BFI London Film Festival announces lineup, revamped programme

The revamped BFI London Film Festival (October 10-21) announced its lineup today, with new competition strands and intriguing sidebars.

The festival will screen a total of 225 fiction and documentary features, including 14 world premieres, 15 international premieres and 34 European premieres.

This year marks festival director Clare Stewart’s first year programming the longer and expanded festival.

The inaugural Official Competition:

Michael Winterbottom’s Everyday  

Sally Potter’s Ginger And Rosa

Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children

Martin McDonagh’s Seven Psychopaths

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

First Feature Competition:

Masaaki Akahori’s The Samurai That Night    

Anand Gandhi’s Ship Of Theseus     

Barry Berk’s Sleeper’s Wake

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

Best British Newcomer:

Rowan Athale – director/screenwriter, Wasteland

Sally El Hosaini – director/screenwriter, My Brother The Devil

Fady Elsayed – actor, My Brother The Devil

Scott Graham – director/screenwriter, Shell

Eloise Laurence – actor, Broken

Rufus Norris – director, Broken

Chloe Pirrie – actor, Shell

Tom Shkolnik – director/screenwriter, The Comedian

The Documentary Competition includes Alex Gibney’s Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence In The House Of God and David McMahon and Sarah Burns’ The Central Park Five.

There is a gala world premiere for Rolling Stones documentary Crossfire Hurricane, and further galas for Argo, Quartet, Song For Marion, Hyde Park On Hudson, The Sapphires and The Sessions.

For the first time the festival is presenting thematic categories, clustered around Love, Debate, Dare, Laugh, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Sonic and Family, with a gala screening in each of these categories.

Films in the themed sections include Michael Haneke’s Amour, Sophie Fiennes’ The Pervert’s Guide To Ideology, Thomas Vinterberg’s The Hunt, Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, Ben Wheatley’s Sightseers, Easy Money and Easy Money II, Caesar Must Die, Chakravyuh, Compliance, Caesar Must Die, Beyond The Hills and A Liar’s Autobiography.

Festival director Clare Stewart told Screen: “We wanted to continue to increase the profile of London in the international context and to broaden its appeal for the local audience. That has led to the changes to the programme and the increase in screening venues across London.”

Speaking about this year’s new themed strands, Stewart said: “Cinema can often be presented in a very intellectual way. But it can also incite very emotional responses. The idea behind the themed sections is to present a different kind of logic to the order of a festival by highlighting films according to the emotions they inspire.”

The festival opens with Tim Burton’s Frankenweenie and closes with Mike Newell’s Great Expectations. There will also be a surprise film.

Notable omissions include The Master, To the Wonder, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Les Miserables, Passion, Spike Lee’s Michael Jackson documentary Bad 25, Welcome to the Punch and the digitally restored print of Heaven’s Gate.

For the full lineup click here.