BFI London Film Festival 2024: From Queer to Emilia Pérez, here are 7 films to watch
Queer
Call Me By Your Name director Luca Guadagnino takes us to 1940s Mexico City with this hotly-anticipated take on William S. Burroughs’ iconic, semi-autobiographical novel.
James Bond star Daniel Craig leads the cast as American expat William Lee, who we find throwing himself into Mexico City’s nightlife and wild characters, while nursing an infatuation with a mysterious younger man. Expect a typically magnificent score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Lesley Manville and Jason Schwartzman also star.
Emilia Pérez
French movie maestro Jacques Audiard – two-time winner of the Best Film Award at LFF (A Prophet, Rust and Bone) – was the toast of Cannes for this critically-acclaimed musical fantasy, again set in Mexico.
The film follows Rita, a lawyer who reconnects with a cartel boss whose gender transition she supported years before. Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón, Adriana Paz and Selena Gomez also appear.
The Room Next Door
Pedro Almodóvar’s first English-language feature was always going to be an event. Then we heard Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton were starring in it, and this writer genuinely asked himself: does it get much better than this?
Room follows two writers, Martha and Ingrid, who reunite decades after working together at a magazine. Albeit under tragic circumstances: Martha has received a terminal cancer diagnosis, and has a significant request to make of her old friend.
An adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s What Are You Going Through, this film won the Golden Lion Award at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month.
I’m Your Venus
If seminal queer documentary Paris Is Burning (1990) were to be released today, its shiniest star Venus Xtravaganza is the sort of lovable personality who would go instantly viral. It still pains us that this larger-than-life drag queen was murdered during the making of the film, and that the culprit was never found.
The legacy of this trailblazing trans woman is reevaluated 35 years on in this new documentary, which features interviews with several of Venus’s family members, both ballroom and biological.
Sebastian
Directed by Mikko Mäkelä, Sebastian focuses on Max, a 20-something Londoner who takes up sex work as research for a novel, and soon finds himself living a double life. He chooses the name Sebastian as his alias – but can he keep Max and Sebastian separate?
Seeking Mavis Beacon
Mavis Beacon – if you were a computer-literate child of the 90s, you’ll know this name. Now, Mavis is the subject of an investigative documentary by Jazmin Jones, exploring what it means to be a Black woman in cyber space.
Sex
Dag Johan Haugerud’s unignorably-titled film looks at two men in conventional heterosexual marriages who question their identities after a shared experience. Far from the paint-by-numbers tale seen in soap operas (and porn), this movie has been praised by critics as a sensitive drama asking deep questions about the human condition and the roles we play in life.
The 68th BFI London Film Festival takes place from 9-20 October at venues in London and across the UK. Tickets go on sale 17 September. For more information, visit www.bfi.org.uk/lff.
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