The Hand of God, Belle, Nitram in BFI London Film Festival Official Competition

The 65th British Film Institute (BFI) London Film Festival has revealed the eight films in its official competition.

The competition titles include a few films currently playing at the Venice Film Festival, including Michelangelo Frammartino’s “Il Buco” (Italy-Germany-France), Paolo Sorrentino’s “The Hand of God” (Italy) Harry Wootliff’s “True Things” (U.K.) and Michel Franco’s “Sundown” (Mexico-France-Sweden).

Films that bowed at Cannes also make an appearance in the competition, including Mamoru Hosoda’s “Belle” (Japan), Justin Kurzel’s “Nitram” (Australia), Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s “Lingui” (Chad-France-Germany-Belgium) and Panah Panahi’s (Hit The Raad” (Iran).

The winner will be chosen by the official competition jury, the members of which will be revealed imminently.

Festival director Tricia Tuttle said: “With official competition our aim is to present a curated programme that showcases the breadth and richness of international cinema for our audiences. Anyone new to the LFF should consider official competition a big neon sign that is blinking: “enter here”. This eight-film selection is full of individual cinematic diamonds – each one unique and beautiful in its own way. Together they are dazzling and demonstrate the endless potential of cinema in the hands of a great filmmaker. With a selection like this we have made the jury’s job very difficult indeed.”

Contenders in the other competitive categories, the Grierson Award for Best Documentary, the Sutherland Award for best first feature, the Short film Award and the Immersive Art and XR Award will be revealed at the full program launch on Sept. 7. This year also sees the return of the popular Audience Award, which was won last year by Thomas Vinterberg’s “Another Round,” which went on to win the international feature Oscar.

Established in 2009 and first won by Jacques Audiard for “A Prophet,” recent London official competition winners include Sudabeh Mortezai’s “Joy,” Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Loveless,” Kelly Reichardt’s “Certain Women” and Athina Rachel Tsangari’s “Chevalier.”

The festival runs Oct. 6-17.

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