London Film Festival Interest List 2021
by Col Needham | created - 27 Aug 2021 | updated - 19 Dec 2022 | PublicThese are the films I want to see from The BFI London Film Festival 2021 in screening order. It is great to be back in London in-person, although we are also seeing things through the BFI Player too.
Once I watch something, it moves to my London Film Festival 2021 List.
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1. All These Sons (2021)
88 min | Documentary
On Chicago's South and West sides, guns and gangs are destroying countless lives. Two men dedicate their lives educating, empowering and healing young Black men at high risk for being victims-or perpetrators-of deadly gun-violence.
Directors: Joshua Altman, Bing Liu
Votes: 92
2. Azor (2021)
100 min | Drama, Thriller
Yvan De Wiel, a private banker from Geneva, goes to Argentina in the midst of a dictatorship to replace his partner, the object of the most worrying rumours, who disappeared overnight.
Director: Andreas Fontana | Stars: Fabrizio Rongione, Stéphanie Cléau, Carmen Iriondo, Juan Trench
Votes: 2,989
3. Between Two Worlds (2021)
106 min | Drama
It is based on French journalist Florence Aubenas's bestselling non-fiction work Le Quai de Ouistreham, investigating rising precarity in French society through her experiences in the northern port city of Caen.
Director: Emmanuel Carrère | Stars: Juliette Binoche, Louise Pociecka, Steve Papagiannis, Aude Ruyter
Votes: 2,294
4. The Box (2021)
92 min | Drama
A Mexican teenager sets out to collect his fathers remains, only to be sucked into the underbelly of the manufacturing industry.
Director: Lorenzo Vigas | Stars: Hernán Mendoza, Hatzín Navarrete, Elián Gonzalez, Dulce Alexa Alfaro
Votes: 795
5. Cannon Arm and the Arcade Quest (2021)
98 min | Documentary
Kim Kanoin arm is a guy from Denmark who has played Gyruss so much since the 80s that he one of the biggest experts. I have seen him many times in bipbip bar and can attest to his greatness. He is very good at what he does in Gyruss.
Director: Mads Hedegaard | Stars: Kim Cannon Arm, Walter Day, Shigeru Miyamoto
Votes: 263
6. Clara Sola (2021)
106 min | Drama
In a remote village in Costa Rica, Clara, a withdrawn 40-year-old woman, experiences a sexual and mystical awakening as she begins a journey to free herself from the repressive religious and social conventions which have dominated her life.
Director: Nathalie Álvarez Mesén | Stars: Wendy Chinchilla Araya, Ana Julia Porras Espinoza, Daniel Castañeda Rincón, Flor María Vargas Chavez
Votes: 1,604
7. Costa Brava, Lebanon (2021)
106 min | Drama
A couple decide to leave the toxic pollution of their home city of Beirut, hoping to build a utopian existence in a pristine home in the mountains.
Director: Mounia Akl | Stars: Yumna Marwan, Nadine Labaki, Saleh Bakri, Nadia Charbel
Votes: 1,013
8. Dashcam (I) (2021)
R | 80 min | Horror
Two friends embark on a horror-fueled road trip and livestream the most terrifying night of their lives.
Director: Rob Savage | Stars: Annie Hardy, Amar Chadha-Patel, Angela Enahoro, Seylan Baxter
Votes: 6,223
9. Ear for Eye (2021)
88 min | Drama
Follows British and American Black characters of different generations navigating their way through today's society, offering a critical perspective on the state of the nation.
Director: Debbie Tucker Green | Stars: Hayden Mclean, Sharlene Whyte, David Gyasi, Carmen Munroe
Votes: 175
10. The Fam (2021)
112 min | Drama
A group of teenage girls have been placed in a residential care home with social workers. This forced "family" experience creates unexpected tensions and intimacies. An incident triggers a chain of over-reactions.
Director: Fred Baillif | Stars: Claudia Grob, Anais Uldry, Kassia Da Costa, Joyce Esther Ndayisenga
Votes: 300
11. Freda (2021)
93 min | Drama
Freda lives with her family in a popular neighborhood in Haiti. They survive with their little street food shop. The precariousness and violence of their daily life push them to do everything they can to escape their situation.
Director: Gessica Geneus | Stars: Nehemie Bastien, Gaëlle Bien-Aimé, Djanaina Francois, Jean Jean
Votes: 239
12. The Grandmother (2021)
R | 100 min | Horror
A Paris model must return to Madrid where her grandmother, who had brought her up, just had a stroke. But spending just a few days with this relative turns into an unexpected nightmare.
Director: Paco Plaza | Stars: Almudena Amor, Vera Valdez, Karina Kolokolchykova, Marina Gutiérrez
Votes: 5,465
13. Hinterland (2021)
98 min | Crime, Drama, History
When an ex-prisoner of the Great War returns home and finds his comrades brutally murdered, he decides to bring the serial-killer to justice.
Director: Stefan Ruzowitzky | Stars: Murathan Muslu, Liv Lisa Fries, Max von der Groeben, Marc Limpach
Votes: 1,590
14. The Hole (2021)
93 min | Drama
The extraordinary adventure of the young members of the Piedmont Speleological Group who, having already explored all the caves of Northern Italy, changed course in August 1961 and went South to explore other caves unknown to man.
Director: Michelangelo Frammartino | Stars: Nicola Lanza, Antonio Lanza, Leonardo Larocca, Claudia Candusso
Votes: 1,858
15. Invisible demons: tuhon merkit (2021)
70 min | Documentary
Explores the dramatic consequences of India's growing economy, capturing not only a city in crisis but magnifying our collective climate realities.
Director: Rahul Jain
Votes: 467
16. Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon (2021)
R | 106 min | Fantasy, Thriller
A girl with unusual powers escapes from a mental asylum and tries to make it on her own in New Orleans.
Director: Ana Lily Amirpour | Stars: Kate Hudson, Jeon Jong-seo, Craig Robinson, Ed Skrein
Votes: 5,543
17. The Neutral Ground (2021)
82 min | Documentary
In December 2015, the New Orleans City Council voted to remove four Confederate monuments from public grounds. A forceful group of critics protested the decision, and fearing retaliation, no crew would agree to remove the statues.
Director: CJ Hunt | Stars: CJ Hunt, Mr. Hunt, Mitch Landrieu, Jason Williams
Votes: 126
18. Our Men (2021)
106 min | Drama
Nika, a woman in her early twenties, leaves Ukraine to follow her boyfriend Vlad, a young soldier based in a military camp in Corsica. While there, she meets Céline, the wife of Commander Maxime.
Director: Rachel Lang | Stars: Louis Garrel, Camille Cottin, Ina Marija Bartaité, Aleksandr Kuznetsov
Votes: 282
19. The Outlaws (2021)
79 min | Action, Crime
Set in the 1920s, two drifters are being chased by the police after a failed train robbery.
Director: Henrik Martin Dahlsbakken | Stars: Filip Berg, Lia Boysen, Samuel Fröler, Cecilie A. Mosli
Votes: 50
20. Pedro (2021)
108 min | Crime, Drama, Mystery
In a remote village in Southern India, Pedro, an outcast and a drunk, accidentally kills a cow and sets off a revelatory chain of events that put him against the entire community.
Director: Natesh Hegde | Stars: Gopal Hegde, Ramakrishna Bhat Dundi, Raj B. Shetty, Medini Kelmane
Votes: 42
21. Ride the Wave (2021)
84 min | Documentary
Scottish Surf champion Ben Larg's bigger challenge is the biggest and most dangerous cold water waves in the world at Mullaghmore. Danger, opportunity, parental dilemma collide, propelling Ben and his family towards an unknown destiny.
Director: Martyn Robertson | Star: Ben Larg
Votes: 30
22. Shepherd (II) (2021)
R | 103 min | Horror, Mystery
A young Scottish shepherd, following the death of his unfaithful wife, fights to maintain his own sanity when the past catches up to him.
Director: Russell Owen | Stars: Tom Hughes, Kate Dickie, Greta Scacchi, Gaia Weiss
Votes: 1,134
23. The Taking (2021)
76 min | Documentary
A radical examination of Monument Valley's representation in cinema and advertising, THE TAKING scrutinizes how a site located on sovereign Navajo land came to embody the fantasy of the "Old West."
Director: Alexandre O. Philippe | Stars: John K. Bucher Jr., Michele Salimbeni
Votes: 87
24. Dostojee (2021)
111 min | Drama
Two 8-year old boys navigate a growing religious divide in this portrait of childhood set after the destruction of India's Babri Mosque.
Director: Prasun Chatterjee | Stars: Asik Shaikh, Arif Shaikh, Jayati Chakraborty, Swatilekha Kundu
Votes: 454
25. Users (2021)
81 min | Documentary
Documentary explores how humanity expresses itself with technology and the intended and unintended consequences of our tech-dominated world.
Director: Natalia Almada
Votes: 90
26. What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? (2021)
150 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A chance encounter on a street corner has Lisa and Giorgi fall in love at first sight, but an evil spell is cast on them. Will they ever meet again?
Director: Aleksandre Koberidze | Stars: Ani Karseladze, Giorgi Bochorishvili, Oliko Barbakadze, Giorgi Ambroladze
Votes: 2,032
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