Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape Of Water, Dee Rees’ Mudbound, Saul Dibb’s Journey’s End, You Were Never Really There by Lynne Ramsay and Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying round out the headline galas.
The additional gala films for each of the festivals strands are: Joachim Trier’s Thelma (Cult); Francois Ozon’s Amant Double (Dare); Samuel Maoz’s Foxtrot (Debate) The Big Bad Fox And Other Tales (Family); Todd Haynes’ Wonderstruck (Journey); Noah Baumbach’s The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected) (Laugh); Dominic Cooke’s On Chesil Beach (Love) and Takashi Miike’s Blade Of The Immortal (Thrill). Shiraz: A Romance Of India was previously announced as this year’s Treasures gala.
They join the previously announced opening film Breath, directed by Andy Serkis, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, directed by Martin McDonagh and Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’s Battle Of The Sexes (American Express gala).
Festival director Clare Stewart said: “In these globally tumultuous times, filmmakers around the world have increasingly urgent stories to tell and more reasons than ever to reimagine our reality.
“This year’s BFI London Film Festival programme is rich with opportunity – to stay informed, be challenged, feel the pleasure of escape and see the world differently.”
Read our coverage of previous London Film Festival editions here, with this year’s line-up coming soon.