21/06/2012 - Festival now to play citywide

The BFI London Film Festival (October 10 – 21) will now run for a slim 12 days but will see an increase in the number of screenings and venues, in new parts of the capital. This is part of BFI Head of Exhibition and Festival Director Clare Stewart’s new strategic direction for the festival.

The festival retains its major Leicester Square cinemas (Odeon West End, Vue West End, Odeon Leicester Square and Empire) and BFI Southbank but will now extend its reach into four new regional London cinemas: the Hackney Picturehouse, the Renoir in Bloomsbury, Screen on the Green in Islington, and the Rich Mix in Shoreditch, while also continuing to screen at the ICA and Curzon Mayfair, the Ritzy in Brixton, and Cine Lumiere, Kensington. The number of primetime evening and weekend screenings is also being ramped up.

Clare Stewart 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.”