LFF Expanded - cinemabang.com

LFF Expanded, the BFI London Film Festival's showcase of Immersive Art, Extended Reality and Video Gaming works, returns for the 70th edition of the Festival (7–18 October 2026). Now in its sixth year, LFF Expanded, continues to invite audiences to explore powerful new ways of telling stories on screen. 

This year, nine projects spanning immersive art, virtual reality, AI and video gaming are presented. Leading the programme from a major new venue for the Expanded strand, St Martin-in-the-Fields, is the Immersive Special Presentation, WATER BODY. Created by acclaimed Hackney-based studio Marshmallow Laser Feast, the work explores water as the connective tissue of life on our planet, tracing unseen connections between landscapes, ecosystems and ourselves,
developed in collaboration with critically acclaimed author Robert Macfarlane.

Making its installation premiere in the BFI IMAX, RED THE OCEAN AROUND U is a dreamlike, AI-guided digital environment from studio CROSSLUCID and writer Orion Facey. Evolving through the presence and decisions of every visitor who moves through it, the work prompts viewers to ask what happens when AI starts asking the questions. 

The VR Lounge at the BFI Southbank Atrium presents two works reckoning with rising waters: SOLWATA, is an urgent mixed-reality documentary narrated by Mark Ruffalo that immerses audiences in the saltwater communities of the Solomon Islands, exposing a vanishing way of life
that these communities did nothing to imperil, while THE WORLD CAME FLOODING IN is an XR journey created with flood-affected communities in Australia that uses memory and sounds to recreate homes lost to flooding through memory and sound. 

Completing the Expanded line-up, the ever-popular Games Lounge returns to BFI IMAX with five standout international titles: ...AND ROGER by TearyHand Studio, an interactive visual novel exploring memory, perception and the experience of dementia; THE DAY I BECAME A BIRD by Passion Pictures and Hyper Luminal Games, a handcrafted adventure following Frank on his fledgling journey towards self-expression; LOFSÖNG by Unrelated Studio, a dazzling puzzle adventure that invites players to uncover a hidden language; LOVE ETERNAL by brlka, a beautiful, unsettling precision platformer where gravity shifts and memories become obstacles; and MIXTAPE by Beethoven and Dinosaur, which follows three friends on one last adventure together, set to the soundtrack of a generation.

of life on our planet. Using global Earth systems datasets, it reveals how water continually moves through rivers, oceans, landscapes and living beings, inviting us to see them not as separate entities but as part of one continuous planetary circulation.

7 - 18 Oct, 13:00–21:00 | BFI IMAX | Drop-in | Lead artist(s): CROSSLUCID | Original story: Orion J. Facey This evolving digital environment creates a dreamlike world of myth where every answer changes the story and every visitor leaves a trace. What happens when AI starts asking the questions? Created by CROSSLUCID and writer Orion Facey, this immersive experience unfolds across fluid landscapes where mythology and machine imagination intersect. Guided by an AI oracle, every response shapes a living world. Making its installation premiere at LFF, this otherworldly environment evolves through the presence and decisions of everyone who moves through it.

7 - 18 Oct, 13:00–21:00 | BFI SOUTHBANK ATRIUM | Ticketed | Lead artist(s): Felix Gaedtke, Gayatri Parameswaran For the saltwater people of Solomon Islands, the ocean is both life and their greatest threat, as detailed in this powerful mixed-reality documentary on adaptation and survival. Narrated by Mark Ruffalo, Solwata immerses you in the Solomon Islands communities, where king tides and storms have made daily life a fraught negotiation with rising waters. Blending 360° video, spatial sound and tactile objects, this experience urgently presents a vanishing way of life, exposing a crisis these communities didnothing to cause.

7 - 18 Oct, 7 to 17 October, 12:00-21:00, 18 October, 12:00-20:00 | BFI SOUTHBANK ATRIUM | Ticketed | Lead artist(s): Isobel Knowles and Van Sowerwine A river can wash away a home, but not its memories. This intimate XR journey explores loss, resilience and the traces we leave behind. Conceived in collaboration with flood-affected communities in Australia, this XR installation traces the remains of homes lost to flooding. Using cardboard, photogrammetry and sound to rebuild what the water took, miniatures become life-sized digital rooms, while the voices of those who lived there guide you, providing a lyrical passage through spaces of memory shaped by climate disaster.

7 - 18 October, 13:00 – 21:00 daily | BFI IMAX | Free | Lead artist(s): TearyHand Studio | Age rating: 15+ Her father is gone and in his place there is a stranger. Uncover the truth in this interactive visual novel about memory, perception and dementia-related experiences. 

7 - 18 October, 13:00 – 21:00 daily | BFI IMAX | Free | Lead artist(s): Unrelated Studio |Age rating: 15+ This dazzling puzzle adventure, set across vast brutalist landscapes shaped by time, asks you to explore, listen and unravel a hidden language buried in stone and sound. 

7 - 18 October, 13:00 – 21:00 daily | BFI IMAX | Free | Lead artist(s): brlka | Age rating: 15+ Dive into this beautiful, unsettling and haunting precision platformer, where gravity shifts and memories become obstacles, featuring handcrafted animation, dark humour and psychological intrigue.