This site lists films and events from the 2016 BFI London Film Festival. The festival programme for 2017 will be announced later this year.
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Films in Experimenta

Films and videos by artists that transform our experience of seeing moving images.

Experimenta special presentation

Ascent

Using dazzling images of Mount Fuji from across the history of photography, the mountain inspires the artist on both a philosophical and romantic journey.

Features

Born in Flames

Lizzie Borden’s provocative feminist sci-fi returns to our screens and has lost none of its power.
Confessions to the Mirror

A re-imagination of the life and work of the surrealist Claude Cahun based on her personal memoir, from childhood to imprisonment by the Nazis.
Dawson City: Frozen Time

North American Gold Rush history comes alive through rediscovered silent movies, reconstructed to reveal lost silent movie stars in the layers of decaying nitrate stock.
Eglantine

Margaret Salmon’s debut feature is a lyrical homage to classic children’s films, telling the story of a young girl’s real and fantastical adventure.
Exprmntl

A witty and irreverent documentary telling the story of EXPRMNTL, the legendary experimental film festival and mythic gathering point of the international avant-garde.
Further Beyond

A deconstructed biopic of the extraordinary Ambrosio O'Higgins, who left Ireland to become the captain general of Chile in the Spanish Empire.
Have You Seen My Movie?

An enthralling montage of magical moments of cinema-going extracted from across movie history that resonate with our own personal memories of the cinema.
I Had Nowhere To Go

Artist Douglas Gordon creates a uniquely sensory retelling of filmmaker Jonas Mekas’ exile from his native Lithuania to escape Nazi persecution.
Midwestern Parables

Two artists’ essay films that take the cities and spaces of Midwestern America as sites on which to reflect on universal questions of belief.
Moderation

Anja Kirschner’s bold new work about the production of a disintegrating horror film, moving between different moving image technologies, genre, fiction and reality.

Short films programmes

Curt McDowell Programme #1: Stinky Wieners and Dreamy Beavers

Don’t miss this special celebration of gay artist Curt McDowell; the first of two programmes, all films newly restored on 16mm by the Academy Film Archive.
Curt McDowell Programme #2: Peeing Into the Wind

Don’t miss this special celebration of gay artist Curt McDowell; the second of two programmes, all films newly restored on 16mm by the Academy Film Archive.
Conditions of Creation

Three artists’ films reflect on how material conditions, mental states and evolution influence the production of art.
The Past is the Present Too

Four artists’ films explore a diverse range of geographical and historical contexts to reflect on how the past is intimately entangled with the present.
The Possessed

Reflections on the possession, embodiment and channelling of other characters and personalities, from Helen Mirren to a VR medieval hunchback.
Returning and Repressing

Traumatic and sorrowful experiences of historical events and personal pain conjoin in vivid fashion.
Future Pasts and Pasts Future

The present moment is only the collision of the past into the future. From politics to pop, wandering to war, these films expose the uncertainties of contemporary perception.
Hollywood Disections

The industry of desire provides raw material for forceful incisions into the façade of glamour. These filmmakers create new interpretations and expose hidden histories.
Reinterpretations of Form

Films that develop techniques to investigate the ways of perception of time and space, simultaneously destroying old certainties and creating new visions.