Ankur Hooda's The Calf Doll Selected For Documentary Competition At BFI London Film Festival

Ankur Hooda's debut feature The Calf Doll is headed to the BFI London Film Festival for its UK premiere. The Calf Doll is one of just eight films chosen for the Documentary Competition, vying for the prestigious Grierson Award.

In a smog-choked village in Haryana, a retired professor turns to an outlawed ritual, crafting a calf doll from a stillborn's body, to save his cow from the urbanization slowly erasing his rural world. Anish Sarai shot what's easily one of the year's most arresting films.

The festival website states: "The Calf Doll marks the arrival of a distinctive new voice in India’s slow cinema movement. Ankur Hooda’s film explores the erosion of farming as a way of life, and the impact of mass urban migration on villages and those left behind. A para-fiction featuring Hooda’s grandparents, who play improvised versions of themselves, the film observes Haryana’s fog-cloaked landscapes and its people with a keen, almost anthropological eye."

The Haryanvi-language had its world premiere at CPH:DOX in March this year, where it screened in NEXT:WAVE Competition. It went on to play at a slew of fests, including Jeonju, DokuFest and Guanajuato.

The BFI LFF Documentary Competition is stacked with exciting titles including Theo Rollason’s Queer Edward II, an innovative behind-the-scenes peek at Derek Jarman’s eponymous film; Erik Shirai’s Sumo: Spirit Weighs Nothing, a Japanese-US-Danish-UK co-production opening Venice Spotlight; and Once Upon a Time in Harlem, a verité look at the Harlem Renaissance from US doc legend William Greaves, posthumously finished by his son David. Neon acquired Once Upon A Time In Harlem after its glowing reception at the Sundance Film Festival in January. It was also selected to the Directors' Fortnight section of the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.

Rounding out the London Fest Doc Competition is Asmahan Bkerat’s feature directorial debut Concrete Land, an intimate, multi-generational portrait of a mixed-raced family fighting displacement and hostility in Jordan. This premiered at Locarno Film Festival recently in Critics' Week.

This year’s festival runs Oct. 7-18. The Opening Night Gala is the European premiere of Simon Stone’s powerful and inspiring true story of actor Ian Charleson, Elsinore, led by Andrew Scott, and the Closing Night Gala boasts the UK premiere of Jesse Eisenberg’s love letter to community theatre, The Debut.