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London Korean Film Festival 2026: What to Watch, Dates & Venues
The London Korean Film Festival 2026 runs from Monday 2 November to Monday 16 November across BFI Southbank, Ciné Lumière and the ICA. It's the 21st edition, organised by the Korean Cultural Centre UK, and this year's line-up is 19 screenings: two galas with Q&As, a new Lee Chang-dong, two diaspora debuts and a Women's Voices strand that's quietly the strongest part of the programme. Here's what we'd book first, plus the full schedule.
London Korean Film Festival 2026 at a glance
📅 Dates: Monday 2 to Monday 16 November 2026
📍 Venues: BFI Southbank (Belvedere Road, SE1 8XT), Ciné Lumière (17 Queensberry Place, South Kensington, SW7 2DT), ICA (The Mall, SW1Y 5AH)
🎟️ Tickets: Booked screening by screening through each venue. Links for every film are on koreanfilm.co.uk
The galas sell first. If you only plan one thing this week, make it the opening or closing night.
The galas
Opening Gala: The Journey to Gyeong-ju
Mon 2 Nov, 6.15pm, BFI Southbank · Book tickets
Kim Mi-jo's crime road movie stars Lee Jung-eun (the housekeeper in Parasite) as a grieving mother who drives her three daughters across the country to avenge the youngest. Gong Hyo-jin and Park So-dam play two of the daughters, which is a lot of star power for one car. It's the UK premiere, and Kim and Lee Jung-eun are both doing a Q&A afterwards.
Closing Gala: Tristes Tropiques
Mon 16 Nov, 6.15pm, BFI Southbank · Book tickets
Park Hoon-jung made New World and The Witch, so you know roughly what you're in for: a kill squad loses its leader and everything turns into a bloodbath. It won the top prize in the international competition at France's L'Étrange Festival. UK premiere, with Park in the room for a Q&A.
Our picks at the London Korean Film Festival 2026
Possible Love (Tue 3 Nov, 5.50pm, BFI Southbank). Lee Chang-dong's first feature since Burning, and it won the Silver Lion Grand Jury Prize at Venice. A relationship drama about class in Korea now. It runs 164 minutes, so eat first. Lee introduces it by recorded message. Book
Bedford Park (Thu 5 Nov, 6.10pm, Ciné Lumière). Stephanie Ahn's debut won a Special Jury Award at Sundance this year. Audrey (Moon Choi), a Korean American woman stuck between her traditionalist mother and alcoholic father, meets Eli (Son Sukku), an adopted ex-wrestler, after a car accident. If you grew up between two cultures, this one will land close to home. UK premiere. Book
My Daughter Is a Zombie (Wed 4 Nov, 8.30pm, Ciné Lumière). The fun one. Adapted from Lee Yoon-chang's webtoon, it's a comedy about a father looking after his daughter after she catches a zombie virus. Lee Jung-eun is back for a second Q&A. Book
En Route To (Sat 7 Nov, 6pm, ICA). Yoo Jaein's first feature won the New Currents Award at Busan and screened at Berlin. Two schoolgirls, one secret pregnancy, and a friendship that forms on the way to fixing it. Its first UK screening. Book
Mad Dance Office (Wed 11 Nov, 8.40pm, ICA). Yeom Hye-ran, who you'll know from When Life Gives You Tangerines, plays a civil servant passed over for promotion who walks into a flamenco studio for work and finds a reason to stay. A mid-life crisis comedy, and the best midweek pick-me-up on the list. Book
Mongrels (Thu 12 Nov, 6.10pm, BFI Southbank). Korean Canadian Jerome Yoo's debut follows a widowed father and his two kids who move to a rural Canadian town, where he takes a job catching stray dogs. Dreamy and a bit strange, in a good way. Yoo gives an extended intro. Book
Hana Korea (Sun 15 Nov, 7.30pm, Ciné Lumière). Kim Minha, so good in Pachinko, plays a young North Korean refugee trying to build a life in the South. Book
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Full schedule
Week one: 2–8 November
Mon 2 Nov, 6.15pm · The Journey to Gyeong-ju + Q&A · Opening Gala · BFI Southbank
Tue 3 Nov, 5.50pm · Possible Love + recorded intro · Special Screening · BFI Southbank
Wed 4 Nov, 8.30pm · My Daughter Is a Zombie + Q&A with Lee Jung-eun · Special Screening · Ciné Lumière
Thu 5 Nov, 6.10pm · Bedford Park · Cinema Now · Ciné Lumière
Thu 5 Nov, 6.20pm · Time of Cinema · Cinema Now · BFI Southbank
Fri 6 Nov, 8.30pm · Home A Loan · Cinema Now · Ciné Lumière
Sat 7 Nov, 12.20pm · The Gorals · Cinema Now · BFI Southbank
Sat 7 Nov, 4pm · The Accordion Door + intro by James Balmont · Cinema Now · ICA
Sat 7 Nov, 6pm · En Route To · Women's Voices · ICA
Sun 8 Nov, 6.10pm · Be My Baby + intro by Anton Bitel · Cinema Now · BFI Southbank
Sun 8 Nov, 8pm · The Mutation · Women's Voices · ICA
Week two: 9–16 November
Tue 10 Nov, 6.30pm · The World of Love · Special Screening · ICA
Wed 11 Nov, 8.40pm · Mad Dance Office · Women's Voices · ICA
Thu 12 Nov, 6.10pm · Mongrels + intro by Jerome Yoo · Cinema Now · BFI Southbank
Fri 13 Nov, 6.15pm · Once We Were Us + intro · Special Screening · BFI Southbank
Sat 14 Nov, 2pm · Women's Voices Shorts · Women's Voices · ICA
Sat 14 Nov, 5.30pm · Journey There + Q&A with Kim Jin-yu · Cinema Now · Ciné Lumière
Sun 15 Nov, 7.30pm · Hana Korea · Special Screening · Ciné Lumière
Mon 16 Nov, 6.15pm · Tristes Tropiques + Q&A · Closing Gala · BFI Southbank
Times are from the festival's published schedule. Check the booking page before you travel in case anything moves.
The strands, briefly
Special Screenings are the big new Korean titles: Possible Love, Yoon Ga-eun's The World of Love (out in UK cinemas on 27 November, so this is your early look), Once We Were Us from the director of Kim Ji-young, Born 1982, and Hana Korea.
Cinema Now is the widest net. Time of Cinema is an anthology love letter to the cinema itself. Home A Loan and Be My Baby are for thriller people. The Gorals and The Accordion Door are coming-of-age films, and Journey There stars Justin H. Min (After Yang) as a conductor searching for his birth mother.
Women's Voices showcases independent women filmmakers. Alongside En Route To, The Mutation and Mad Dance Office, the Saturday shorts programme packs in four films: a documentary about early menopause at 24, an animation about desire and fear, a girl who wants to play in the boys' football match, and a quiet portrait of an aunt and her niece.
Make a Korean fortnight of it
The festival lands in a busy month for Korean culture in London.
Korea at the British Museum runs until 31 January in Room 35, the biggest show of Korean art in Europe in decades. See the exhibition
Korea Late with JUNG Festival at the British Museum on Friday 6 November: DJ sets, crafts and food tastings, free. Details
K-Music Festival 2026 is on until 23 November, with gigs across the city. See the listing
For everything else, our events page is updated every week.
FAQ
When is the London Korean Film Festival 2026? Monday 2 to Monday 16 November 2026.
Where is it on? BFI Southbank, Ciné Lumière in South Kensington, and the ICA on The Mall.
How do I book? Each screening is booked through its venue. Every film page on koreanfilm.co.uk links to the right box office.
Which screenings have Q&As? The opening gala, My Daughter Is a Zombie, Journey There and the closing gala. Possible Love, The Accordion Door, Be My Baby, Mongrels and Once We Were Us have introductions.
Are the films subtitled? The Korean-language films screen with English subtitles.
Which one are you booking first? Tell us below 👇
Images courtesy of the London Korean Film Festival and the distributors.
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