London Film Festival 1989-2022: An Index

I started going to the London Film Festival in 1989, and I've been there every year since. Thanks to a combination of Spank Gold articles (after-the-fact writeups of the 1989-1997 festivals), reposts (pieces written for the old site between 1998 and 2005) and live blogging (since 2006), I've got a record of every single film I've seen at those Festivals.

Trying to pick your way through all of those is obviously going to be hellish, hence the index below. Similar to the equivalent index I've assembled for the Edinburgh Festival, each year links to the relevant piece on that particular LFF, including a roughly chronological list of what I saw (plus, of course, any additional films reviewed by Spank's Pals). As a bonus, you get a thumbnail-sized history of programme cover designs.

This will be updated each year after the LFF, so most of the time this page should be resident at the top of the LFF folder on the site. Have yourselves a good old browse through, and try not to think too hard about how much the tickets for all this lot have cost me over the last couple of decades.

[updated 17/11/2022 to include 2022 reviews]

Spank's LFF Diary: The Wrap Party 2022

As ever, let’s start our roundup of the 2022 London Film Festival - yes, I know, one whole month after the event, I've been busy - with a look at how what we saw this year breaks down under the Clare Stewart Classification System:

Galas: 4
Special Presentations: 0
Official Competition: 2
First Feature Competition: 0
Documentary Competition: 0
Love: 2
Debate: 3
Laugh: 2
Dare: 2
Thrill: 3
Cult: 3
Journey: 3
Create: 4
Experimenta: 1
Shorts: 14
Expanded: 5
Family: 0
Treasures: 2
Events: 1
Free: 1

Quite a decent balance, all things considered. In terms of the high-end stuff, we managed to see four Galas at their overflow screenings, thus avoiding having to pay Gala-level prices. The two entries from the Official Competition that we saw were both excellent, although we managed to miss out on the actual winner. The lack of entries we caught from the Documentary Competition initially surprised me, until I realised the other way of looking at that is to assume the wrong documentaries were put on the shortlist, because there were some magnificent ones this year.

So, now we've established my disagreements with the LFF jury, what were my own personal favourites? Well, I won’t say just yet, and instead I’ll give the floor to The Belated Birthday Girl to say what she liked, or didn’t.

Spank's LFF Diary, Sunday 16/10/2022

Reviewed today: All That Money Can Buy, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, New Normal.

Spank's LFF Diary, Saturday 15/10/2022

Reviewed today: The Blue Rose of Forgetfulness, Pitchblack Playback: Cymande, Super Eagles ’96.

Spank's LFF Diary, Friday 14/10/2022

Reviewed today: Blue Island, Fast & Feel Love, Short Film Competition part 2, Unicorn Wars.

Spank's LFF Diary, Thursday 13/10/2022

Reviewed today: The Cloud Messenger, Getting It Back: The Story Of Cymande, The Menu, Short Film Competition part 1.

Spank's LFF Diary, Wednesday 12/10/2022

Reviewed today: Crows Are White, Enys Men, The Origin, The Whale.

Spank's LFF Diary, Tuesday 11/10/2022

Reviewed today: Emily The Criminal, Living.

Spank's LFF Diary, Monday 10/10/2022

Reviewed today: Bardo: False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths, Godland.

Spank's LFF Diary, Sunday 09/10/2022

Reviewed today: Bobi Wine: Ghetto President, EO, Foolish Wives, Love Life.