‘Carol’ Producer Elizabeth Karlsen, ‘BLKNWS’ Director Kahlil Joseph to Serve on BFI London Film Festival Competition Jury

Number 9 Films co-founder Elizabeth Karlsen (Carol, Made in Dagenham) and filmmaker Kahlil Joseph (BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions) will serve on the official competition jury at this year’s BFI London Film Festival.

The fest, running Oct. 8-19, unveiled on Wednesday that the Oscar-winning Karlsen has been named jury president, with Joseph and Pulitzer-Prize winning film critic Justin Chang joining. Among those competing for best film in the British capital this year are Nia DaCosta’s Hedda with Tessa Thompson, Jonatan Etzler’s Saoirse Ronan-led Bad Apples and Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee, starring Amanda Seyfried.

Elsewhere, the first feature competition (Sutherland Award) jury will be headed up by British filmmaker and co-founder of Factory Fifteen, Kibwe Tavares. Tavares made his feature directorial debut with The Kitchen (2023), co-directed with Daniel Kaluuya, which premiered as the closing night film of the LFF in 2023. Zurich Film Festival’s Anja Fröhner and director Nadia Latif will join Tavares.

Leading the jury selecting the winner of the Grierson Award for best documentary is Eloïse King, whose debut feature doc The Shadow Scholars premiered at last year’s LFF. She previously founded the Women on Docs curatorial programme to champion women and non-binary work in non-fiction, and founded White Teeth Films. Josh Siegel, curator at the Museum of Modern Art will serve alongside King, with Reece Goodwin, curator at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI).

Ming-Jung Kuo, the artistic director of the Singapore International Film Festival, also an advisor at the Locarno Film Festival and currently a consultant for Cannes directors’ fortnight, will lead the jury selecting the best short film. British Filipino writer-director of Stomach Bug (2024), Matty Crawford, and animation director Lee Ott (Dragfox) round out the short jury.

“We are delighted to share our 2025 competition titles with audiences and our esteemed jury members,” said Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival director. “My thanks to each of them for their generous participation in the festival this year.”

Rian Johnson’s nextKnives Outinstallment, Wake Up Dead Man, was previously announced as the opening gala and Julia Jackson’s100 Nights of Herois set to close the fest. See the 2025 lineup here.