London Film Festival 2025 at HOME

Get ahead of the hype with London Film Festival at HOME this October. LFF offers the opportunity to catch some of the world’s most anticipated new films ahead of their general release with a line-up featuring top stars and world renown directors. This year’s programme delivers the goods with titles such as Rian Johnson’s newest Knives Out mystery (Wed 8 Oct), Emma Stone in Yorgos Lanthimos’ new satire Bugonia (Sun 12 Oct) and Guillermo del Toro’s take on Frankenstein (Mon 13 Oct) sure to appeal to the moviegoing masses.

Our top tips for 2025’s edition include The Mastermind (Tue 14 Oct) from director Kelly Reichardt. Few directors get to the heart of America quite like Reichardt, and this 1970s period piece sees the filmmaker team up with actor Josh O’Connor, who plays an unemployed carpenter who bumbles towards a major art heist. We’d also push audiences to check out Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just an Accident (Sat 11 Oct). The Iranian director won the Palme d’Or at Cannes with this muscular thriller, much to the delight of those who have followed his career for the past few decades.

There are more big names to be found in the line-up too. Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal star in Chloé Zhao’s polarising Hamnet (Sun 19 Oct), which takes us to Elizabethan England as Agnes and William Shakespeare deal with the loss of their only son. Meanwhile, Ralph Fiennes appears in WWI drama The Choral (Sun 12 Oct), Amir El-Masry and Pierce Brosnan star in boxing biopic Giant (Mon 20 Oct), and Brendan Fraser heads to Tokyo in Rental Family (Fri 17 Oct), the story of an American actor who works for a company that provides clients with stand-ins for absent loved ones.

From Lagos and director Akinola Davies Jr, intimate family drama My Father’s Shadow (Sat 18 Oct) follows two young brothers as they begin to understand their father against the backdrop of the Nigerian presidential election. Also intriguing is Harry Lighton’s Pillion (Sun 19 Oct), which features the imposing Alexander Skarsgård as a biker opposite Harry Melling in a film about a dom-sub relationship that’s billed as moving and surprisingly funny.

Across the eleven films, Manchester filmgoers get a healthy taste of the 69th London Film Festival. Do remember to book early though as these satellite screenings are always popular. Tickets for the general public are on sale from Tuesday 16th September, and a few days earlier for HOME Friends and Members.