The BFI London Film Festival 2023

Well here it is again, the London Film Festival now in its 67th year

As befits one of the world’s most successful and prestigious festivals there is as usual a high quality, diverse offering. The festival includes 252 titles from 92 countries in 79 languages. This is broken down between features, shorts, XR works, and series. There will be 47 Debut features and every feature presented will be screening in the UK for the first time, with some being shown for the first time anywhere in the world.

Ben Roberts, CEO BFI comments ‘Cinema has reclaimed its status as a culture force, an art form that can spark a conversation around the world, and which will resound loudly through the wide-ranging line up of essential cinema that our 67^th edition of the BFI LFF will offer’.

Highlights? There are many. The opening night gala is hosting Saltburn, a psychological thriller written, directed, and produced by Emerald Fennell alongside Tom Ackerley, Josey McNamara, and Margot Robbie. Other major features include One Life starring Anthony Hopkins, Maestro directed and starring Bradley Cooper; the biopic of Leonard Bernstein, and the new David Fincher offering, The Killer with Michael Fassbender

I personally love going to as many films as possible prior to their official release dates. I find it fabulous to sit where most film critics sit without any pre-conceived reviews, word of mouth or hype. One can usually view the film without prejudice and simply let it come to you. I remember seeing Shawshank Redemption at the London Film Festival before it was released and as we now all know grew and grew to be considered one of cinema’s greatest all-time films. Whisper it, but I felt a bit smug being one of the first to see a masterpiece.

The London Film Festival includes a plethora of events around the content. It provides a meeting place for networking and catching up plus many events. Alliotts are sponsoring the Producers Film Market being held on 10^th and 11^th October. We look forward to meeting all the producers signed up to see us.

Finally, let’s hope the  WGA and actors strikes may be resolved by 4^th October to enable the talent to share the festival with us.

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