London Film Festival announces line-up

Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood Photo: Courtesy of LFF

The full programme of the London Film Festival has been announced, including a Patrons' Gala screening of Tom Hanks starrer A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood, directed by Marielle Heller, about US kids' TV star Fred Rogers.

Other highly anticipated films in the line-up include Taika Waititi's Second World War film Jojo Rabbit, starring Scarlett Johansson, Noah Baumbach's The Marriage Story and James Mangold's Le Mans '66 (Ford Vs Ferrari), starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale as car designer Carroll Shelby and driver Ken Miles.

The festival will screen 229 feature films, including 41 documentaries, seven animations, 13 archive restorations and seven artists’ moving image features. The programme also includes 116 short films, with 78 countries represented across the festival, which runs from October 2 to 13. There will be 28 world premieres, 12 international premieres and 28 European premieres.

BFI CEO Amanda Nevill said: “At this moment when the UK is adapting and reshaping our place in the world, the BFI London Film Festival really underlines the soft power of the art of film and showcases the dynamism of global exchange and partnership. All the BFI’s cultural programmes, from BFI Southbank to BFI Player, have sought to be an active champion at the heart of the global cinema story and this year’s LFF does this so powerfully with its incredibly rich and diverse programme and the international filmmaking community who love being here."

Festival director Tricia Tuttle added: “In its 63rd year, BFI London Film Festival is one of the world’s great public film fests. And that greatness comes from the fact that we serve one of the most vibrant and international cities in the world and welcome voracious, adventurous and cineliterate audiences.

"While there are many talking points emerging from this year’s programme, a few really leap out: the strong instinct from filmmakers to explore urgent social and political issues through narrative and often through the use of genre; the striking emergence of a new generation of filmmakers exploding onto the international stage with startlingly bold, original and ambitious debuts; the continuing and welcome trend of increased gender balance in directing talent behind short film, first and second features.

"And while we are so delighted to see work from 78 countries in the Festival, we also love welcoming a particularly exceptional new wave of UK based filmmakers with cracking first and second feature films in LFF. ”