7 LGBTQ-themed films screening at BFI London Film Festival – from Twinless to Pillion
Paul Mescal and Josh O'Connor's The History of Sound will also screen a the festival, taking place from 8-19 October 2025
THE HISTORY OF SOUND
Dir. Oliver Hermanus (USA)
UK Premiere, Gala Strand
The hotly anticipated love story with Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor takes us to 1917 Boston, where Lionel, a music student, meets David at the Boston Conservatory. There, they bond over a love of folk music. Many years later, David sends Lionel a letter. An impromptu journey through Maine – and deepening relationship – ensues as they collect folk songs.
PILLION
Dir. Harry Lighton (UK)
UK Premiere, Gala
Colin (Harry Melling) is a quiet wallflower letting life slip through his fingers – that is until Ray (Alexander Skarsgard), a handsome motorbike club leader, chooses him as his submissive. Escaping his boring suburban life, Ray introducing Colin to his gang of kinky, queer bikers. But as he falls deeper into Ray’s world of rules, Colin wonders if he’s exchanged one form of suffocation for another. An Un Certain Regard Screenplay Prize winner.
BLUE MOON
Dir. Richard Linklater (USA)
UK Premiere, Gala
Starring Ethan Hawke, Andrew Scott and Margaret Qualley. It’s March 31, 1943. Iconic lyricist Lorenz Hart is confronting his bruised self-confidence in Sardi’s bar as his ex collaborator Richard Rodgers marks the first night of his culture-shifting musical Oklahoma!
PETER HUJAR’S DAY
Dir. Ira Sachs (UK)
UK Premiere, Create Strand
With Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall, the new movie from the acclaimed Passages director observes the interior world of an artist’s life via a conversation between photographer Peter Hujar and Linda Rosenkrantz, revealing insights into New York’s downtown art scene.
SHE’S THE HE
Dir. Siobhan McCarthy (USA)
International Premiere, Laugh Strand
Ahead of graduation, Alex and Ethan pretend to be trans women to get into the female locker rooms. It’s all a joke until Ethan realises: she really is trans. The two must deal with their changing friendship and the journey of coming out.
TWINLESS
Dir. James Sweeney (USA)
UK Premiere, Laugh Strand
Having won the Audience Award at Sundance, Dylan O’Brien leads as one of two young guys who connect in a twin bereavement support group, forming an unlikely friendship. The film also stars Gilmore Girls’ Lauren Graham.
MASPALOMAS
Dir. Aitor Arregi, Jose Mari Goenaga (Spain)
UK Premiere, Special Presentation
When 76-year-old Vicente came out of the closet and left his wife and daughter, he was 50, and has since spent that last 25 years living happily with his manfriend in Maspalomas, Spain. However, when Vicente suffers a stroke and wakes from a coma, he finds he’s been moved back to Donostia, where his daughter has placed him in a nursing home.