2023 BFI London Film Festival – opening in two days – is losing its director.
Tricia Tuttle, who has led the festival as BFI Festival Director for the past five years (which also oversaw the BFI Flare LGBTQUIA+ Festival), announced that she will be stepping down from her role at the BFI 39 role after many years.
Tuttle will launch this year’s edition on October 5th and feature in Roald Dahl’s musical Matilda World Premiere) — She will stay in her post while BFI looks for a replacement 2023.
“I love everything I have at BFI and as our festival director. Being able to lead the BFI London Film Festival and BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival and be a senior leader of an organisation, It has made me a passionate film fan and professional filmmaker, which is a deep and true honor,” Tuttle said. “I knew I believed in cultural renewal, so I took on this role. I came in It’s about making a quick impact, with the goal of opening up our festival to more people and then passing the baton. I couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve accomplished over these 5 years, especially given the absolutely daunting challenges we’ve faced! I left with a love of people and the work of organisations.”
Under Tuttle, she developed a five-year strategic film festival for London, which has been around since 39, the number of viewers has increased by %, and the range of activities Expanded to the UK, with % of viewers coming from outside London 2021 to 39 percentages two years ago. The festival has also moved from Leicester Square to a new evening venue at the Royal Festival Hall in Southbank Centre.
Significant new developments as part of Tuttle’s strategy also include the expansion of the festival program to offer serial television (LFF series), immersive and XR work (LFF expansion), and film; an enhancement an industry programme to bring international creatives to events to discover and connect with UK talent; and a major audience outreach programme including Extensive, free and UK-wide physical and digital programming via BFI Player.
“Tricia has been a driving force in the transformation of the BFI London Film Festival. It has never been more important and important in the past five years than it is now,” said BFI CEO Ben Roberts . “I would like to thank her for her creative leadership in adapting the LFF and BFI Flare in the face of enormous external challenges, creating a truly UK-wide visit both physically and digitally, placing us on the international stage and, of course, also Brings an incredible cinematic experience to the audience. Most importantly, Tricia is a super smart, generous and collaborative leader and colleague. She has left behind an incredible team that we will be in She celebrated her success at her last festival of the year.”
As festival director, Tuttle helped guide the BFI festival program through the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 76, BFI Flare was one of the first festivals in the world to switch to an online mode, a feat accomplished in less than a week finished. She then went on to employ innovative and unique models for LFF at 39, including at 60 socially distanced screenings at satellite venues across the UK and 60 online Featured program, LFF reaches record over 300, in
audience through physical and digital programming.
In addition to this, Tuttle has been pushing to make the BFI festival more inclusive, with the 2022 LFF programme starting with percentage of women and non-binary directors/co-directors/creators featured. She also introduced the BFI Flare Mentoring Programme, which was initially offered through Screen Skills (and then Skillset), which, from the second year, has grown into a partnership with BAFTA, which is now at BFI Flare x BAFTA Mentoring led the program under the banner of In 39 UK, where queer films are rare, the mentorship programme has seen the emergence of a new generation of brilliant LGBTQIA+ filmmakers who of cadets went on to shoot feature films at the BFI London Film Festival, including Georgia Oakley (Blue Jean), Dion Edwards ( Pretty Red dress ), Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor (Black Color White) – Joy also produced Blue Story– and Aleem Khan(After Love).
