Capital Celluloid 2025 — Day 288: Fri Oct 17

The Ice Tower (Hadžihalilović, 2025): BFI Southbank, NFT1, 6pm

69th LONDON FILM FESTIVAL (8th - 19th October 2025) DAY 10

With its date at the end of the year, London is a "festival of festivals", as the Telegraph film critic Robbie Collin put it in one of his previews, so the films shown have mostly been seen and commented on by critics who have watched the features at such high-profile festivals as Cannes, Venice, Toronto, Sundance and Berlin.

So I'm making it simple with one recommendation a day. I will be concentrating on the repertory choices but I've also read the reviews of the contemporary releases and talked to and listened to the trusted critics all year and I am as confident as I can be that this is the pick of the movies within the parameters I have set. Firstly, there's no point highlighting the major gala films - they will be sold out quickly. Secondly, there is little to be gained in paying the higher Festival ticket prices to see films that are out in Britain soon. I will be returning to the London Festival films worthy of seeing and set to be released in the coming months on this blog as and when they get a general release in London.

Here then (from October 8th to October 19th) are the films you are likely to be able to get tickets for and the movies you are unlikely to see in London very soon unless you go the Festival. Here is the LFF's main website for the general information you need. Don't worry if some of the recommended films are sold out as there are always some tickets on offer which go on sale 30 minutes before each screening. Here is the information you need to get those standby tickets.

The film also screens on Saturday October 18th at Curzon Mayfair. Details here.

BFI introduction:
Crafted with the mesmerising visual and sonic language that we’ve come to expect from Lucile Hadžihalilović, this 1970s-set drama centres on a teenage orphan, played by exciting newcomer Clara Pacini, who absconds to the city and awakens to find herself on the set of ‘The Snow Queen’. Here, she takes root with a new found family and falls under the spell of the titular monarch.
Kristy Matheson 

Here (and above) is the trailer. 

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