The festival will also make use of more venues during its shorter 12 day run.

The BFI London Film Festival is to run for 12 days as opposed to 16 days but will feature more screenings and venues as part of BFI head of exhibition and festival director Clare Stewart’s new direction for the festival.

The festival’s new dates will be October 10 -21 as opposed to October 10- 25 as was previously announced.

As well as the LFF’s usual venues – the Odeon West End, Vue West End, Odeon Leicester Square and the BFI Southbank –the festival will also be spread across 4 new other London cinemas: the Hackney Picturehouse, the Renoir in Bloomsbury, Screen on the Green in Islington, and the Rich Mix in Shoreditch in a bid to attract wider audiences.

The festival will continue to screen at the ICA and will expand its use of Curzon Mayfair, the Ritzy in Brixton, and Cine Lumiere, Kensington which will all screen films for the full duration, rather than the previous 3 days.

Clare Stewart, BFI head of exhibition and festival director said: “The BFI London Film Festival is one of the jewels in the capital’s cultural crown and we want to ensure that as many people as possible have the opportunity to experience it. Whether it’s a  film aficionado diving straight in to our festival programme or a moviegoer coming to the festival for the first time - more screenings, more venues and more London boroughs makes it a Film Festival for everyone.”

The LFF also announced a number of new programme categories, competitive sections and awards during Cannes.

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