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The BFI London Film Festival (also known as just the London Film Festival) is the UK's largest public film event, screening more than 300 features, documentaries and shorts from almost 50 countries. The festival (the LFF), currently in its 58th year, is run every year in the second half of October under the umbrella of the British Film Institute. The Festival showcases the best of world cinema to champion creativity, originality, vision and imagination, and presents the finest contemporary international cinema from both established and emerging film-makers. Set in the Autumn, the festival hosts high-profile awards contenders, screens recently restored archive films, champions new discoveries and combines curatorial strength with red carpet glamour. It also provides an extensive programme of industry events, public forums, education events, lectures, masterclasses and Q&As with film-makers and film talent.
In 1953 a group of film critics including Dilys Powell of the The Sunday Times, raised the notion of a film festival for London. They reasoned that with Cannes and Venice having their festivals, as did Edinburgh, so surely London should too. However their aim was to pitch the new festival squarely at the public - giving audiences an opportunity to see movies which might not otherwise appear in British cinemas. Originally aiming to be a 'festival of festivals', it focused on screening a selection of strong titles from other European film festivals, including Cannes and Venice. The first London Film Festival was conceived by the then BFI British Film Institute Director James Quinn, and took place at the NFT (National Film Theatre, now renamed BFI Southbank) from 16–26 October. It was launched the day after the inauguration of the new NFT on its current site under Waterloo Bridge. It screened only 15-20 films from a renowned selection of directors, including Akira Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, Yasujirō Ozu, Luchino Visconti and Andrzej Wajda. While the programme still retains the 'festival of festivals' feel, it also now shows new discoveries from "important and exciting talents" in world cinema. Whilst it continues to be first and foremost a public festival, it is also attended by large numbers of film professionals and journalists from all over the world. Importantly, it offers opportunities for people to see films that may not otherwise get a UK screening along with films which will get a release in the near future.
The festival is "topped and tailed" by the Opening and Closing galas which have now become major red carpet events in the London calendar and are world premiere screenings, which take place in large venues in central London, attended by the cast and crew of the films, and introduced by the Festival director and the film's directors or producers, and often the actors themselves. Previously a number of festival awards were presented at the Closing gala, but in 2009, with the aid of some funding from the UK Film Council, a stand-alone awards ceremony was introduced.
Other than these events the screenings at the Festival are quite informal and similar to the normal cinema experience except for two things; some films are accompanied by Q&A sessions which give the audience unique access to the film-maker and/or a member of the cast and offer insight into the making of the film and occasionally an opportunity for the audience to engage directly and ask questions; and the second aspect is that people generally stay and watch the credits.
The festival is divided into themes which cover different areas of interest - in 2009 these were; Galas and Special Screenings, Film on the Square, New British Cinema, French Revolutions, Cinema Europa, World Cinema, Experimenta, Treasures from the Archives, Short Cuts and Animation. In 2009 the Festival, whilst focused around Leicester Square (Vue West End, Odeon West End and Empire) and the BFI Southbank in central London, also screened films across 18 other venues – Curzon Mayfair, ICA Cinema on The Mall, The Ritzy in Brixton, Cine Lumière in South Kensington, Queen Elizabeth Hall on the South Bank, David Lean Cinema in Croydon, the Genesis Cinema in Whitechapel, The Greenwich Picturehouse, the Phoenix Cinema in East Finchley, Rich Mix in Old Street, the Rio Cinema in Dalston, the Tricycle Cinema in Kilburn, the Waterman Art Centre in Brentford and Trafalgar Square for the open air screening of short films from the BFI National Archive. The 2009 Festival featured 15 world premieres including Wes Anderson’s first animated feature, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Sam Taylor-Wood’s feature début Nowhere Boy, about the formative years of John Lennon, as well as and the Festival’s first ever Archive Gala, the BFI’s new restoration of Anthony Asquith’s Underground, with live music accompaniment by the Prima Vista Social Club. European premieres in 2009 included Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Micmacs, Scott Hicks’ The Boys Are Back and Robert Connolly’s Balibo, as well as Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni’s The Well and Lucy Bailey and Andrew Thompson’s Mugabe And The White African.
In 2009, directors travelling to London to introduce their latest work included The Men Who Stare At Goats. The Festival also welcomed back previous alumni such as John Hillcoat (The Road), Joe Swanberg (Alexander The Last) and Harmony Korine (Trash Humpers), whilst also screening films from Manoel de Oliveira (Eccentricities Of A Blonde-Haired Girl), Jim Jarmusch (The Limits Of Control), Claire Denis (White Material), Ho-Yuhang (At The End Of Daybreak), Todd Solondz (Life During Wartime), and Joel and Ethan Coen (A Serious Man).
The categories highlight both emerging and established talent.
From 2009, a new standalone awards ceremony was launched which included the following awards:
In 2009, a new annual standalone awards ceremony was launched to showcase the work of imaginative and original film-makers and to reward distinctive and intriguing work.
The Awards took place at the Inner Temple on 28 October 2009 and were hosted by Paul Gambaccini. Winners of the Sutherland Trophy, Best British Newcomer and Best Film received the inaugural Star of London award designed by sculptor Almuth Tebbenhoff.
Pawel Pawlikowski, best known for his films My Summer of Love and Last Resort, won the Best Film award for his black and white social drama Ida, his first film shot in his native Poland. Pawlikowski, at the time, was a visiting tutor at the National Film and Television School in Buckinghamshire and one of his pupils there, Anthony Chen, picked up the Best First Feature prize for Ilo Ilo.[3]
Leviathan was named the Best Film at the London Film Festival Awards on 18 October 2014, at a ceremony where the main prizes went to Russia, Ukraine (Best First Feature, The Tribe) and Syria (Best Documentary, Silvered Water), three countries at the centre of long-running conflicts. The winning film-makers all said they hoped that culture could help to restore peace to their countries.[4]
At a London Film Festival declared by its director Clare Stewart to be promoting strong women in the industry, both in front of and behind the camera, the theme continued into the awards, with the Best Film being named as the Greek comedy Chevalier, directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari. The winner of the Sutherland Award for Best First Feature, The Witch, was described by the jury as "a fresh, feminist take on a timeless tale." Another woman was honoured with the Grierson Award for the best documentary; the Australian film-maker Jennifer Peedom was shooting Sherpa as a devastating avalanche struck the Himalayas, in April 2014. And the Oscar-winning Cate Blanchett described how she was "deeply honoured and dumbstruck" at being awarded a BFI Fellowship. [5]
France, United Kingdom, United States, Italy, Japan
Palme d'Or, Caméra d'Or, Un Certain Regard, Venice Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival
Italy, United States, Venice, Italian language, Augusto Genina
Sundance Film Festival, Eileen O'Meara, BFI London Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, Showtime (TV network)
Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Mary Poppins, Burbank, California, John Lee Hancock
Wallace and Gromit, Bbc, DreamWorks Animation, Creature Comforts, Animation