Cynthia Erivo, Andrew Scott, Ava DuVernay, Jesse Eisenberg & More Set For London Film Festival Screen Talks Program

The BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its list of filmmakers and actors participating in this year’s program of Screen Talks. 

The line-up includes Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers); Ava DuVernay (Selma); Brad Bird (The Incredibles); Cynthia Erivo (Wicked); James Gray (We Own the Night); Jesse Eisenberg (A Real Pain); John Malkovich (In the Line of Fire); Mahershala Ali (Moonlight); Naomi Ackie (Blink Twice); Sofia Coppola (The Virgin Suicides); and Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire). 

Scott will join to talk about a career that includes a BAFTA-winning performance as the nemesis of Sherlock Holmes, his role in Hamlet and a bold reinvention of Uncle Vanya as well as his performance of Ian Charleson in the LFF Opening Night film Elsinore.  

DuVernay will talk about her work such as A Wrinkle in Time, dramas Selma and Origin and Oscar-nominated documentary 13^th while Bird will explore his Oscar and BAFTA-winning career in animated features including The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille as well as live-action titles Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol and Tomorrowland.

Erivo will talk about her powerful performances on stage and screen. She rose to international prominence with her Tony Award-winning performance in The Color Purple on Broadway and has since starred in films including Harriet, Bad Times at the El Royale, Wicked, and Wicked: For Good. 

Gray, who is coming off the back of Paper Tiger which premiered in Cannes, will discuss his critically acclaimed career from his feature debut, Little Odessa to projects such as The Yards, We Own the Night, Two Lovers, The Immigrant and Armageddon Time – films that span a variety of genres but are all grounded in a gritty, earthy reality. He’ll also talk about The Lost City of Z and Ad Astra, which unfolded in very different worlds. 

Eisenberg will talk about his work in front of and behind the camera as he unveils the Festival’s Gala Closing Night Film, The Debut. A Broadway stage actor since he was 12, Eisenberg first moved into television with the series Get Real in 1999, before winning plaudits for his performances in the films Roger Dodger and The Squid and the Whale. Adventureland and Zombieland brought his wider recognition, followed by his portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network. Alongside frequent screen appearances and contributions to The New Yorker, Eisenberg branched into filmmaking with When You Finish Saving the World and award-winning title A Real Pain. 

Acclaimed screen and theatre actor Malkovich will also touch down at LFF to discuss how he has spent his career forging indelible, charismatic, singular characters. He ranks as one of the only actors to feature in a film in which his own persona has a starring role, in Being John Malkovich. 

Oscar and BAFTA winner Ali worked in film and television for almost two decades before his pivotal and award-winning breakthrough performance in Moonlight. Since then, he has had roles in House of Cards and Free State of Jones to Green Book, True Detective and Leave the World Behind. 

Ackie’s credits include The End of the F***ing World, Education, the fifth part of Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Blink Twice, Mickey 17 and Sorry Baby, for which she received an Independent Spirit Award. 

Filmmakers Coppola and Boyle will also touch down at the festival where each will discuss their respective careers behind the camera. Coppola’s feature debut was The Virgin Suicides and her sophomore feature Lost in Translation saw her earn a Best Original Screenplay Academy Award. A perceptive study on celebrity, it’s a theme she continued to mine in Somewhere, The Bling Ring, On the Rocks and Priscilla.  

Boyle, meanwhile, hit cinema screens with his debut Shallow Grave before the era-defining Trainspotting. The Beach, 28 Days Later and Sunshine highlighted his gift for moving seamlessly between genres, before the enormous awards success of Slumdog Millionaire. He directed the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics to huge acclaim, before returning to cinema with Steve Jobs, Yesterday and 28 Years Later. Boyle will discuss his wide-ranging career at HOME Manchester, the festival’s first Screen Talk outside of London. 

The BFI London Film Festival takes place October 7-18, 2026.