16/09/2005

The programme of the 49th bfi London Film Festival (October 19-November 3) just announced in London by its Artistic Director Sandra Hebron, promises to showcase "the most original and inspiring films of the year" with a total of 180 feature films including 33 European and 120 UK premieres.

The non-competitive London Film Festival (LFF) is used by many UK distributors to platform their latest acquisitions and to organise press interviews prior to the film’s local release. For instance among the ten high profile LFF Gala Presentations this year are two future Artificial Eye releases, Michael Haneke’s thriller Hidden set to open on January 31, 2006 and Palme d’or winner L’enfant [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Luc & Jean-Pierre Dardenne
film profile] by the Dardenne brothers to be released in March 2006. Another highly-anticipated UK premiere among the Gala screenings is the French documentary hit March Of The Penguins to be released by Warner Bros for Christmas on December 9.
But the LFF is also an opportunity for the many films without UK distributors (39 this year) to screen in front of a real audience and then try to find a UK buyer. This is the case for Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s Sex And Philosophy, a co-production between Iran/France/Tadjikistan, the German film Gisela by Isabelle Stever or the Danish children film and local hit Oskar & Josefine.

In the LFF’s other high-profile section ‘Film on the square’, as many as 35 films will premiere including Denis Tanovic’s Hell, a co-production between France/Belgium/Italy/Japan, Cristi Piu’s The Death Of Mister Lazarescu [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Lars von Trier’s Manderlay [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Bent Hamer’s Factotum [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Michael Winterbottom’s A Cock And A Bull Story, Dominic Moll’s Cannes opening film Lemning and the US/German/Irish co-production The Matador in which Pierce Brosnan plays a drunkard and vulgar womaniser.

The Cinema Europa section will programme 33 feature films such as Christina Comencini’s The Beast In The Heart [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Mije de Jong’s Bluebird, Dagur Kari’s Dark Horse [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Perry Ogden’s Pavee Lackeen [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Per Fly’s Manslaughter [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Josef Fares’ Zozo [+see also:
trailer
film profile].
As for the New British Cinema section, it will include eight films notably Dominic Savage’s Love + Hate, the Edinburgh discovery Songs of Songs by Josh Appignanesi, and Richard Jobson’s A Woman In Winter.
Among the special events and interviews held at the National Film Theatre, actors Pierce Brosnan and Gael García Bernal and director Terry Gilliam will be on stage to talk about their careers, and during the Time Out Platform ‘Vive La France’ on October 27, UK audiences will be invited to discuss "what makes French cinema so prolific and so varied."