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Barry Keoghan’s new thriller, Bring Them Down, will be one of films competing for the prestigious best film award at October’s BFI London Film Festival.
The 11 newly-announced Official Competition entries take in everything from a Palestinian drama to a Zambian #MeToo manifesto, to a coming-of-age film made using stop-motion animation.
Bring Them Down sees Keoghan playing the son of a farmer who becomes embroiled in a violent turf war in the west of Ireland.
Also on the line-up is The Extraordinary Miss Flower. Co-directed by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, the London artist-filmmakers behind 2014 Nick Cave doc 20,000 Days on Earth, and scored by Icelandic singer-songwriter Emilíana Torrini, it’s billed as ‘love letter to the enduring power of creativity and friendship’.
The 11 films in Official Competition are:
April (Dea Kulumbegashvili)
Bring Them Down (Christopher Andrews)
The Extraordinary Miss Flower (Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard)
Four Mothers (Darren Thornton)
Living in Two Worlds (Mipo O)
Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot)
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (Rungano Nyoni)
Thank You For Banking With Us (Laila Abbas)
The Wolves Always Come At Night (Gabrielle Brady)
Under the Volcano (Damian Kocur)
Vermiglio (Maura Delpero)
All the award winners will be announced in a special ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday, October 20. Previous competition winners include A Prophet, Corsage and last year’s Evil Does Not Exist.
The Audience Awards, voted for by festival-goers, will also be back for 2024.
‘We have a stellar line up for audiences and our jury's consideration,’ says festival director Kristy Matheson. ‘We're immensely proud to have UK and Irish works alongside films from across the globe. Boasting an enormous breadth in terms of cinematic styles, there's a world of cinema to be enjoyed in our 2024 Official Competition.’
The 68th BFI London Film Festival runs from October 9-20. The festival opener is Steve McQueen’s wartime epic Blitz, and it closes with Morgan Neville’s LEGO-based film about Pharrell Williams, Piece By Piece.
Tickets go on sale to the general public on September 17, and the full festival line-up is announced on September 4. Head to the official BFI site for all the info.
Everything you need to know about this year’s BFI London Film Festival.