Movies starring Willem Dafoe, Matt Dillon, and Mia McKenna-Bruce have joined the lineup of the 69th edition of the BFI London Film Festival.
Organizers said on Thursday that they have added the world premiere of Samuel Abrahams’ Lady, the U.K. premiere of Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia, the U.K. premiere of Claire Denis’ The Fence, and the U.K. premiere of Gastón Solnicki’s The Souffleur to the 2025 program.
The 2025 BFI London Film Festival runs Oct. 8-19 in partnership with American Express. Below is a closer look at the latest additions to the festival’s lineup.
La Grazia
Director-screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino. With Toni Servillo, Anna Ferzetti, Orlando Cinque, Massimo Venturiello, Milvia Marigliano. Italy 2025. 131min. Courtesy of Mubi. Language Italian. With English subtitles.
Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino is reunited with The Great Beauty actor Toni Servillo, who plays a fictional president reaching the end of their final term in office. President Mariano De Santis reflects on his past as he grapples with the next chapter of his life. Mourning the loss of his wife, he lives an isolated existence within the grand presidential palace, finding solace in his confidante and listening to hip hop.
Lady
Director Samuel Abrahams. Screenwriters Samuel Abrahams, Miranda Campbell Bowling. With Sian Clifford, Laurie Kynaston, Juliet Cowan. UK 2025. 97min. Courtesy of MetFilm Studio. Language English.
Sian Clifford (Fleabag) gives a larger-than-life performance as a narcissistic aristocrat who hires a struggling filmmaker to record her every move in Samuel Abraham’s debut feature, a mockumentary. Lady Isabella longs to be in the spotlight, and local talent show Stately Stars offers her the break she’s long desired. Despite revelling in the camera’s presence on her grand estate, pressures run high, and things eventually take a surreal turn when she starts to lose her sense of self.
The Souffleur
Director Gastón Solnicki. Screenwriters Julia Niemann, Gastón Solnicki. With Willem Dafoe, Lilly Lindner, Stéphanie Argerich. Austria-Argentina 2025. 78min. Courtesy of Magnify. Languages English, German, Spanish, Italian. With English subtitles.
Vienna’s glamorous Intercontinental Hotel has just been sold to a property developer who plans to tear it down. However, he hadn’t bargained on Lucious Glantz, the hotel’s manager (Dafoe), who is unwilling to let the building he has dedicated his life to be torn down without a fight. Unfortunately, his obsession starts to affect the hotel’s efficient running.
The Fence
Director Claire Denis. Screenwriters Andrew Litvack, Suzanne Lindon, Claire Denis. With Isaach de Bankolé, Matt Dillon, Mia McKenna-Bruce. France 2025.107min. Courtesy of Goodfellas. Language English, Yoruba. With English subtitles.
On a white-run construction site in West Africa, an edgy, tightly wound foreman anxiously awaits his bride. Her presence is met with resistance by a cocksure engineer who clings to the status quo of the hyper-masculine world he resides in. But it’s the arrival of another stranger who ultimately upends the fragile world in which they all exist. Adapted from Bernard-Marie Koltès’s play Black Battles with Dogs.
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