UK Film Festival London has unveiled its full 2025 programme, with the UK and European premiere of Al Pacino drama Billy Knight kicking off proceedings.
This year’s event will take place from Wednesday 19 to Sunday 23 November, and will once again offer London audiences a “unique chance” to catch the latest award-winning short films from around the world on the big screen, alongside a selection of impressive features and documentaries by talented newcomers.
In Alec Griffen Roth’s Billy Knight, Pacino leads a notable cast that includes Charlie Heaton, whose discovery through Stranger Things and its recent revival has catapulted him into the limelight.
Another feature film highlight is Zhao Shuo’s Reborn in Love, described as a stunningly cinematic love story set in the mountains of Tibet.
This year’s shorts competition includes Palme D’or 2025 nominee The Spectacle by Bálint Kenyeres (Hungary and France) and the BAFTA-nominated The Flowers Stand Silently, Witnessing by Theo Panagopoulos (UK), which premiered at Sundance.
Other titles in the line-up are Arvin Belarmino and Kyla Romero’s Agapito (Philippines), following their success at the Cannes and Toronto Film Festivals, as well as the multi-award winning Two Black Boys in Paradise by Baz Sells (UK), a movingly tender stop-motion animation based on Dean Atta’s acclaimed poem.
Documentaries include Solitary Road by Johan Palmgren, which covers the ups and downs of a community in Northern Sweden, cut off from the world due to a connection to the main road system never being completed back in 1955.
Another poignant title is the thought-provoking Living in My Car by Oisin Byrne, in which main protagonist Jon is left homeless and forced to live in his car, caught between a rent boom and the UK’s worsening cost-of-living crisis.
Meanwhile, Abu Jabal, by Bisan Owda, follows a mother and child who return to the wreck of their house in Gaza, grieving for their son and brother, who was killed on the first day of the conflict.
Films will be screened to the public every evening at two London venues: the Soho Hotel and Close-Up Cinema.
Many screenings will be followed by Q&A sessions, after which there will also be an opportunity for informal discussion with the filmmakers.
The 2025 programme has once again been curated by the twice Berlinale-winning director Petros Silvestros, with the help of an international jury panel – more information is available on the UK Film Festival London website.
