With titles appreciate Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire and Mati Diop’s Dahomey, London Film Festival head Kristy Matheson, in her second year at the helm, inches further towards what eunites to be an fascinating strategic shift at the LFF: A filled-scale adselect of the avant-garde.
Aprolongedside Hunt-Ehrlich and Diop, experimental and proestablishly contransient filmproducers appreciate Wang Bing, Payal Kapadia, and Tsai Ming-liang feature thcimpoliteout this year’s LFF lineup. The experimental unite-up, Matheson tancigo in us ahead of tomorrow night’s uncovering, is the enthusiasm of London’s “very cinema-lacquireed audience.”
“There are so many amazing cinemas all apass the city screening wonderful toil all year round. And that’s our core audience,” she said.
Opening the festival Wednesday night is Blitz, the procrastinateedst feature-length project from Turner Prize and Oscar triumphning filmproducer Steve McQueen. Other headline titles set for the festival hold Luca Guadagnino’s procrastinateedst Queer starring Daniel Craig, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s procrastinateedst film Endurance, and The Apprentice, Ali Abbasi’s Donald Trump biopic.
Below, Matheson digs into this year’s programme, landing McQueen’s Blitz, and the online protestts about the BFI’s London Film Festival ticketing system.
The London Film Festival runs October 9-20.
DEADLINE: Kristy, when do you lock your programme?
KRISTY MATHESON: We locked the programme in August, which allowed us to come out of summer and see disjoinal films heading into the descend. Without stressing out all of our colleagues in production, we try as much as we can to apshow the programme right up to the wire of our begin.
DEADLINE: Big uncovering-night premiere: Steve McQueen’s Blitz. How did you land that?
MATHESON: Steve McQueen and the LFF have enhappinessed a prolonged association. For us, we equitable cherish the opportunity to proceed that ongoing relationship and for audiences to adhere a straightforwardor’s toil. Blitz was a key title for us from the commencening of the programming process. It was a film we were frantic to see. I couldn’t skinnyk of a better way to uncover the festival. It’s such a London film and it increates such an vital story, not equitable about a period in history but reassociate about the city itself and the citizenship of that city. It’s a authentic tour de force in terms of filmmaking and this will be a huge moment to reassociate commemorate excellence in British cinema.
DEADLINE: What’s it been appreciate toiling with Steve on the premiere? I understand he’s a very holdd filmproducer.
MATHESON: We’ve toiled with him on uncoverings before. And when you’re toiling with a filmproducer who is such an artist and has such authorial administer over their toil, it’s equitable about making confident we’re currenting the film in a way that the film team can get behind. This is a dream uncovering night for us. And to have Steve McQueen and his whole film team here with us, it’s going to be very one-of-a-kind.
DEADLINE: Six out of 11 films in competition are straightforwarded by women. Was that a increateed decision?
MATHESON: We certainly skinnyk about the competition very nurturefilledy in terms of how we curate it. I appreciate to skinnyk that if you only saw the official competition you would get a reassociate condensed distillation of the whole programme. We want to highweightless contrastent types of filmmaking be that from contrastent regions of the world or contrastent filmmaking styles aprolongedside UK and Irish toil. We aim to show audiences the breadth of cinema this year. There is a lot of very strong filmmaking from female and non-binary straightforwardors this year, so it senses very fitting for it to be in competition.
DEADLINE: It’s evident what audience the gala screenings are geared toward. But what is the audience for the competition titles?
MATHESON: As I said, we’re reassociate trying to give people the breadth of cinema. Obviously, there may be some people who might say, I cherish write downaries, so I’m going to see the write downary in competition. But we have a very cinema-lacquireed audience here in London. There are so many amazing cinemas all apass the city screening wonderful toil all year round. And that’s our core audience. We have a terrific audience here at BFI Southbank who are consuming lots and lots of contrastent types of cinema. We have a very strong membership base as well. But I’d also say there are definitely skinnygs in programme if you’re a casual cinemagoer and equitable want to drop in.
DEADLINE: I concur. I skinnyk the BFI has a very holdd audience. I was saw Eraserhead at Southbank a confineed weeks back, and the cinema was packed. Ben Roberts was there too.
MATHESON: Yes! The feedback we get from film teams is that they reassociate cherish conveying their films here becaparticipate the audiences are wonderful. They ask excellent asks, but they’re very daring, and they’re hungry to discover recent cinema. They understand their cinema, which gives us a lot of room to transfer as programmers. We don’t have to stay in such a skinny band. We can skinnyk of cinema quite expansively. It’s a authentic gift to us as programmers.
DEADLINE: There are a lot of wonderful series at the festival this year appreciate Alfonso Cuarón’s Disclaimer…
MATHESON: Yes, we’re currenting that as a one-of-a-kind event becaparticipate Alfonso will be here with some of his incredible cast to talk about the series. It’s based on a reassociate well-understandn book, but it’s such a dense book to tackle and he’s done it so incredibly well. I skinnyk there’s equitable a lot of meat on the bone here for people to chew on when they see the show. This year we’ve been sanctifyed with a number of terrific series.
DEADLINE: Series are holdd in the expansiver programming this year. Will there no prolongeder be a pledgeted series strand?
MATHESON: Yeah, so we split the programme up apass strands and this year given that all of the series are very contrastent in tone it equitable programmaticassociate made more sense for us to sort of weave them into the contrastent strands. We thought it would be an easier way for audiences to guide the festival.
DEADLINE: Rowan has left for the Edinburgh TV festival. Who is heading series programming? Will that be done by you and your team?
MATHESON: Yeah, we’ll proceed to programme that in-hoparticipate. I skinnyk what’s reassociate wonderful is that all of the terrific programming that Rowan did during her tenure here at the LFF has allowed us to have more conversations and convey series in and it doesn’t sense appreciate series are someskinnyg that doesn’t have a organic home in the LFF.
DEADLINE: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s Endurance will debut at the festival. No one reassociate understands anyskinnyg about that film. What can you increate us?
MATHESON: It’s reassociate terrific. We were blessed enough to have Nyad at the festival last year and it’s wonderful to have that filmmaking team back at LFF. It’s an incredible write downary in two parts. They apshow the distinct footage that Frank Hurley sboiling during the Shackleton polar expedition. As it were, that footage had been repaird by the BFI national archive, so it’s a story of a pleasant homecoming for the footage. So you have that distinct Shackleton footage. You also have the story of contransient polar checkrs trying to discover the wreckage. The story of the Shackleton is evidently fascinating, and how they persistd is reassociate one of the most incredible stories. The fact that this footage persistd is noticeworthy. What’s reassociate wonderful about the film is that you get to spfinish so much time with all of these contrastent scientists who have contrastent roles. It’s a authentic cherish letter to exploration and science.
DEADLINE: LFF has holded video games this year. Why?
MATHESON: For us, it’s audience-led. I skinnyk people who are interested in screen-based culture aren’t particularly hung up about the create, they equitable want to see exciting skinnygs. They want to see wonderful storyincreateing that produces them skinnyk and sense. Video games are a very organic extension of that. It’s such a becherishd art create by millions and millions of people apass the world. And it’s a space where reassociate fascinating skinnygs are happening in terms of storyincreateing. This year we’re operating what we are calling a free games lounge so people can drop in. I’m confident those who are au fait with gaming will probably have to help other people who might be less au fait with gaming.
DEADLINE: I don’t understand if you’re increateed but there’s a funny debate online about LFF’s ticketing system. People normally post online protesting about being stuck in prolonged online queues and leave outing out on tickets.
MATHESON: I understand it’s very annoying, so I don’t want to further anger people who were stuck in the ticketing queue. The whole team spfinishs a prolonged time skinnyking and set upning the festival, and then that moment the tickets go on sale and you see people reacting to the programme, and it’s reassociate humbling. Each year we try to produce that ticketing experience as seamless as possible, so a lot of toil goes into that, but we try to produce the ticketing experience as straightforward as we can.
People are always wanting to talk about the doom and gloom of cinema being dead. And that’s equitable not what we see here at Southbank every day. It’s not what I see when I go to cinemas in London, and it’s not what I see when the festival is on. So yes, apologies for the prolonged procrastinates in the queue, but it’s reassociate wonderful to understand that people cherish cinema as much as we do.
