London Film Festival

Venice and Toronto have wrapped. Rome is still adding the finishing touches to its reddish carpet. And the London Film Festival, now in its 51st year, will soon be upon us and promises to showcase all the highlights of the other festivals.

The Press Launch was held on September 13th at the Odeon West End (  one of the main Festival venues )  and runs from October 17th to November 1st.

As soon as the journalists swarm to their places in the huge screening room, Amanda Nevill ( director of the British Film Institute) jumps on stage and  is welcomed by complete silence.
She briefly illustrates the program for this year’s festival, comprising more than two thousand titles.
The question is: how does the commission select them?
They choose films that have “a common purpose.” Nevill explains, “a common ground filtered by individual passion”.
This of course leads to disagreements within the commission, but Amanda is glad of it, because it proves that there are many different ideas of cinema and that they can still stir up a discussion.
So what is this common purpose?
A cinema that “lends us new eyes so that we can see differently.”  That promotes dialogue and the transmission of culture(s).

Finally Nevill announces the arrival of Sandra Hebron, Artistic Director of the festival and everybody melts into a heartfelt applause.
Hebron looks young and cute, and  gives an informal and relaxed feel to the launch.
She congratulates the festival and its staff for having put the program together and for having organized thirteen galas, including  the Opening Night Gala Eastern Promises, the latest London-set thriller by David Cronenberg; the Closing Night Gala The Darjeeling Limited by Wes Anderson; The Times Gala Lions For Lambs by veteran Robert Redford and the corrosive Documentary Gala Sicko, Michael Moore’s accusations against the USA national health system.

This year the festival has welcomed new sponsor Kyoto Planet an eco-conscious financial company that also promotes the Vancouver Film Festival and is committed to raising awareness of global warming. 

The program dedicates a special place to the freshest and most modern currents of cinema in Europe: the acclaimed Romanian New Wave is present with Cannes winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days and with California Dreamin’ plus a lecture on the subject; but Denmark, Germany, Italy, Spain are also featured amongst the others.
And of course the UK with a mini-section dedicated to the “New British Cinema”, a selection of lesser known names that will be famous in the future.

France is a unique case, because a meaty section of the Festival is dedicated to it: the so called “French Revolutions”.
In general, it can be said that the London Film Festival is the most geographically correct of all, as it picks films from all over the world without prejudice.

Of course the red carpet will be studded with stars: beau Colin Firth, ex-beau Robert Redford, eternal beau Tom Cruise are going to give the ladies goosebumps; on the other side Sienna Miller, Halle Berry and Samantha Morton will make Leicester Square even brighter with their beauty.

If you want to have a close encounter with the stars, go and get a ticket for the Screen Talks: Ben Affleck, Laura Linney and Robert Rodriguez are sure to come, but the list will grow longer. 
More info and tickets at www.bfi.org.uk/lff.

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