Sergei Loznitsa’s Imperium has won Best Film at the 70th BFI London Film Festival. The BFI announced the competition winners on 18 October, as this year’s festival ended.
Archive photograph of BFI Southbank in London, taken on 21 August 2025; not a photograph of the 2026 awards. Photo: Ewan Munro / CC BY-SA 4.0. Display crop; original image license applies.
London Film Festival 2026 winners
The BFI’s official awards announcement names four principal competition winners:
- Best Film: Imperium, directed by Sergei Loznitsa.
- Sutherland Award for a first feature: 9 Temples to Heaven, directed by Sompot Chidgasornpongse.
- Grierson Award for documentary: Concrete Land, directed by Asmahan Bkerat.
- Short Film Award: Aman, directed by Rahul Roye.
Loznitsa’s winning film revisits the Soviet Union of the early 1970s through archival footage shot by Italian cameramen. Its victory places a work of historical reconstruction at the centre of the festival’s main competition result.
Four films for a wider watchlist
The other prizes point in different directions: Chidgasornpongse’s fiction debut explores family and faith, while Bkerat’s documentary observes a family facing displacement in Jordan. Roye’s short addresses identity, masculinity and fatherhood. These are distinct films and competitions, rather than runners-up to a single overall prize.
Alexa Dalby’s 18 October awards report for Dog And Wolf also lists the four winners. It notes that Aman is offered free on BFI Player until 25 October. Readers should check the platform for availability in their location.
Audience awards are still to come
The competition results should not be confused with the audience prizes. Audience voting closes on 21 October, with Best Feature Film and Best British Discovery winners to be announced later.
For the earlier programme context, revisit our London Film Festival preview. An award provides a useful discovery point; it does not itself confirm a theatrical or streaming release in India.
