Entertainment · Film · 1 hr ago
Imperium, Concrete Land and 9 Temples to Heaven win London Film Festival awards
At the 2026 London Film Festival, awards went to films about Soviet history, a displaced family and a family pilgrimage.
Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa’s Imperium won Best Film in the official competition.
It uses Italian footage from the early 1970s to show the diversity of life across what was then the Soviet Union, beyond official portrayals.
Palestinian-Jordanian director Asmahan Bkerat’s Concrete Land won the documentary award for its portrait of a Palestinian Bedouin family displaced in Jordan.
Thai filmmaker Sompot Chidgasornpongse’s 9 Temples to Heaven won the first-feature award; it follows a family on a pilgrimage after a prophecy raises concern about an elderly relative’s death.
The awards highlight films exploring history, displacement and family ties through different stories and filmmaking styles.
The festival was due to close with a screening of Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut.
Sergei Loznitsa’s Imperium won the Best Film Award in the official competition at the 70th BFI London Film Festival.
Asmahan Bkerat’s Concrete Land won the Grierson Award in the documentary competition.
Sompot Chidgasornpongse’s 9 Temples to Heaven received the Sutherland Award in the first feature competition.
Rahul Roye’s Aman won the Short Film Award.
The awards were announced on the festival’s final day, which closed with a screening of Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut.
- Who
- The award-winning filmmakers were Sergei Loznitsa, Asmahan Bkerat, Sompot Chidgasornpongse and Rahul Roye.
- What
- Imperium won Best Film, Concrete Land won the Grierson Award, 9 Temples to Heaven won the Sutherland Award and Aman won the Short Film Award.
- When
- Sunday, October 18, 2026, the festival’s final day.
- Where
- The BFI London Film Festival in London.
- Why
- The juries cited the films’ qualities, including Imperium’s perspective on the Soviet Union and 9 Temples to Heaven’s visual and meditative approach.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The festival announced its award winners on its final day.
The festival was due to close that evening with a screening of Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut.
- Festival edition
- 70th BFI London Film Festival
- Best Film
- Imperium — Sergei Loznitsa
- Documentary award
- Grierson Award — Concrete Land, directed by Asmahan Bkerat
- First feature award
- Sutherland Award — 9 Temples to Heaven, directed by Sompot Chidgasornpongse
- Short film award
- Aman — Rahul Roye
3 sources
What people are saying
Imperium is an extraordinary film that explores the Soviet Union in the early 1970s from a rich archive with a wide-ranging perspective that looks at life in a country with an extraordinary social and cultural landscape that has rarely been seen
accomplished first feature paving his own path in the well-established tradition of filmmaking in the Southeast Asian region.
In a noisy and often polemical world it was refreshing, humbling and deeply relevant to see the quiet resilience and dignity of this family in the face of the erasure of their culture and traditions