‘Saint Omer’, ‘Corsage’ among BFI London Film Festival official competition titles

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SAINT OMER

Source: Srab Films Arte France Cinema 2022

‘Saint Omer’

Saint Omer, Corsage and Nezouh are among the eight titles screening as part of the official competition at the 66th BFI London Film Festival (LFF, October 5-16).

Thirteen countries are represented across this year’s selection. The winner is to be chosen by a jury and revealed at a virtual awards presentation on October 16.

The jury members will be announced in the coming weeks.

Scroll down for the LFF official competition line-up

Saint Omer is the fiction debut from French director Alice Diop, and is to world premiere at Venice. It is set in a courtroom, and follows a writer who travels to northern France to follow the trial of Laurence, a young African woman accused of killing her daughter. It is co-written by novelist Marie NDiaye, and stars Kayije Kagame and Guslagie Malanda.

Corsage is a co-production between Austria, Luxembourg, Germany and France, written and directed by Austrian filmmaker Marie Kreutzer. It premiered at Cannes, where it scooped lead actor Vicky Krieps the best actress award in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section. The period piece sees Krieps play Empress Sisi of Austria, as she rebels against her royal role in a stuffy 19th century Habsburg court.

Another Venice premiere playing in LFF’s official competition is Nezouh, a UK-Syria-France co-production, from French-born Syrian director Soudade Kaadan. It is her second feature after The Day I Lost My Shadow, which won Venice’s Luigi De Laurentiis Award for best first film in 2018 and also played at LFF. Kaadan’s latest is again set amid the Syrian conflict. A 14-year-old girl befriends the boy next door after her home is hit by a missile.

Last year, Iranian director Panah Panahi’s Hit The Road won the best film prize.

The other competitive categories, the Grierson Award for best documentary, the Sutherland Award for best first feature, the short film award and the best immersive art and XR award will be revealed at the full programme launch on September 1. The audience award will also return for 2022.