The Saoirse Ronan-starring Bad Apples will premiere in competition at this year’s BFI London Film Festival, alongside Nia DaCosta’s Hedda with Tessa Thompson and Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee, led by Amanda Seyfried.
The 69th BFI London Film Festival, in partnership with American Express, has confirmed the features selected to screen in official competition at this year’s event. All will compete for the festival’s best film award, announced on Oct. 19.
Irish actor Ronan stars in Bad Apples, described as a biting satire with a thriller aftertaste. Directed by Jonatan Etzler, the film tells the story of a teacher dealing with a conflictive 11-year-old pupil. The U.K. production is the second movie from its director, writer of the prize-winning short film Swimmer and the feature One More Time (2023).
DaCosta (The Marvels, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple) will present Hedda, led by Tessa Thompson and starring Imogen Poots and Tom Bateman. Adapted from the play Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen, the film will first premiere in Toronto before coming to LFF. Elsewhere, George Mackay and Callum Turner feature in the Venice-bound, time travel movie Rose of Nevada, also premiering at LFF, directed by Mark Jenkin. The story follows a fishing vessel that was lost at sea 30 years ago, and mysteriously reappears in the harbour of a fishing village.
Mona Fastvold, best known for her Academy Award-nominated work on The Brutalist with partner and co-writer Brady Corbet, will present her sophomore film The Testament of Ann Lee. It stars Seyfried as Ann Lee, the founding leader of the Shakers religious sect in the 18th century. Thomasin McKenzie, Lewis Pullman, Stacy Martin, Tim Blake Nelson, Christopher Abbott and Matthew Beard round out the supporting cast.
This year’s official competition brings together new work from filmmakers across the globe, with films from Yemi Bamiro (Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story) and Shahram Mokri (Black Rabbit, White Rabbit). Nicolas Graux and Trương Minh Quý will present Hair, Paper, Water… about an elderly Ruc woman, and Lucrecia Martel will debut Landmarks, a documentary feature about the murder of indigenous leader Javier Chocobar and the legacy of colonialism on Latin America.
Rounding out the list of 10 competition films are Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice of Hind Rajab, about a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip, and The World of Love by Yoon Ga-eun, following a young 17-year-old student in South Korea.
Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival director, said: “Each title in this selection offers a bold and innovative approach to the medium. We are delighted to welcome filmmakers into the competition who’ve previously screened with the LFF alongside those making their first appearance at the festival. Featuring fiction, documentary and hybrid works drawn from global and U.K. talents, our 2025 Official Competition is sure to excite.”
The BFI London Film Festival 2025 will open with Rian Johnson’s Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery and run Oct. 8-19.
