One of Europe’s most eagerly awaited film festivals begins later this week. Founded in 1933, the British Film Institute (BFI) has staged a film festival every October since 1957. While 2020’s edition was an online-only affair due to Covid, the film festival has since returned to its usual format – and cinema-goers will be relishing this year’s line-up.

So, what are the prominent features, the big surprises, and who are the new names to watch? Here’s what to expect at BFI London 2022.

Talking With the Stars: Janelle Monáe and Bill Nighy

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As is usual at BFI London, there will be a slew of panels featuring the film world’s best and brightest, such as Janelle Monáe. The most hotly-anticipated film to play at the festival is Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, a sequel to 2019’s Knives Out, featuring Daniel Craig, Edward Norton, and Janelle Monáe. Having premiered at Toronto International Film Festival last month to rave reviews, the multi-talented Monáe’s performance has already been singled out for praise.

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The discussion at London’s BFI Southbank on October 14 will cover her varied career and screen work, which has included winning turns in Hidden Figures (2016) and Moonlight (2016), and more recently, opposite Eric Lange in Antebellum (2020).

Three days earlier, it will be British actor Bill Nighy’s turn to take center stage. The veteran character actor is well known for his impressive range. His comedy work includes such films as Edgar Wright’s Shaun of the Dead (2004), The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy (2005), and a BAFTA-winning performance in Richard Curtis’s Love Actually (2003), while roles in period dramas, war films, and sci-fi blockbusters such as The Limehouse Golem (2016), Valkyrie (2008), and the 2012 reboot of Total Recall respectively speak to a remarkable ability across all genres.

Next month, Nighy’s most recent film, the Kazuo Ishiguro-penned Living, premieres in the United Kingdom and is already receiving plaudits for Nighy’s nuanced, poignant performance. Nighy’s event is scheduled for October 11 at the Curzon Soho Cinema, while Living will be screened later that day at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall.

Major Festival Screenings

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A variety of new films see premieres or early screenings during the festival. One of the most conspicuous screenings will be Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale; Brendan Fraser’s triumphant lead performance has already been acclaimed at last month’s Toronto International Film Festival, where he picked up the award for Best Actor. Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion animation feature Pinocchio has also turned heads with its depiction of the well-known fairytale against the grim backdrop of Mussolini’s Italy; the film has its world premiere at the festival on October 15 before streaming on Netflix in December.

Chinonye Chukwu’s Till, a period drama about Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother whose son, Emmett Till, was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955 – an event that outraged popular opinion at the time and spurred the development of the civil rights movement – is likely to be another big draw following its world premiere in New York last week. The film tells the harrowing true story of Till, who was just fourteen when two white men murdered him. After being found not guilty, the men subsequently admitted the murder in a magazine interview. Till-Mobley’s experience is told by a star-studded cast including Danielle Deadwyler (Jane and Emma, The Harder They Fall), Frankie Faison (The Silence of the Lambs, The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain), and Whoopi Goldberg, who also co-produces.

The LFF Awards

     Film Constellation

The London Film Festival Awards will also see a raft of new filmmakers recognized for their efforts. The Sutherland Award is given to films by debut directors. In the running this year are movies from across the globe, including Pakistani director Saim Sadiq’s meditation on queerness and sexuality, Joyland, which won the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize at Cannes in the summer, and Our Lady of the Chinese Shop, an offbeat Angolan film from Ery Claver in which a plastic figurine of the Virgin Mary brings remarkable changes to the lives of those who come into contact with it.

The Grierson Award, meanwhile, is given to the best documentary feature. Nominees include All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Laura Poitras’ biography of the artist and activist Nan Goldin; Name Me Lawand, Edward Lovelace’s touching portrait of the life of a Deaf Kurdish boy; and The Future Tense, Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s exploration of the interconnections between Irish identity, English colonialism, and living in the United Kingdom.

How and When to Watch

The British Film Institute London Film Festival 2022 begins at a variety of venues across London and the UK on Wednesday, October 5, and runs until October 16. Events will be streamed from October 14 until October 23 on BFI Player. Go to bfi.org.uk for venues, the schedule, and ticketing details.