BFI London Film Festival
The programme for this year's has just been announced, and I have the usual encyclopaedic booklet on my desk, just waiting to be pored over and scribbled on. High profile productions, such as and Oliver Stone's film about Dubya, simply entitled '', sit alongside smaller productions from all over the world. Sandra Hebron, artistic director of the festival, said that downbeat reports from the recent did not mean that we were looking at a lean year. Hebron claimed that the fact that awards aren't the focus of the LFF gave the programmers more scope to look at films released throughout the year and allowed them to choose what they thought were the strongest works. Her summary of the main themes emerging from this year's festival was "Politics, History, Memory", although she was quick to assure us that there was plenty of variety on offer. It's difficult to form an opinion about a film from a brief sequence in a 30-minute showreel, but I suppose it's worth mentioning what caught my eye. Michael Winterbottom's new film stars Colin Firth as a man who moves to with his daughters after the death of his wife; Palme D'Or winner , set in a school in Paris, looks like the rebellious, sparky older sister of documentary hit Etre et Avoir; and Steve McQueen's Hunger promises to be one of the festival highlights. Other British films which were given a place on the showreel were band drama , futuristic tale (which features a character who bears more than a passing resemblance to Watchmen's Rorschach), and Shifty, a story of young men with criminal connections living on the outskirts of London. Let us know what's going on your wishlist ahead of tickets becoming available.
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