The BFI London Film Festival has revealed the filmmakers and actors participating in this year’s programme of Screen Talks.
The full list is as follows:
- Daniel Day-Lewis (Phantom Thread, There Will Be Blood)
- Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things, Kinds of Kindness)
- Richard Linklater (Boyhood, Dazed and Confused)
- Jafar Panahi (The White Balloon, No Bears)
- Lynne Ramsay (Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin)
- Tessa Thompson (Thor: Love and Thunder, Passing)
- Chloé Zhao (The Rider, Nomadland)
While many of these high-profile stars need no introduction, the BFI has provided the following teasers for each of the participants involved.
- The ultimate actors’ actor, Daniel Day-Lewis has worked with some of the world’s finest filmmakers to amass a body of work that is defined by a commitment to excellence. The only person to win three Best Actor Academy Awards, Day-Lewis has forged a series of era-defining roles in such diverse films as My Beautiful Laundrette, The Unbearable Lightness of Being, My Left Foot, The Age of Innocence, There Will Be Blood, Lincoln, and Phantom Thread.
- Since his 2009 breakthrough feature Dogtooth, Yorgos Lanthimos has cut one of the most distinctive paths in contemporary cinema. As at ease working on other writers’ screenplays as he is developing his own with regular collaborator Efthimis Filippou, Lanthimos has created worlds infused with biting satire tinged with surrealism. We are excited to welcome the internationally acclaimed filmmaker to discuss his singular body of work at the BFI.
- Few filmmakers have been as prolific, prodigious, and endlessly inventive as Richard Linklater, who joins us to discuss his incredibly diverse filmography. From the experimentation of Slacker, Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly, and Boyhood, and the joyful period dramas Dazed and Confused, Me and Orson Welles, and Everybody Wants Some!! to the comedies School of Rock, Bad News Bears, and Hit Man and the beloved Before trilogy, Linklater has never failed to engage, move, and entertain.
- One of world cinema’s most important filmmakers, Jafar Panahi has produced a body of work that has critiqued Iranian society and which has had a real-world impact on his life. We welcome him to discuss his essential body of work, spanning early classics The White Balloon, The Circle, and Offside to more recent award-winning films including Taxi, No Bears, and Closed Curtain.
- Since her extraordinary 1999 feature debut Ratcatcher, Lynne Ramsay has forged a singular career. Morvern Callar, We Need to Talk About Kevin, and You Were Never Really Here followed, further revealing a director whose work skilfully balances narrative and visual verve with striking performances by actors at the top of their game. We are thrilled to welcome Lynne Ramsay to this Screen Talk to discuss a career populated by innovative, groundbreaking, and provocative films.
- Equally at home in cutting-edge drama and comedy as she is in big-budget blockbusters, Tessa Thompson is often the trump card in the cast of any film. From her regular appearances in Veronica Mars and Westworld, and scene-stealing roles in Thor: Ragnarok and Sorry to Bother You, to her stunning, BAFTA-nominated turn in Passing and playful collaborations with Janelle Monáe, Thompson will discuss her wide-ranging career.
- Chloé Zhao, the Oscar-winning director of Nomadland, joins us to explore her singular approach to filmmaking. With Songs My Brother Taught Me, The Rider, and Nomadland, Chloé Zhao combined the aesthetics of documentary and narrative filmmaking to thrilling effect. Her singular approach to filmmaking also produced one of the most fascinating outliers in the Marve universe with Eternals.
This year’s London Film Festival will take place from 8-19 October, with the BFI recently revealing that Julia Jackman’s 100 Nights of Hero will close the event.
