LFF 2026 Tea With Filmmakers
The 70th edition of the BFI London Film Festival(LFF) may have come to an end, with its winners unveiled on Sunday. But some of the filmmakers in attendance found themselves discussing their featured movies at fest-organized events with members of the press over the course of the celebration of cinema.
THR swung by a Filmmaker Afternoon Tea session to catch up with some of the creatives at LFF 2026 and hear from them.
Here is a look at some of the takeaways from chats with the people behind three films featured at LFF – from Europe, Africa and Asia.
Isabel Sandoval discusses Moonglow
The LFF knew how to get people interested in Sandoval’s new movie, written and directed by the filmmaker who also stars in it. “The queen of sensual cinema returns with a 1970s Manila-set neo-noir about a police officer-turned-criminal under investigation by her former lover,” its website noted. “It’s not a whodunnit, but a why did she do it,” the filmmaker (Lingua Franca) told THR. “And it’s a subversion of a few elements of noir. The female character is not just your femme fatale. She’s actually a morally complicated, ethically compromised character.”
Not even a key villain is one-dimensional. “I didn’t want him to be a cartoon villain,” Sandoval recalled. “I think the most sinister villains can really come across as very sympathetic and avuncular on the surface. That’s very much how something like corruption happens. These are not your pirate types with eye patches. They are fathers, they’re uncles, they attend weddings, you know, and so that is the kind of dynamic that I wanted to portray in the film.”
Is there a political message in Moonglow? “This is actually my second film to tackle martial law in the Philippines,” Sandoval highlights. “But it does not explicitly depict or portray the violence, the atrocities, and the systemic repression that was happening at that time. All of that is pushed outside of the frame – we hear just snippets on the radio. This is my way of showing that because the protagonists are essentially part of the bourgeoisie. They’re middle-class, and so they are concerned primarily with their individual dramas and romantic regrets, while being oblivious to what is going on outside because of their proximity to power and their class privilege.”
Sandoval has all sorts of creative ideas. “We are working on a few new things,” the creative tells THR. “One that I’m particularly excited about is about a covert CIA psyop set in the Philippines in the ’60s.”
Daniel Oriahi looks at The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives
Director and co-writer Daniel Oriahi’s adaptation of Lola Shoneyin’s acclaimed novel of the same name takes audiences inside a very traditional Yoruba household in Nigeria that is forced to confront hidden truths from the past.
“In this gripping exploration of sexual politics, power and survival in present-day Nigeria, patriarch Baba Segi oversees a household with his three wives, a seemingly harmonious polyamorous arrangement with their children,” reads a synopsis on the LFF website. “However, with the arrival of his youngest university-educated fourth wife and the revelation that she is unable to conceive, cracks begin to appear in the facade, undermining the dynamics of Segi’s world.”
Oriahi co-wrote the movie with Adze Ugah, Heidi Uys and Mo Abudu. “It is wonderful to be trusted to bring the adaptation of this [beloved] novel and the world it reflects to the screen,” he told THR. For him, it was about retaining the core narrative and tone of the novel, while bringing to life the women characters by using “cinematic language to bring it to a more global audience.”
The filmmakers’ hope and expectation is “that the story can be understood universally,” so that Nigerian stories can travel the globe more in the future. You may have also seen Oriahi’s thriller The Weekend, which explored in-law dynamics, and there is sure more to come from him in the future.
Lili Horvát shares My Notes on Mars
Mackenzie Davis and Rupert Friend star as a couple dealing with trauma in the Hungarian writer-director’s new film, a sci-fi puzzle about a North American couple living in Hungary whose frayed relationship faces a crisis. “I like to surprise the audience, and especially this one plays a bit with sci-fi tropes,” the auteur told THR. “Especially in the case of a genre film, you can be very playful and have those unexpected twists.”
How did her English-language feature debut come about? “After my previous film played quite well in the U.S. and I got U.S. representation, getting signed by UTA, the sheer possibility of making an English-language film was really like fresh air,” Horvát recalls. “In Hungarian politics, we had been part of the Orban regime, and it was quite suffocating.”
Finding the right actors was, of course, key. “I feel extremely lucky with this cast because Mackenzie Davis and Rupert Friend are wonderful and very collaborative actors, and it was just a marvelous process between the three of us. I feel so honored by the trust they have given me.”
Is the creative leaning towards English- or Hungarian-language projects in the future? “I want to be open to both possibilities, and there are certain materials that are better for Hungarian, and others that are better in English,” she shared. “I have several projects in development, but it’s too early to discuss them.”
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