The guessing game at the 2026 BFI London Film Festival is over. The festival’s surprise film, screened on Friday night at the Royal Festival Hall, was I Play Rocky, Peter Farrelly’s biographical drama about the making of the original Rocky. The choice proved fitting for a festival audience, as the story behind the film is itself an underdog tale.
Farrelly joined London Film Festival director Kristy Matheson on stage before the screening, offering the audience an introduction to the film. He explained that the script had been sent to him by Peter Gamble. Although Farrelly thought he already knew the story, reading the screenplay revealed how much he had missed. “This story mirrors Rocky,” the filmmaker said, adding one important distinction: “Rocky is fiction, and this is reality.”
The film recounts how Sylvester Stallone, then a young actor with limited industry standing, overcame considerable obstacles to write and star in the 1976 boxing drama. The original Rocky went on to win three Academy Awards, including Best Picture. I Play Rocky revisits the turbulent production journey that brought the film to the screen.
One of the evening’s most talked-about subjects was the casting of Stallone. Anthony Ippolito plays the actor, and Farrelly was enthusiastic in his praise. “I could do a TED talk about Anthony Ippolito,” he told the audience. “This kid is ridiculous.”
The filmmakers had initially planned a nationwide search for someone to play Stallone, but the search never took place. Before it could begin, Farrelly’s casting director received an audition tape from a newcomer. According to Farrelly, Ippolito had heard about the project, tracked down the script, filmed three scenes in his grandmother’s basement on Long Island and sent the footage to the team.
Farrelly’s response was immediate: “That’s it. We never looked past him.” Variety reports that Ippolito is 27. His route to the role echoes the very story I Play Rocky tells: an aspiring actor taking an unconventional chance to secure a breakthrough opportunity.
Ippolito is joined by Matt Dillon as Stallone’s father, Frank Stallone Sr., and AnnaSophia Robb as Stallone’s wife, Sasha Czack. P.J. Byrne plays Rocky producer Irwin Winkler, while Jay Duplass portrays director John G. Avildsen. Toby Kebbell, Tracy Letts and Kiki Seto also feature in the cast.
Peter Farrelly directs and produces the film alongside Christian Baha, Toby Emmerich, Paul Currie and Michele Weiss.
Farrelly also revealed that one of his greatest sources of satisfaction has been Stallone’s response to the finished film. “No matter how well the movie does, how many people like it, if Stallone said, ‘I don’t like it,’ I would be really disappointed,” he said. “And he loved it.”
I Play Rocky premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last month, where it competed for the People’s Choice Award, according to Variety. The film received positive reviews, with critics highlighting Ippolito’s performance and the production’s ability to capture the determination behind the making of the original Rocky.
Variety’s Owen Gleiberman described the film as a “cleverly-crafted crowd pleaser” and said Ippolito gets Stallone “just right.” Gleiberman emphasised that the performance goes beyond impersonation, with Ippolito capturing “the sweetly stubborn and dogged person he was at the time.”
David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter also praised Ippolito’s work, writing that the actor “holds the movie together.” Rooney noted that Ippolito captures Stallone’s distinctive diction, downcast expression and imposing physicality while retaining a sense of the insecurities the actor faced at that early stage of his career. Rooney added that audiences with fond memories of the original boxing drama would “feel a surge of elation from the moment Bill Conti’s theme music is folded in.”
The London Film Festival’s surprise screening is a long-running tradition, giving audiences an unannounced title as part of the event’s programme. Last year’s surprise film was Tuner, starring Leo Woodall and Dustin Hoffman. Previous selections have included Saturday Night, Ferrari, The Menu and C’mon C’mon.
The 70th edition of the BFI London Film Festival runs through Sunday, October 18. The festival opened with Elsinore, starring Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman, and will close with Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut.
I Play Rocky is scheduled to open in theatres in the United States and the United Kingdom on November 6.