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Scoring tickets to BFI London Film Festival screenings can feel like a magic trick – blink and they’re gone – but don’t despair: there are still seats available for some cracking new films when the fest gets underway on October 8. Whether you fancy living it up in the Royal Festival Hall or hunkering down in one of London’s more intimate screens, there are opportunities to get right into the heart of the UK’s biggest film fest without having to queue. Here’s five films you can still pick up tickets for.
1. Roofman
The Fugitive meets Clerks in this true-life romantic caper starring Channing Tatum as an ex-soldier who hides out in the walls of a Toys “R” Us after ripping off McDonald’s branches and somehow finds love in the process. With a doozy of a supporting cast – Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, LaKeith Stanfield, Peter Dinklage – this one looks like a big-hearted alt-romcom guaranteed to play well with a festival audience.
9pm, Tue Oct 14, Royal Festival Hall
2.30pm, Wed Oct 15, Royal Festival Hall
2. Blue Moon
With not one but two films at the festival, Richard Linklater is really just showing off. His movie making-of drama about new wave classic Breathless, Nouvelle Vague, is already a sellout, but don’t sleep on the other one either. Ethan Hawke and Andrew Scott play songwriting double act Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers in a different kind of artistic biopic, full of 1940s period colour and bruised heart.
8.45pm, Thu Oct 16, Royal Festival Hall
Book tickets here
3. Redoubt
One of the greatest faces in cinema, Denis Lavant is always worth seeing, and he’s in full flow in the true-life story of a Swedish farmer who turned his home into a Cold War fortress. It’s the kind of out-there material the Beau Travail and Holy Motors actor turns into a must-see, an earthy investigation of the human condition that’ll offer plenty to chew on over a Mayfair drink afterwards.
9pm, Fri Oct 17, Curzon Mayfair
4. Love Me Tender
Phantom Thread’s Vicky Krieps stars in a no-punches-pulled adaptation of Constance Debré’s 2020 book about a woman battling for custody of her son when she comes out and starts a new relationship. Expect a radical look at motherhood and sexual freedom in a censorious world – and for the Luxembourgish actor to be stunning again.
12.10pm, Mon Oct 13, BFI Southbank
5. Giant
Another kind of smashing machine, Prince Naseem Hamed brought flair and flamboyance to the boxing ring during his ’90s heyday. The story of his rise to the top of the fight game, and the racist abuse he had to face down along the way, is told in a sports drama that zeroes in on his relationship with coach Brendan Ingle, the Mickey to his Rocky. Limbo’s Amir El-Masry plays Naz and Pierce Brosnan is Ingle.
12.15pm, Sun Oct 19, Vue West End
Book tickets here
Everything you need to know about this year’s London Film Festival.
The 10 best films to see in cinemas in October.