London Film Festival 2023, interview with Rowan Woods, Festival Programmer

September 30, 2023

Rowan Woods, Festival Programmer, London Film Festival, discusses what's in store for the 67th edition.

London Film Festival 2023, interview with Rowan Woods, Festival Programmer Sarah Bradbury

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With the 67th edition of the London Film Festival just around the corner, we sat down with Rowan Woods, one of the festival programmers to hear about what’s in store for 2023.

Woods gave an overview of the festival programme, what’s new and exciting for this year, and how it looks in terms of the diversity of storytellers and voices platformed, including over 250 titles from over 90 countries, with 38% from female and non-binary filmmakers.

She explained that although there is now a new festival director in place, with Kristy Matheson taking over from Tricia Tuttle, the structure of LFF remains largely the same, even if the texture will feel different, as with every year.

We discussed how the London Film Festival fits into the film festival calendar, taking some of the best of what has shown over the year, from Berlin to Cannes to Venice and beyond, such as Martins Scorses’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” and Sofia Coppola‘s “Priscilla“, but also presenting some films for the first time in World Premieres, including Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya’s “The Kitchen” and “The Book of Clarence” by Jeymes Samuel.

Woods dug into the programme to highlight some of the titles in the various sections, including Headline Galas, Special Presentations, the Official Competition and First Feature Competition, as well as other events happening alongside, such as the LFF Expanded and Shorts programmes, and Screen Talks from the likes of Martin Scorsese and Greta Gerwig.

Finally, mention was made of how the brilliant line-up showed the cinema landscape to be in good shape, particularly celebrating the health of British cinema and new and upcoming filmmakers from around the world.

Plot

Discover the world’s best new films, series and immersive storytelling. The BFI London Film Festival runs from 4 to 15 October 2023 at venues in London, around the UK and on BFI Player.

Written by: Sarah Bradbury

BFI London Film Festival