London Film Festival Takeaways: A Star-Studded Program, Measured Approach to AI and an Hour With Daniel Day-Lewis
The 2025 BFI London Film Festival draws to a close this weekend with the U.K. premiere of feminist fantasy “100 Nights of Hero. Among the cast expected to bring some star-wattage to the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday night are Emma Corrin, Maika Monroe, Felicity Jones and Richard E. Grant.
For the many who have been charging around the British capital from premiere to screen talk to industry soiree for what now feels like months, “100 Nights of Hero” may well feel like a suitably apt title to conclude with. Indeed, while it has only been 12 days since Ryan Johnson, Daniel Craig, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Kerry Washington and Mila Kunis helped open the festival with “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” the LFF schedule has felt more crowded with events than ever before. Debates have raged in the busy industry program, standby ticket queues have snaked outside venues for the hottest premieres and the stars — in their droves — have been out in force and on major charm offensives, with distributors using the fest to launch both awards and release campaigns.
From the plethora of activity that’s been going on, Variety picks out its key takeaways from this year’s London Film Festival.
Who needs world premieres?
When the LFF lineup was first announced, the absence of high-profile world premieres was noticeable. The fest has never had the same draw as the likes of Cannes, Venice, Telluride or Toronto for landing the top-tier launches, but would occasionally punch above its weight with debuts of films such as Steve McQueen’s “Blitz,” “Matilda the Musical,” and “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.” But this year it became very quickly apparent that it didn’t matter thanks to a program absolutely crammed with almost every major feature that’s been at every other festival. “Hamnet,” “Sentimental Value,” “Jay Kelly,” “Bugonia,” “Is This Thing On,” “Frankenstein,” “Blue Moon,” “Christy,” “It Was Just an Accident,” “No Other Choice,” “The Testament of Ann Lee,” “Train Dreams,” “After the Hunt,” “Hedda,” “Rental Family” and “The Voice of Hind Rajab” offered just a small taste of LFF’s 2025 menu, which showed that, while London may not get them first, it gets them all together — and with talent in tow. There’s good reason why LFF is now considered awards season’s international starter gun.
Starry screen talks
LFF more than delivered with a slew of star-studded Screen Talks this year, including with Yorgos Lanthimos, Richard Linklater and Chloé Zhao. But the programmers truly outdid themselves by booking none other than Daniel Day-Lewis, the elusive and hugely celebrated actor who returned to the screen after eight years in retirement to lead his son’s debut film, “Anemone.” And Day-Lewis’ conversation did not disappoint: the three-time best actor Oscar winner offered charming, sometimes rambling anecdotes from his most beloved films like “My Left Foot” and “The Boxer,” and even sounded off on criticism of his Method process. Audience members undoubtedly walked out of NFT1 feeling inspired, enchanted and eager to rewatch “Phantom Thread.”
It’s all been happening off-fest
LFF is very much an event for the public, but away from the screenings, talks and red carpets, there’s been a whole world of festival-adjacent activity going on across the British capital’s luxury hotels, private clubs and bars — more so this year than ever before. Alongside countless tastemakers sessions, special screenings and Q&As put on for voters, AMPAS held its reception for new members, while the Golden Globes – a first-timer in 2024 – held a starry cocktail party at the Dorchester Hotel. Elsewhere, UTA and Vogue had a special soiree at legendary Italian restaurant Carbone’s new London outpost and Netflix didn’t just throw its annual brunch, but opened an entire exhibition for “Frankenstein” (and got Jacob Elordi and co to visit for its launch). But 2025 also sees a Cote D’Azur favorite mark its LFF debut. Better known for its sunnier festival galas at Cannes and Venice, amfAR lands in London for the first time on Friday night with a dinner and auction at the Chancery Rosewood hotel and local girl Joely Richardson on hosting duties. With U.K. temperatures having dropped noticeably over the last few weeks, guests will no doubt be overjoyed to hear it’s being held indoors.
AI with a stiff upper lip
AI quietly threaded through this year’s BFI London Film Festival, surfacing in both programming and debate. Damien Hauser’s “Memory of Princess Mumbi” used AI-generated landscapes to imagine a futuristic Africa, while “Future Botanica” invited audiences to co-create speculative ecosystems with generative visuals. The new LFF Expanded Industry Day spotlighted 11 projects spanning AI, XR and gaming, alongside a panel tracing depictions of artificial intelligence from “Metropolis” to “Ex Machina.” In her Variety interview, artistic director Kristy Matheson was asked whether she’d ever program a film starring an AI performer like Tilly Norwood — a fitting question, given that “London” is the AI actress’s supposed hometown. Yet compared with Bucheon, Busan, Shanghai and Tokyo — where AI is increasingly front and centre — London’s approach remains measured, testing the waters rather than declaring a full-blown embrace.
Moviegoing Etiquette in the Spotlight
Social media was abuzz this edition with grievances about some audience members’ cinema etiquette — a matter that escalated when the festival clarified in its Oct. 13 bulletin that “the use of phones and laptops” during press and industry screenings was “permitted for notetaking.” “FFS! Film festivals are typically one of the few places where I don’t have to tell people to put away their phones during screenings,” one X user lamented, while another said they’d noticed more “tension in the air” in general, reporting “exasperated and/or rude audiences, arguments about to break out, lots of shushing.” Indeed, everyone may need to calm down.
