'A Thousand Blows' To Premiere at the 2024 London Film Festival

The British Film Institute's London Film Festival is one of the last significant chances for most films to get themselves into the Awards Conversation. (The AFI Film Festival in November is THE last chance.) It's also a good bellwether of which films think they can grab the spotlight and which do not. For example, the Gary Oldman-starrer, Parthenope, rung up the curtain at Cannes alongside films like Bird and Rumours. The latter two arrive in London for the October film fest with serious buzz; however, Parthenope, which was roundly panned, had disappeared, and who knows if it will ever be released in mainstream theaters.

Parthenope's absence is also worth remarking upon because the breadth and scope of LFF's lineup is enormous. For 2024's 68th festival edition, the organizers have rounded up 255 titles (including feature films, shorts, a couple of TV series, and even immersive works) from 80 countries. Some of these were known ahead of the full lineup reveal; Apple TV+ announced period film Blitz would be the Opening Night Gala presentation weeks ago. Some were shoo-ins simply from how well they did in earlier debuts, such as We Live In Time. But there are always surprises, especially when it comes to which streamers insist on debuting prestige series. Disclaimer already played in Toronto, so it's not a surprise that it will be rescreened in London. However, the announcement that Disney+ is bringing Steven Knight's A Thousand Blows to London was an attention-getter.

We won't list all 255 titles playing over the two weeks here; that would be overwhelming. However, we've gone through the last and noted every UK-produced title that will screen, plus a few films that are all-British casts, even if they were made elsewhere, like the USA or Canada.