This morning at London’s Odeon Leicester Square, the British Film Institute announced the full programme for the 57th BFI London Film Festival, a twelve-day extravaganza showcasing the very best in upcoming mainstream, world and experimental cinema. With British director Paul Greengrass’ hijack thriller Captain Phillips and Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks (both starring Tom Hanks) already announced as the opening and closing films, the stage was set for a whole raft of high profile Gala screenings and premieres, including the cream of 2013’s international festival crop. Amongst these will be Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, Steve McQueen’s Twelve Years a Slave and the Coens’ Inside Llewyn Davis.
This year’s LFF will screen a total of 234 narrative and documentary features, including 22 World Premieres, 16 International Premieres, 29 European Premieres and 20 Archive films. A stellar line-up of directors, cast and crew are also expected to take part in career interviews, master classes and other special events. Sponsored Gala screenings include Stephen Frears’ Philomena (American Express), Gravity (American Airlines), Twelve Years a Slave (Accenture) and Inside Llewyn Davis (Mayor of London), Jason Reitman’s Labor Day (The May Fair Hotel), Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Don Jon (Empire), Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive (Sight & Sound) and Palme d’Or winner Blue is the Warmest Colour (Time Out).
The following films/talent are to compete in the London Film Festival’s competition strands:
Official Competition
Catherine Breillat’s Abuse of Weakness
Richard Ayoade’s The Double
Paweł Pawlikowski’s Ida
Kore-Eda Hirokazu’s Like Father, Like Son
Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox
Jahmil X.T Qubeka’s Of Good Report
Peter Landesman’s Parkland
Ahmad Abdalla’s Rags & Tatters
Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant
David Mackenzie’s Starred Up
Xavier Dolan’s Tom at the Farm
John Curran’s Tracks
Jonathan Glazer’s Under The Skin
First Feature Competition
Chika Anadu’s B for Boy
Daniel Patrick Carbone’s Hide Your Smiling Faces
Anthony Chen’s Ilo Ilo
John Krokidas’Kill Your Darlings
Alphan Eseli’s The Long Way Home
Michalis Konstantatos’ Luton
Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza’s Salvo
Chloé Robichaud’s Sarah Prefers to Run
Rob Brown’s Sixteen
Vivian Qu’s Trap Street
Fernando Franco’s Wounded
Tom Shoval’s Youth
Documentary Competition
Jessica Oreck’s Aatsinki: The Story of Artic Cowboys
Alex Gibney’s The Armstrong Lie
Frederick Wiseman’s At Berkeley
Zachary Heinzerling’s Cutie and the Boxer
Mark Cousins’ Here Be Dragons
Nicolas Philibert’s La Maison de la Radio
Greg Barker’s Manhunt
Rithy Panh’s The Missing Picture
Paul-Julien Robert’s My Fathers, My Mother and Me
Vitaly Mansky’s Pipeline
Matt Wolf’s Teenage
Kitty Green’s Ukraine is Not a Brothel
Best British Newcomer
Conner Chapman – actor, The Selfish Giant
Shaun Thomas – actor, The Selfish Giant
Destiny Ekaragha – director, Gone Too Far!
Rob Brown – director, Sixteen
Jack Fishburn & Muireann Price – producers, Love Me Till Monday
Jonathan Asser – screenwriter Starred Up
The 57th BFI London Film Festival takes place from 9-20 October, 2013. For more of our LFF 2013 coverage, simply follow this link.
Daniel Green
