The 68th BFI London Film Festival came to a close on October 20th with the European Premiere of Academy Award winning documentarian Morgan Neville’s Piece by Piece.
Darren Thornton’s comedy drama Four Mothers, about one Irish son juggling four very different mothers, received the Audience Award for Best Feature; Sophie Compton and Daisy-May Hudson’s Holloway, which follows six women who were formerly incarcerated at what was once the largest women’s prison in Europe is the winner of the Audience Award for Best Documentary; and Jamie Benyon’s Two Minutes, wins the Audience Award for Best Short Film, for a tale about two brothers, who are interrupted while they are robbing an off license by their grandmother. (see the winners of this year’s BFI London Film Festival Jury Awards)
The Festival featured 252 titles (comprising features, shorts, series and immersive works) hailing from 79 countries, and featured 63 languages with 44% of works from female and nonbinary filmmakers. All features and series screened to UK audiences for the first time, including 38 World Premieres (14 features, 2 series, 19 shorts, 3 immersive), 12 International Premieres (6 features, 4 shorts, 2 immersive) and 21 European Premieres (17 features, 1 series, 3 shorts).
Across the program, the Festival had 230,342, attendances, the highest in-person attendance in the last ten years. Around half of this year’s bookers for London screenings and events (49%) were new to the LFF and occupancy across the Festival’s London screenings and events has increased to 92%, up from 90% in 2023.
BFI London Film Festival Director Kristy Matheson said: “Our biggest thanks go to the artists and industry colleagues from the UK and across the globe who fueled our collective curiosity this year. It was a delight to see audiences engage with each other and this program – proving once again the joy and comfort we all find in screen culture.”
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