The eagerly anticipated big-screen adaptation of Hamnet – as well as films starring Daniel Day-Lewis, Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts and singer Charli XCX – are all on the line-up the BFI London Film Festival.
The film version of Maggie O'Farrell’s 2020 novel about William Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, who died at the age of 11 in 1596, and his parents’ subsequent grief, will have its European premiere at the festival.
Directed by Oscar winner Chloe Zhao, the film stars Irish actors Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley, and is already tipped for a slew of awards nominations following its unveiling at the Telluride Film Festival.
Other notable titles to have premieres at the London festival include Die My Love, starring Lawrence as a postpartum mother battling psychosis, and After The Hunt, starring Julia Roberts as a college professor embroiled in a Me Too scandal.
Watch: The trailer for the Daniel Day-Lewis and Sean Bean-starring Anemone
Additional star-studded films include Anemone, which marks the return of Day-Lewis from his retirement from acting, in a film directed by and co-written with his son Ronan.
It will be his first film since 2017's Phantom Thread and also stars Sean Bean and Samantha Morton.
Also on the line-up are Ballad Of A Small Player, starring Colin Farrell; Bugonia, starring Emma Stone; The Choral, starring Ralph Fiennes; and H Is For Hawk, starring Claire Foy.
Guillermo Del Toro’s Frankenstein, starring Jacob Elordi and Oscar Isaac, will premiere in London after a buzzy debut at the Venice Film Festival – alongside Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, starring The Bear’s Jeremy Allen White as Bruce Springsteen.
It was previously announced the third instalment in the Knives Out whodunnit series, Wake Up Dead Man, will open the festival – while 100 Night Of Hero, starring pop star Charli XCX, Emma Corrin and Felicity Jones, will close the festival.
Kristy Matheson, director of the BFI London Film Festival, told the PA news agency it has been a rich year for film.
She said: ""There’s been so many films that we’ve absolutely just fallen head over heels for and so it’s felt very abundant this year and it’s going to be a very exciting festival for for audiences.
"I think the one thing that we noticed really early on in the process… was just how daring people are being with with the cinematic form.
"People are using all the tools in the toolbox. I think this year, we were just constantly surprised at how people are kind of pushing that, and pushing the language of cinema."
A number of the films, including the opening and closing gala, will screen at cinemas around the country at the same time as their London premiere.
The programme features 247 titles including shorts, series and immersive works, hailing from 79 countries.
Among them are two films from Palestine – Palestine 36, which Matheson describes as "a handsomely made period drama, looking at the British Mandate in Palestine," and With Hasan In Gaza, an archive piece made from a cache of tapes filmed in the early 2000s.
The line-up also includes the world premiere of the TV series The Death Of Bunny Munro, starring Matt Smith in the adaptation of the novel by Nick Cave, and Saipan, a film portraying the events of the Republic of Ireland manager Mick McCarthy’s bust-up with captain Roy Keane ahead of the 2002 World Cup.
It stars Steve Coogan as McCarthy and Eanna Hardwicke as Keane.
The BFI London Film Festival runs from 8 - 19 October 2025.
