The BFI London Film Festival has a problem. Three of its feature films this year have the word “concrete” in their title. That is not a coincidence, according to artistic director Kristy Matheson.
“We’ve moved from animals through to inanimate objects or the mineral world,” Matheson told THR. “All of these films are incredibly different in their tone and in their subject matter, but they do all have ‘concrete’ in the title. So, it did make for a lot of quite amusing and hilarious and quite confusing program meetings.”
From Animals to Inanimate Objects
Matheson’s admission is the best part of this story. Programmers spend months picking films, and the idea that a shared title kept tripping up meetings is charming. It suggests a level of chaos that most festivals try to hide. Instead, the LFF is waving a flag for it.
The shift from animal-themed films last year to concrete-themed ones this year is a deliberate move, Matheson says. She points to the elemental nature of the materials involved — sand, land, history — as the common thread.
Whether that means filmmakers are returning to basics, or that the programmers simply had a good joke, is open to debate. What is clear is that the three films share a title in a way that stands out.
Concrete Turned to Sand
The first film in the trio is “Concrete Turned to Sand,” directed by Jessica Johnson and Ryan Ermacora. The film follows oyster farms in Canada, specifically in British Columbia, where the tidal rhythms shape the work.
The film exists where labor, scientific inquiry and the living world meet, according to the LFF website. It is shot on 35mm, which gives it a rich, cinematic quality. The imagery, described as otherworldly, comes from Jeremy Cox, who worked on the film “Backrooms” as its cinematographer.
Johnson and Ermacora explain their approach directly. They worked with scientists to provide insight into ocean acidification and its impacts, while offering perspectives on the geological timescale of our ecological circumstances.
Concrete Land
The second film is “Concrete Land,” directed by Asmahan Bkerat. It is her feature directorial debut, and it is an intimate portrait of an Afro-Palestinian Bedouin family in Jordan.
The family fights displacement, racism and hostility in the film. It is a story about home, family bonds and the struggle to keep a way of life intact. The film also includes a family sheep, which is apparently a charm factor for audiences.
Bkerat wants viewers to see Bedouin life differently. She tells THR that she wants people to understand that Bedouin life does not equate to poverty. If you see people living in a tent, that doesn’t mean they are poor.
That framing is central to the film’s identity. It asks viewers to reconsider assumptions about what poverty looks like, and it does so through a family that lives in tents.
The History of Concrete
The third film is “The History of Concrete,” starring John Wilson, who is known for his HBO show “How to With John Wilson.” He has built a cult following around that show, and now he is applying that same energy to a documentary about the building material itself.
Wilson does not run into a brick wall in this film. Instead, he explores the concrete jungle of New York and beyond. The film is more than its title promises, with all the wit and fun Wilson always brings to his projects.
He attended a Hallmark movie workshop earlier this year and used those lessons to make a documentary about concrete. The tone is deceptively understated, which is a deliberate choice.
Wilson explained his approach earlier this year. He said he wasn’t so interested in the austerity of concrete or “the kind of fascist beauty of it.” He just wanted to get into the actual material which nobody was talking about. He added: “I feel concrete was also extremely unsexy.”
But it got him into LFF 2026 anyway.
What the Titles Tell Us
The fact that a building material is featuring prominently in several film titles could tell us something about the state of cinema and filmmakers’ current priorities. Matheson thinks so.
“The idea of getting back to something elemental, that’s something that really started to emerge in the program,” she offers.
That is a fair reading of the evidence. The three films deal with sand, land and history — all of which are fundamental to human existence. They are not abstract concepts. They are physical realities.
The shared title is a practical joke, but it is also a curatorial statement. Matheson and her team chose these films for a reason, and the reason is that they all deal with the material world in some way.
A Curator’s Confession
The joy of this story is that Matheson is not hiding the confusion. She is describing it, and that honesty is refreshing.
Programmers often present a festival as a carefully curated selection of the best films. Matheson is admitting that the selection process can be chaotic. The meetings were amusing, hilarious and confusing. That is the full picture.
The films themselves are very different. One is a documentary about oyster farms. One is a family drama about displacement. One is a documentary about concrete. Their only connection is the title.
That is a bold programming choice. It is the kind of choice that makes a festival memorable.
The Numbers Behind the Story
Here is what the three films share:
- All three have “concrete” in their title
- Two are documentaries, one is a narrative feature
- One deals with oyster farms in Canada
- One deals with an Afro-Palestinian Bedouin family in Jordan
- One is a documentary starring John Wilson
| Film | Director | Subject |
|---|---|---|
| Concrete Turned to Sand | Jessica Johnson & Ryan Ermacora | Oyster farms in British Columbia |
| Concrete Land | Asmahan Bkerat | Afro-Palestinian Bedouin family in Jordan |
| The History of Concrete | John Wilson | New York and beyond |
The overlap is the title. Everything else is different.
Why This Matters
The LFF has made a statement with these titles. They are programming films that deal with the material world — sand, land, history — and they are doing it in a way that is both playful and purposeful.
The films are coming soon. The title is set. The programming is done. The audience will decide how to read the irony.
Source material: “London Film Fest Gets Concrete – Literally, and More Than Once!,” The Hollywood Reporter.
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