The London Film Festival has added a number of titles to this year’s line-up, including Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grazia.
La Grazia will arrive in London following a debut bow in Venice. The film follows Mariano De Santis, a fictional President of the Italian Republic. A widower and a Catholic, he has a daughter, Dorotea, a legal scholar like himself. As his term draws to a close, amid uneventful days, two final duties arise: deciding on two delicate petitions for a presidential pardon. True moral dilemmas, which become tangled in ways that seem impossible to unravel, with his private life. Driven by doubt, he will have to decide. And, with a deep sense of responsibility, that is exactly what this remarkable Italian President will do.
The pic stars Toni Servillo and Anna Ferzetti. The movie is produced by Fremantle’s The Apartment in association with Numero 10 and PiperFilm. Mubi will release the film.
LFF has also added The Fence, the latest feature from French filmmaker Claire Denis. The film travels to London following its debut screening in Toronto. Set on a white-run construction site in West Africa, an edgy, tightly wound foreman anxiously awaits his bride. Her presence is met with resistance by a cocksure engineer who clings to the status quo of the hyper-masculine world he resides in. But it’s the arrival of another stranger who ultimately upends the fragile world in which they all exist. The film is adapted from Bernard-Marie Koltès’s play Black Battles with Dogs.
LFF will run from October 8 to 9. The festival will open with Rian Johnson’s third Knives Out flick and close with Julia Jackman’s 100 Nights Of Hero.
See the full list of additions below.
LA GRAZIA
Sunday 19 October 14:30 at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
Director-Screenwriter Paolo Sorrentino. With Toni Servillo, Anna Ferzetti, Orlando Cinque, Massimo Venturiello, Milvia Marigliano. Italy 2025. 131min. Courtesy of MUBI. Language Italian. With English subtitles.
Oscar-winning director Paolo Sorrentino is reunited with The Great Beauty actor Toni Servillo, who plays a fictional president reaching the end of their final term in office.
President Mariano De Santis reflects on his past as he grapples with the next chapter of his life. Mourning the loss of his wife, he lives an isolated existence within the grand presidential palace, finding solace in his confidante and listening to hip hop. Thoughtfully exploring power, love and one’s legacy, Sorrentino brings his grand vision and customary flare to this compelling chamber drama. Isabel Moir
LADY
Thursday 16 October 18:15 and Sunday 19 October 18:05 at VUE’s Screen 5
Director Samuel Abrahams. Screenwriters Samuel Abrahams, Miranda Campbell Bowling. With Sian Clifford, Laurie Kynaston, Juliet Cowan. UK 2025. 97min. Courtesy of MetFilm Studio. Language
English.
Sian Clifford gives a larger-than-life performance as a narcissistic aristocrat who hires a struggling filmmaker to record her every move, in Samuel Abraham’s eccentric mockumentary.
Lady Isabella longs to be in the spotlight and local talent show ‘Stately Stars’ offers her the break she’s long desired. Despite revelling in the camera’s presence on her grand estate, pressures run high and things eventually take a surreal turn when she starts to lose her sense of self. Abraham’s debut, which features a standout performance by Fleabag’s Clifford, cleverly blends satirical humour with magical realism, exploring our deep need for human connection and to be seen. Isabel Moir
THE SOUFFLEUR
Thursday 16 October 20:25 at BFI Southbank’s NFT3 / Sunday 19 October 19:55 at BFI Southbank’s NFT2
Director Gastón Solnicki. Screenwriters Julia Niemann, Gastón Solnicki. With Willem Dafoe, Lilly
Lindner, Stéphanie Argerich. Austria-Argentina 2025. 78min. Courtesy of Magnify. Languages English, German, Spanish, Italian. With English Subtitles
William Defoe excels as the manager of a luxury hotel who decides to sabotage the plans of the Argentine developer who has acquired it.
Vienna’s glamorous Intercontinental Hotel has just been sold to a property developer who plans to tear it down. However, he hadn’t bargained on Lucious Glantz, the hotel’s manager, who is unwilling to let the building he has dedicated his life to be torn down without a fight. Unfortunately, his obsession starts to affect the hotel’s efficient running. This dark, multilingual comedy is infused with an absurdist theatricality and features wickedly good performances. Maria Delgado
THE FENCE
Saturday 18 October 12:00 at VUE’s Screen 7 / SUnday 19 October 20:30 at VUE’s Screen 5
Director Claire Denis. Screenwriters Andrew Litvack, Suzanne Lindon, Claire Denis. With Isaach de
Bankolé, Matt Dillon, Mia McKenna-Bruce. France 2025.107min. Courtesy of Goodfellas. Language English, Yoruba. With English Subtitles
French maestro Claire Denis’ taut chamber piece simmers with dark secrets and emotional tensions in its portrait of a community suffocating from the relentless grip of colonialism.
On a white-run construction site in West Africa, an edgy, tightly wound foreman anxiously awaits his bride. Her presence is met with resistance by a cocksure engineer who clings to the status quo of the hyper-masculine world he resides in. But it’s the arrival of another stranger who ultimately upends the fragile world in which they all exist. Adapted from Bernard-Marie Koltès’s play ‘Black Battles with Dogs’, Denis’ riveting drama gives primacy to her actors – their dialogues expressing inner desires and articulating the broader societal inequities that prevail between those who reside on either side of the fence. UK rising stars Mia McKenna-Bruce and Tom Blyth are both superb, matching the star power and expertly nuanced performances of Matt Dillon and Isaach de Bankolé. Kristy Matheson
