Chinonye Chukwu became the first black female filmmaker to win the top prize at Sundance Film Festival with this unsentimental death row drama. Clemency opens with experienced prison warden Bernadine Williams (Alfre Woodard) overseeing a lethal injection that goes agonisingly wrong. Botching ‘the procedure’ heightens scrutiny over her next execution, of convicted cop killer Anthony Woods (Aldis Hodge) who maintains his innocence. Woodard delivers a stunning performance as methodical authority figure Bernadine, whose necessary professionalism has made her emotionally unavailable to husband Jonathan (The Wire’s Wendell Pierce). No amount of after-work drinking will make the nightmares stop. And she’s not alone; her exhaustion is mirrored by Woods’ dedicated lawyer Marty (The West Wing’s Richard Schiff), in this precisely calibrated portrait of capital punishment’s ethical corrosion.

*Please note that free Red Membership tickets are not available for the BFI's London Film Festival. 

Get your tickets for the 2019 BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express from 12 September at bfi.org.uk/lff or call 020 7928 3232 (10:00 – 20:30 daily).