The BFI London Film Festival (LFF) returns to the city this October, with a stacked lineup including everything from film festival darlings (La Bola Negra, Fatherland) to future cult favourites (Godzilla Minus Zero, I Love Boosters). Beyond cinema, the 11-day festival also offers a diverse programme of immersive installations, a games lounge, and DJ nights that teleport you to 2016. Tickets for these events are already out with some free ones requiring no booking at all. Meanwhile, you can book the rest from 10 am onwards on October 1. Here are the best non-film highlights from LFF to look forward to.
Dive into some water-themed VR journeys
Throughout the festival, BFI Southbank’s Atrium will be housing two VR-installations that dive into some enthralling ocean worlds while also building awareness on the ever-pressing issues of flooding and water scarcity. Solwata blends 360 degree video with immersive audio and material objects to immerse you in the lives of Solomon Island communities. For the islanders, the rising sea levels can disrupt their everyday lives and freshwater supply, an inconvenient truth highlighted with sensitivity and urgency in this mixed-reality documentary narrated by Mark Ruffalo.
Attendees can also recreate lived memories in The World Came Flooding In, a collaborative effort with flood-affected communities from Australia. The intimate Extended Reality (XR) journey relies on cardboard miniatures, 3D modelling and sound to recreate houses and buildings lost to the floods. With voices of the survivors guiding your journey, this is quite a poetic exploration of climate disaster with an inspiring resilience and an underlying sense of preserving memories.
October 7-18. 11-9pm daily (11-8pm on October 18). Head here for info on Solwata and The World Came Flooding In.
Go back to a 2016 dance floor with a free DJ night
Jordan Firstman’s Cannes breakout Club Kid plays during the Gala screenings on the festival’s last two days. The story of a down-on-his-luck club promoter bonding with an illegitimate son plays out with the neon-lit euphoria and sweat-soaked exhaustion of 2016-era dance floors. True to the film’s theme, a Saturday-night rager transforms the BFI Southbank bar into Club Kid’s fictional Brooklyn hotspot Club Labor with a nostalgic celebration soundtracked to hit tunes by Rihanna, The Weeknd, Drake, Beyoncé, Justin Bieber and more head-bobbing bangers from a decade ago.
Entry is free but on a first-come, first-served basis. So, show up well in time before 9pm to relive those pre-Covid memories from a simpler time.
October 17. 9pm onwards. Head here for info.
Drop by the Games Lounge
This year’s LFF programme also offers five genre-bending, thought-provoking video games at the Games Lounge in the BFI IMAX foyer. There are puzzle adventures to play, such as Lofsöng that requires to listen and unearth a mysterious language across barren, brutalist environments, or Love Eternal that plays out as a cerebral precision platformer.
For those interested in more story-driven examples, the interactive visual novel and Roger that requires you to solve a mystery involving a missing father while going through buried memories and dementia-related experiences. Similarly, the power of memory is celebrated in Mixtape, a game following three friends driving off to an adventure on their last day of school. The Day I Became a Bird is equally wholesome with its handcrafted tale of a schoolboy trying to win over his crush with a bird costume.
Entry is non-ticketed on a first come, first served basis.
October 7-18. 1-9pm daily. Head here for info.
Build your own bug (or mermaid tail)
In the same tradition as animal epics like The Incredible Journey and Flow, the dialogue-free adventure A Mighty Adventure follows a trio of insects embarking on an epic journey back home. The animated film screens on two days of the festival but you can also build your own tiny bugs at a free-for-all workshop on October 10 at the BFI Southbank foyer. This hands-on craft workshop allows you to play around with art materials to create your own friendly-not-creepy crawlies right before the screening on October 10.
October 10, 10:15 am. Head here for info.
Alternatively you can craft your own mermaid tails to celebrate the English-Spanish language animated film Julian that follows a seven-year-old boy dreaming to become a sea maiden. Paint and mixed materials will be at your disposal to be at your fin-edged, gill-covered A-game.
October 10, 12:15 am. Head here for info.
Step into an ever-evolving digital environment
Like every year, the LFF also incorporates new-age storytelling with its Expanded strand, this year’s highlight being the free immersive installation Red The Ocean Around U. From October 7 to 18, you can drop by BFI IMAX to walk into this digital environment that constantly evolves with every step.
Traverse fluid landscapes with dreamy myths leading you to make several choices, each of which can alter the course of this artificial world, or even create new worlds in the process. As you explore a floating island, you encounter phoenixes, druids, and omen, even being compelled to decide between adopting two stolen creatures or returning them. And this is not just a singular experience as your alterations to the storyline would impact the storyline for the person behind you. Artist collective CROSSLUCID design this otherworldly experience with a non-linear story developed by British sci-fi writer/designer Orion Facey.
October 7-18. 1-9pm daily (1-5pm on October 18). Head here for info.
This year’s London Film Festival runs from Wednesday, October 7 to Sunday, October 18. Head to the official festival website for full programme info and tickets.
Everything you need to know about this year’s LFF.