The 56th BFI London Film Festival will screen a total of 225 fiction and documentary features, 111 live action and animated shorts, including 14 World Premieres, 15 International Premieres, and 34 European Premieres. Tim Burton’s 3-D animated “Frankenweenie” will open the festival and Mike Newell’s dramatic adaptation of “Great Expectations” with Helena Bonham Carter and Ralph Fiennes will close the 11 day event, which runs from October 10 to the 21st.
Highlights of the festival include the world premiere of Bret Morgan’s “Crossfire Hurricane,” a documentary spanning fifty years of the Rolling Stones, who are rumored to attend the festival. London will also host Cannes entry Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Mekong Hotel,” Dustin Hoffman’s Toronto directorial debut, “Quartet,” and author Salman Rushdie, whose Telluride title “Midnight’s Children” is in the Festival’s inaugural Official Competition, will speak at the festival’s Screen Talks program. Other competition European premieres include Michael Winterbottom’s “Everyday,” Sally Potter’s “Ginger & Rosa,” and Martin McDonagh’s “Seven Psychopaths.”
In addition to unique programming this year, the BFI Festival attempts an entirely different festival structure by clustering their films around various themes: Love, Debate, Dare, Laugh, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Sonic, Family, and Experimental. A catalogue of films screened at the festival posted below. (Here’s Timeout guide.)
UK premieres are:
· Michel Franco’s After Lucia
· David Ayer’s End of Watch
· Rama Burshtein’s Fill the Void
· Daniele Ciprì’s It Was the Son
· François Ozon’s In the House
· Cate Shortland’s Lore
· Pablo Larraín’s No
· Jacques Audiard’s Rust and Bone
Titles in consideration for the First Feature Competition recognising an original and imaginative directorial debut are:
3 European premieres
· Masaaki Akahori’s The Samurai that Night
· Anand Gandhi’s Ship of Theseus
· Barry Berk’s Sleeper’s Wake
and 9 UK premieres
· Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild
· Tom Shkolnik’s The Comedian
· Maja Miloš’ Clip
· Gabriela Pichler’s Eat Sleep Die
· Sally El Hosaini’s My Brother the Devil
· Kleber Mendonça Filho’s Neighbouring Sounds
· Scott Graham’s Shell
· Andrey Gryazev’s Tomorrow
· Haifaa Al Mansour’s Wadjda
In the Documentary Competition category, in partnership with the Grierson Trust, recognising documentaries with integrity, originality, and social or cultural significance, the Festival is screening:
4 World Premieres
· Charlie Paul’s For No Good Reason
· Nick Ryan’s The Summit
· Sarah Gavron’s Village at the End of the World
· Greg Olliver’s Turned Towards the Sun
1 International Premiere
· Sébastien Lifshitz’s Les Invisibles
4 European Premieres
· Jay Bulger’s Beware of Mr Baker
· Shola Lynch’s Free Angela and All Political Prisoners
· Alex Gibney’s Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God
· Amy Berg’s West of Memphis
3 UK Premieres
· Katja Gauriloff’s Canned Dreams
· Ken Burns, David McMahon and Sarah Burns’ The Central Park Five
· Ulises Rosell’s The Ethnographer
FILM GUESTS
Guests expected to attend include: Alex Gibney, Alice Englert, Alice Lowe, Allison Abbate, Barnaby Southcombe, , Ben Wheatley, Benh Zeitlin, Benjamin Renner, Billy Connolly, Brandon Cronenberg, Cate Shortland, Catherine O’Hara, Charlie Paul,Charlie Watts, Charlotte Rampling, Chris O’Dowd, Cristian Mungiu, David Walliams, David Nicholls, David Wasco, Deepa Mehta, Dustin Hoffman, Eddie Marsan, Elle Fanning, François Ozon, Gabriel Byrne, Hayley Atwell, Helena Bonham Carter, Ian Neil, Jacques Audiard, Jake Schreier, Jeremy Irvine, Julian Roman Pölsler , Keith Richards,Liz Garbus, Marion Cotillard, Martin McDonagh, Martina Gedeck, Martin Landau, Martin Short, Matthias Schoenaerts, Melvil Poupaud, Michael Haneke, Michael Palin, Mick Jagger,Mike Newell, Nick Murphy, Paolo Taviani, Pablo Larraín, Paul Andrew Williams, Pauline Collins, Quvenzhanée Wallis, Ronnie Wood, Rufus Norris, Sally EI Hosaini, Sally Potter, Salman Rushdie, Rodney Ascher, Sandy Reynolds Wasco, Saskia Rosendahl, Slavoj Žižek, Sophie Fiennes, Steve Oram, Suzanne Cléement,Tamzin Outhwaite, Terry Jones, Thomas Bidegain, Tim Burton, Tom Courtenay, Winona Ryder.
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