BFI London Film Festival announces juries

The 70th BFI London Film Festival has announced the juries for its four competition awards. The winners will be announced on Sunday 18 October, the final day of this year’s Festival.

The Official Competition jury, which will select the winner of the Best Film Award, is led by one of America’s most acclaimed documentary filmmakers, Sam Pollard. With a career spanning more than four decades, Pollard has received Peabody and Emmy Awards, an Academy Award nomination and the International Documentary Association’s Career Achievement Award. Pollard’s recent directing credits include Tutu – which won the Peace Film Prize at the 2026 Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), alongside a Special Mention from the Berlinale Documentary Award jury, I Was Born This Way (2025), The League (2023), South to Black Power (2023), Citizen Ashe (2021) and MLK/FBI (2020).

The First Feature Competition (Sutherland Award) jury will be headed up by British Egyptian actor and producer Amir El-Masry. El-Masry won a Scottish BAFTA for his performance in Limbo and was named a 2020 BAFTA Breakthrough Brit and a 2021 Screen International Star of Tomorrow. His recent screen work includes the Naseem Hamed biopic Giant and 100 Nights of Hero.

Leading the jury selecting the winner of the Grierson Award for the Documentary Competition is British Indian writer and director Sandhya Suri. Her Hindi-language narrative fiction debut Santosh premiered at Cannes in 2024, won the BIFA for Best Screenplay, was nominated for an Outstanding British Debut BAFTA and shortlisted for the Oscars. Suri, who originally made her debut with the 2005 documentary I For India (which played at the Sundance Film Festival), is now working with BBC Film on a JG Ballard adaptation.

The Short Film Competition jury is led by producer, writer and Erebus Pictures co-founder Helen Simmons. Her producing credits include the BAFTA-nominated Hoard, the 2025 LFF Closing Gala film 100 Nights of Hero and Berlinale Crystal Bear winner Last Swim. She also co-wrote and co-directed the Méliès Award-winning short Measure.

Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director, said: “We are delighted to share our 2026 competition titles with audiences and our esteemed jury members. Our competition films bring together an extraordinary range of stories and filmmaking voices, and our juries bring distinct perspectives to the films. My thanks to each of them for their generous participation in the festival this year.”

Sam Pollard, Official Competition Jury President, said: “When I was asked to be the jury president for the London Film Festival, I was very surprised. I have been a jury member at other festivals but to be asked by the London Film Festival leaves me over the moon and very excited to weigh in on the films we will be asked to screen.”

Pollard is joined by Argentine filmmaker and writer Mariano Llinás (The Life of Jorge Luis Borges, The Flower) and Julie La Bassiere, Chief Strategy Officer at DDA Global.

The Best Film Award recognises inspiring, inventive and distinctive filmmaking. The ten films in Official Competition are:

7 Miles Out — Carol Morley

Act 3 — Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor

Glaxo — Benjamín Naishtat

Imperium — Sergei Loznitsa

Ketticè — Giovanni Tortorici

Look Back — Hirokazu Koreeda

My Notes on Mars — Lili Horvát

The Difficult Bride — Rubaiyat Hossain

The Idiot(s) — Małgorzata Szumowska and Michal Englert

Woman Unknown — May el-Toukhy

FIRST FEATURE COMPETITION — SUTHERLAND AWARD

Amir El-Masry, First Feature Competition Jury President, said: “London Film Festival holds a very special place in my heart having had 5 of my films premiere there before. I am now greatly honoured to be invited again as this year’s President of the Jury for the Sutherland award. It’s a role I don’t take lightly and I’m so excited to get to know the work of some of our exciting up and coming filmmakers in the industry.”

El-Masry is joined by Filipino independent film producer and former schoolteacher Alemberg Ang, (Moonglow,) and Rosa Bosch an international film sales, distribution, and awards strategy executive and Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences member whose career spans AFI FEST, the BFI London Film Festival, HBO Films and independent cinema worldwide.

The Sutherland Award recognises the most original and imaginative directorial debut. This year’s nominated films are:

9 Temples to Heaven — Sompot Chidgasornpongse

Animol — Ashley Walters

Ben’Imana — Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo

A Common Story — Anna Foglietta

Forest High — Manon Coubia

Fruit Gathering — Aung Phyoe

Lady — Olive Nwosu

The Last Day — Rachel Rose

Masc — Bertil Nilsson

Our Share of Sand — Shalini Adnani

DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION — GRIERSON AWARD

Sandhya Suri, Documentary Competition Jury President, said: “Having received the GPO scholarship to study documentary at the NFTS I can thank Grierson directly for my route into film-making. I’ve spent the last years in fiction but have continued to teach documentary and hold it close to my heart. I am very excited and honoured to be chairing this jury.”

Suri is joined by Kate Fitzpatrick, Senior Programmer at Melbourne International Film Festival, and Andee Ryder, a BAFTA and Emmy Award-winning film producer.

The Grierson Award recognises feature-length documentaries with integrity, originality and social or cultural significance. This year’s selected films are:

Ba’s Book — Ashley Duong

The Calf Doll — Ankur Hooda

Concrete Land — Asmahan Bkerat

Concrete Turned to Sand — Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora

Dependence — Grace Harper Brighouse

Once Upon a Time in Harlem — William Greaves and David Greaves

Queer Edward II — Theo Rollason

Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing — Erik Shirai

SHORT FILM COMPETITION — SHORT FILM AWARD

Helen Simmons, Short Film Competition Jury President, said: “I’m so thrilled to be presiding over the Shorts Jury this year and can’t wait to dive in and watch everyone’s brilliant work!”

Simmons is joined New York Times Critic Pick and Sky Arts Breakthrough Award nominee Leo Reich, a critically acclaimed comedian, and creator, forthcoming Channel 4 and A24 series It Gets Worse. Joining them is script editor, story consultant and executive producer Jack Casey (credits include Wren Boys (2017) and White Girl (2019)); he is also a story consultant on Black Church Bay, which screens at this year’s Festival.

The Short Film Award recognises short-form work with a distinctive cinematic voice. This year’s nominated films are:

Aman — Rahul Roye

Daughters of the Late Colonel — Elizabeth Hobbs

Fareye — Hayden Mclean

How to Hide It — Ramla Ali and Richard A. Moore

Into the Forest — Antonin Niclass

A Kind of Purity — Theo Shivdasani

Landscapes of Shame — Patrick Hough

Mon Taxi — Meriem Sakrouhi

Treasure Island — Miryam Charles

White Musk — Fatima Wardy

The LFF Audience Awards also return for 2026, inviting audiences to vote for their favourite work in three categories: Best Feature Film, Best Short and Best British Discovery.

The 70th BFI London Film Festival takes place from 7–18 October 2026.

SAM POLLARD – HEADSHOT – Credit – Henry Adobonago. Supplied by BFI