London Film Festival’s new director shares five films she’s excited about
Kristy Matheson is the BFI London Film Festival’s new Director. She replaces Tricia Tuttle who spent five years in the role. Matheson previously held the title of Creative Director at the Edinburgh International Film Festival and before moving to the UK in 2021, she held the directorship at the ACMI, Australia’s museum of screen culture.
Ahead of the Festival, which returns to London from 4 – 15 October, Kristy has shared her personal five films she’s excited to see during this year’s event. Book tickets online, and read Kristy’s recommendations below.
NYAD
“The latest film from directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, NYAD stars Jodie Foster and Annette Bening. Both give career-best performances in this heartfelt and exhilarating sports biopic about the record-breaking swimmer Diana Nyad.”
The Holdovers
“Alexander Payne reunites with his Sideways star Paul Giamatti in a film about a trio who find support and friendship in the most unlikely of places. A work of great humour and pathos, The Holdovers once again confirms Payne as one of contemporary cinema’s great humanist filmmakers.”
Going To Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project
“Michèle Stephenson and Joe Brewster’s award-winning documentary on legendary African American poet and activist Nikki Giovanni is an expansive love letter to a genuine pioneer exploring their legacy, mortality, and future.”
Lost In The Night/Perdidos en la noche
“Amat Escalante (Heli, The Untamed) returns to LFF with a tale about a young man’s search to find those responsible for his social activist mother’s disappearance. Weaving a rich tapestry of unsettling stories – in this disarming thriller nothing is quite what it seems.”
The New Boy
“Warwick Thornton’s artful and fiercely political tale of spiritual worlds colliding stars Cate Blanchett as the religiously feverish Sister Eileen who presides over indigenous boys deliberately orphaned by the authorities in 1940s Australia.”
The London Film Festival runs from 4 – 15 October
Read more: Dawn French at the London Palladium: Seven things we learned