The Festival will screen a total of 234 fiction and documentary features, including 22 World Premieres, 16 International Premieres, 29 European Premieres and 20 Archive films. There will also be screenings of 134 live action and animated shorts. A stellar line-up of directors, cast and crew are expected to take part in career interviews, master classes and other special events. The 57th BFI London Film Festival will run from 9-20 October 2013.
The Festival had previously announced the opening and closing films, both starring Tom Hanks, of Paul Greengrass’s CAPTAIN PHILLIPS and Disney’s SAVING MR. BANKS. The Closing Night red carpet event and screening will be screened simultaneously to cinemas across the UK.
Among the other highly anticipated Galas are the previously announced American Express Gala of Stephen Frears’ PHILOMENA, the true story of one woman’s search for her lost son, starring Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, which has been getting rave reviews from Venice. The Accenture Gala is the European Premiere of Steve McQueen’s 12 YEARS A SLAVE starring Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Benedict Cumberbatch and Brad Pitt, which met with critical acclaim at Telluride. The American Airlines Gala is Alfonso Cuarón’s 3D sci-fi thriller GRAVITY starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, another big hit at Venice. The Centrepiece Gala supported by the Mayor of London is the Coen Brothers’ INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS starring Oscar Isaac, Carey Mulligan and Justin Timberlake which is set in the Greenwich Village folk scene of the early 1960’s, the film took home the Grand Prix at Cannes earlier in the year. The May Fair Hotel Gala is the European Premiere of Jason Reitman’s literary adaptation LABOR DAY starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin. The Festival Gala is the European Premiere of Ralph Fiennes’ second directorial feature THE INVISIBLE WOMAN staring Fiennes as Charles Dickens, Felicity Jones, Kristin Scott Thomas and Tom Hollander.
As always, LFF will be filled with star-studded red carpet premieres, as well as industry events and talks from British and international filmmakers.
Following on from its introduction by the Festival’s incoming artistic director, the festival programme is again organised into focused categories that are clustered around the themes of Love, Debate, Dare, Laugh, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Sonic and Family – an approach designed to help Festival goers find the films that mean the most to them and to open up entry points for new audiences.
The nine programme strands are each headlined with a gala, they are: the Love Gala, Abdellatif Kechiche’s BLUE IS THE WARMEST COLOUR; the Debate Gala, Kelly Reichardt’s NIGHT MOVES; the Dare Gala, Alain Guiraudie’s STRANGER BY THE LAKE; the Laugh Gala, Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s DON JON; the Thrill Gala, Ivan Sen’s MYSTERY ROAD; the Cult Gala, Jim Jarmusch’s ONLY LOVERS LEFT ALIVE; the Journey Gala, Alexander Payne’s road-trip NEBRASKA; the Sonic Gala, Lukas Moodysson’s WE ARE THE BEST!; and the Family Gala is Juan José Campanella’s FOOSBALL 3D. In addition to which the previously announced Archive Gala is the World Premiere of the BFI National Archive restoration of THE EPIC OF EVEREST.
After last year’s successful implementation of new competitive sections, The Best Film Award will again be handed out in Official Competition; the Sutherland Award in the First Feature Competition and the Grierson Award in Documentary Competition. Each section is open to international and British films.
