Expanded industry day to feature in 2025 BFI London Film Festival

An expanded day for industry, showcasing developments in extended reality, immersive technology and other advanced features, will feature as part of this year's BFI London Festival, which runs between October 8 and 19.

The day on 15 October, supported by Southbank Centre, will spotlight the latest in XR, immersive and gaming through a UK Works-in-Progress showcase, timely industry talks, and a networking event bringing together professionals from across the sector. Further details of this year’s Industry Forum will be announced in the coming weeks.

A full programme of screenings, talks and other events has been announced which includes participation from Oscar winners Daniel Day-Lewis, Chloé Zhao, Yorgos Lanthimos and others.

In addition to the expanded industry day, this year, 11 projects spanning immersive art, virtual reality, AI, extended reality and video gaming will be presented across the Festival – as an Immersive Special Presentation, within the Create strand and in Events.

Opening from Friday 3 October, ahead of the Festival’s official launch, is the European premiere of N O W I S W H E N W E A R E (THE STARS), an interactive installation from Obie Award-winning artist Andrew Schneider. The work transforms Rambert Studio into a vast theatrical cosmos, placing visitors inside an evolving galaxy of light and sound where nearly 4,000 LEDs and a 496-channel soundscape respond to their movements in real time.

A sensory, meditative journey through the stars, this powerful fusion of technology and theatre offers Festival audiences a rare opportunity to experience Schneider’s groundbreaking approach to immersive storytelling.

In total, the London Film Festival will present a diverse programme of 247 features, shorts, series and immersive works from 79 countries playing across the 12 days of the festival. This includes 103 works made by female and non-binary filmmakers (42% of the programme) and 27 World premieres.

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