PREVIEW:
Various venues, until Oct 28
Want to know what films are going to be making the headlines next year? The BFI London Film Festival, which opened this week and runs for the next fortnight, brings together a panoply of the most anticipated new films, as well as hidden gems from around the world and a few old classics too. Here are our picks of the festival.
The King’s Speech (above) Colin Firth only just missed out on an Oscar last year for his turn in Tom Ford’s A Single Man. Early word is that he’s pretty much a lock for the prize next year, however, for his performance as the stammering Prince Albert (the future George VI), attempting to overcome his disability while his brother’s abdication and the prospect of war loom on the horizon.
Black Swan Darren Aronovski, director of The Wrestler and Requiem for a Dream, has produced his most arresting film yet in this psychological thriller starring Natalie Portman as an ambitious ballet dancer bedevilled by a creeping psychosis.
Another Year Director Mike Leigh looks into the life of the retirement-age middle classes in this endearing film starring Jim Broadbent, a major success at Cannes.
NEDS Peter Mullan, the award-winning actor and sometime director – seek out his dazzling 1997 film Orphans – returns to helming with this feature about tough life growing up in 1970s Glasgow (NEDS stands for Non-Educated Delinquents).
The American George Clooney teams up with Anton Corbijn, director of 2008’s Joy Division film Control, in this tale of an assassin trying to escape his past by hiding out in rural Italy.
For full programme, tickets and further information go to www.bfi.org.uk