The London Korean Film Festival (LKFF) is officially back! Run by the Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK), this year marks the festival’s 20th anniversary, making it one of the longest-running events showing Korean cinema outside of Korea.It all kicks off from November 5 to November 18, 2025, at some of London’s top spots, including BFI Southbank, Ciné Lumière, and ICA London. Get ready for two weeks of big-screen action.
The festival is celebrating two decades by putting together a program that highlights both the current, amazing state of Korean movies and its rich film history. Plus, you get to have your say for the first time with the new LKFF Audience Award.
What to See: Galas and Special Screenings
The curtain goes up with the world premiere of Kim Jong-kwan’s Frosted Window (2025). This anthology is a sincere look at what it means to be human, with three separate episodes set in different seasons across Seoul’s Seochon neighborhood. Director Kim Jong-kwan and actor Yeon Woo-jin will be at the festival for a post-screening Q&A.
Read More: South Korea Selects Park Chan-wook’s ‘No Other Choice’ for Oscar Consideration
The festival wraps up with Woo Min-ho’s Harbin (2024), a stunning historical drama about Korean Independence fighter Ahn Jung-geun. If you saw Inside Men, you know Woo Min-ho delivers. It stars Hyun Bin, Park Jeong-min, Jo Woo-jin, and Jeon Yeo-been, and the film’s look is pure class thanks to Parasite cinematographer Hong Kyeong-pyo.
Ready for a good laugh? The Special Screening this year is Kang Hyoung-chul’s Hi-Five (2025), a feel-good superhero comedy. Kang Hyoung-chul is the director behind massive hits like Sunny and Scandal Makers.
Fresh Talent: Cinema Now and Women’s Voices
The Cinema Now section brings you a selection of new films across many different genres. This is where you’ll see how creative and vibrant contemporary Korean filmmaking is right now.
Director Shin Jea-min’s psychodrama Commission (2024) is bold and clever, using the webtoon industry’s creative process as the setup for a gripping serial killer thriller. On a similar note, Jang Man-min’s debut film Silver Apricot (2024) focuses on a vampire webtoon creator who heads back to her hometown to face her family drama.
For something completely different, Namkoong Sun’s Time to Be Strong (2024) shows the less glamorous side of the K-pop world. It’s a story about three older idols going on a delayed ‘school trip’ to Jeju Island, hoping to get back their lost youth. Then there’s The Informant (2024), a funny action movie about a hopeless cop and a sharp informant navigating a tricky situation. It features a great performance from Squid Game actor Heo Sung-tae.
Read More: K-Culture’s Paradox: Why Netflix is Winning the Global Race, but Korea’s Film Industry is Starving
The festival also features Women’s Voices, a program championed by programmer Son Si-nae from the Seoul International Women’s Film Festival. It highlights new independent filmmakers.
Keep an eye out for Hwang Seul-gi’s Red Nails (2025), a powerful film about a young woman dealing with debt and the return of her estranged mother, who has dementia. Also check out Bang Mi-ri’s SAVE (2025), which looks at resilience as an unexpected connection forms between a high schooler leaving an orphanage and a mysterious stranger.
Finally, The Meryl Streep Project (2024) is a documentary where director Park Hyo-sun shares her mission to meet her hero, Meryl Streep, and the inspiration she finds to get involved in feminist activism in Korea.
History on Screen: Dramas of Resistance
To mark the 80th anniversary of Korea’s Liberation, the festival is collaborating with the Korean Film Archive to present Dramas of Resistance, a special program honouring the period’s strength and spirit.
Curator Park Se-ho put together a line-up that includes two ‘Manchurian Westerns,’ like Lee Man-hee’s Break Up the Chain (1971) and Kim Jee-woon’s The Good, the Bad, the Weird (2008), which stars Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-hun, and Jung Woo-sung.
Read More: Zhang Lu and Shu Qi Win Top Honors at the Busan International Film Festival
You’ll also see two biopics about key figures in the liberation movement: Youn JK’s Hero (2022), based on the musical about revolutionary Ahn Jung-geun, and Lee Joon-ik’s Dongju: The Portrait of a Poet (2016), which tells the story of celebrated poet Yoon Dong-ju.
Seunghye Sun, Director of the Korean Cultural Centre UK, summed up the feeling of the festival: “As we celebrate the London Korean Film Festival, i am reminded of a phrase that guides my reflections on Korean aesthetics: all that is called is love. At its heart, cinema embodies this truth by offering us not only stories but a deeper understanding of the wide spectrum of the human condition. From tender lyricism to profound historical narratives, Korean film reveals how love, in its many forms, binds us to one another and to the world we share.”
The 20th London Korean Film Festival takes place November 5 – 18, 2025. Ready to book your tickets?
