It’s that time of year again when the eyes of the world’s film industry turn to London, with more than 250 features from nearly 80 countries being screened over 12 days as venues across the capital.
Opening with the third instalment of the Knives Out franchise, Wake Up Dead Man, and closing with Julia Jackman’s 100 Nights of Hero, this year’s London Film Festival includes 8 world premieres.
Stars including George Clooney, Julia Roberts, Brendan Fraser, Ethan Hawke, Channing Tatum, Emma Stone and Ralph Fiennes, will be in town to promote new films from directors including Lynne Ramsay, Guillermo del Toro, Richard Linklater, Noah Baumbach, Bradley Cooper and Yorgos Lanthimos.
With Lanthimos and Stone being among about 4000 film industry professionals who’ve pledged not to work with Israeli film-makers over the Gaza war, and one of the official competition entries, Bad Apples, coming from Paramount Pictures, which has roundly opposed the boycott, the London Film Festival will be lucky to pass without the shadow of the conflict hanging over it. The head of the festival, Kristy Matheson said she believed artists could shine a light on human emotion and help us process history.
With much of the attention over the course of the festival centring on the gala titles starring the biggest names, many of the smaller films can easily get overlooked. So Kristy told us her five top tips for What’s Worth Seeing this year:
BLKNEWS: TERMS & CONDITIONS (US), described as an era- and genre-spanning history of the Black diaspora.
“Film-maker Khalil Joseph is very well known for their work making music videos but primarily they’re a visual artist, so it’s really exciting to see someone who’s very prominent in the art world make this feature work, looking at the Black diaspora and the history. Textually, it’s got so many different modes and something definitely for the big screen.”
H IS FOR HAWK (UK), Philippa Lowthorpe’s emotionally charged adaptation of Helen MacDonald’s memoir.
“Claire Foy stars as a Cambridge academic who loses her father and retreats into her own world – and the natural world – to process that grief. It’s so beautifully made. Brendan Gleeson also stars alongside her. It’s really amazing and wonderful to see Claire Foy in a lead role. She is the film. She’s such a terrific actor. People will be really moved by the film and overjoyed at that performance. It’s a film full of great performances. Bring a hanky, but it’s well worth the time.”
MOSS & FREUD (UK/New Zealand), The supermodel Kate Moss sits for a portrait by Lucian Freud.
“It gives you this incredible insight, it’s a great portrait of London at that time, two enormous icons, but you get this wonderful sense of this really unique friendship that develops between them.”
GIANT (UK), Amir El-Masry and Pierce Brosnan portray the real-life boxer Prince Naseem Hamed and his trainer Brendan Ingle.
“For those of you who love a boxing film, it’s got all of the beats you want – the fight sequences are fantastic. For those of you who know nothing about boxing, this story takes you by surprise. It’s a story about a trainer and a boxer and you get a real sense of these two people from different worlds who come together. It’s a story about the rise and disintegration of this relationship. It’s very touching.”
WHISPERS IN THE WOODS (France), French wildlife photographer Vincent Munier travels into the heart of a forest with his father and son.
“This is a beautiful nature documentary from France, made by an award winning wildlife photographer. You have this incredible, incredible footage. It’s very relaxing. It’s very beautiful, so it’s something that’s nice to see on a big screen..”