Last year, we had a lot of cats that wandered in our program. It seems that this year, birds are flying through a large part of the program. It is very pleasant that, while we start to bring the program together, we always return to these totemal animals.

Now I am curious to see some examples of birds in the LFF range…

We have the beautiful film H is for HawkWho is Philippa Lowthorpe’s film (with Claire Foy and Brendan Gleeson) which contains many incredible birds, for example. And Wings song concerns the animal world and our relationship with it, but also on much greater things.

Will the public LFF discover films from unusual countries or particularly well represented in the 2025 range?

We have 79 different countries whose films come from this year. There is a lot of truly impressive and solid work in the MENA region (Middle East and North Africa) and truly interesting films in sub-Saharan Africa.

I would say that Italy spends a really great year in the cinema. It is not that we do not see regular films from Italy regularly. But we have certainly seen a lot of films, as well as series, this year, which we really enjoyed. For example, we have the new series of the great Italian director Marco Bellocchio, Portobello. It’s such a beautiful story, beautifully played, beautifully produced, and it is really captivating from the start.

Also from Italy, we have Under the cloudsThe new film Gianfranco Rosi, Arabella kidnappingWho is the wonderful and great second -year film by Carolina Cavalli. So there are a lot of different textures from Italy this year, a country that makes a lot of cinema and is very famous for its cinema. But seeing films and series that are quite different is quite exciting.

You have detailed in your big programming ad that 42% of this year’s films come from filmmakers or non -binary. How much you and your team do you focus and do you have goals?

We really make a conscious decision that we want the program to be very representative of the city in which we are. For us, it is a question of having the best of British and international cinema to really reflect the population of London, but also to reflect the population of the world. We really want to see stories from different angles and consciously try to bring together a program which, in our view, is representative of who you see in the street. For us, it’s important. We want to find works with which the audience assistant to the festival will have the impression of having a link with or with which they feel a certain kinship.

Because we are a public -oriented festival, we really try to make a program which, when people open the booklet or we travel the website, they are excited by stories. If people can watch the program and see themselves or see things they know nothing about and get it with a feeling of real excitement, it’s charming. The festival is this very intensive period when you can meet many different people and many different stories. And I don’t think you get out of the same way you have entered. You have different ideas, you have new obsessions. I’m not saying you’re radically changing, but I think you’re going out with new tips and tricks in your backpack.

What is the importance of Star Power for you and your team program the LFF?

You now get these films with just an incredible range of stars. Look Wake up. What is so happy in this film is to see a real overall cast, and it is a wonderful overall cast. There was a time when Big Ensemble’s plasters were not so common in the films. Even a film like Jay Kelly – The casting is not as large, but again, it is a real overall piece with very, very large actors (in George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Laura Dern, Billy Crudup, Riley Keough).

What has been wonderful by watching the films in recent months is to see a lot of people playing against their perceived guy. Everyone has seen The whale And thought it was this very big turning point for Brendan Fraser. But then see him in a film like Hakari Rental familyIt is a very different type of performance, a very touching performance, and perhaps a role which, perhaps in another life, would not be played by such a famous target actor.

I also think of the film by Mona Fastvold Ann Lee’s will is similar. You got Amanda Seyfried in this main role, and it is an incredible performance. And obviously, we know that she is a wonderful singer and everything, but again, you could have potentially launched an unknown for this role just as easily. I think it may also speak to the fact that you have these incredible talents who want to work with great directors and on interesting films.

Is there anything else that you consider important to highlight the level of LFF 2025?

There is one thing I really want, really, but I don’t have this really incredible immersive experience yet in our enlarged section LFF. We have an immersive special presentation called Nowishenweare (the stars). You enter a room with more than 4,000 reactive LED lights, and you are mainly in the cosmos. I’m eager to. I think it is a really ambitious project that we are really delighted to live.