This year, the BFI London Film Festival will be taking place for the 59th time, and DRM.am will be a part of this big, amazing and international event. As one of the world’s top festival, BFI London Film Festival will present the finest international cinema. With 238 films from 71 countries, played in 16 cinemas in 12 days attended by some very famous guests, this is going to be one of the biggest events in London.
The festival will screen a total of 238 fiction and documentary features, including 16 World Premieres, 8 International Premieres, 40 European Premieres and 11 Archive films including 5 Restoration World Premieres. It will also include a lot of short films directed by upcoming talents. According to the Chief Executive and the Festival Director the female stories will be the central focus throughout the whole duration of the London Film Festival. It is going to be ‘the year of the strong woman’. The only thing that actually does not fit this theme is that only 45 films of the 238 are directed by women.
This ‘strong women’ focus has mainly to do with the movie that will be screened at the opening gala of the London Film Festival. The festival will be opened with the European premier of Suffragette, starring Carey Mulligan, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne-Marie Duff, Brendan Gleeson, Ben Whisaw and Meryl Streep. The movie is directed by Sarah Gavron and it tells the story of the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement. It is about women who were forced underground to pursue a dangerous game of cat and mouse with an increasingly brutal state. They were hard working woman who had always been listening to men and were fed up with it. They were willing to lose everything in their fight for equality including their children, jobs and homes. It is a heart-breaking but also inspirational story. Here you can find the trailer of the movie Suffragette.
– Anne-Marie Duff and Carey Mulligan from the movie “Suffragette”
The movie that will close the festival is going to be the European Premiere of Steve Jobs, starring Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Sarah Snook and Katherine Waterston. The movie takes you behind the scenes of the life of Steve Jobs, who together with the co-founder of Apple Inc. gets ready to unveil the first Macintosh in 1984. Steve jobs must also deal with personal issues that are related to his ex-girlfriend Chrisann Brennan and her daughter Lisa. As we all know, he was eventually fired and launched NeXT Inc. and in the movie we see how he prepares to release a new computer model in 1988. Ten years later he is back at Apple Inc. and about to change the industry once again with iMac. Here you can find the trailer of Steve Jobs the movie.
– Michael Fassbender as ”Steve Jobs”
The different strands are a really important part of the London Film Festival. This year they will show great films in 9 different categories. Concerning the theme Love, there will be a lot of films showing the many forms of love. The theme Debate offers cinematic responses to the important issues of day, along with conflicts from the past, in all their challenging complexities. The theme Dare will favour the brave and filmmakers will be found that push the limit and make you feel out of your comfort zone. The theme Laugh will cover all the films that will make you laugh-out-loud but also covers romantic comedy. It contains humour in all its forms. The theme Thrill will show films that will get your adrenalin pumping and keep you on the edge of your seat. The theme Cult will bring you from overwhelming and doubtful to fantasy, science fiction and horror. The theme Journey will include films that will transport people and that will change their point of view. The theme Sonic will show films that are inspired by music and last but not least there is the theme; Family. This theme will show films for the young ones, but also for the people who still feel young, including the best animated films.
Of course there will also be several competitions. The main competition will be ‘the official competition’. The choice for the best film award will be based on inspiring, inventive and distinctive filmmaking. Then there is also the ‘first feature competition’ in which the award will go to the movie that recognises the most original and imaginative directorial debut. Last but not least there will also be ‘the documentary competition’ in which the award will go to the movie that recognises films with integrity, originality and social or cultural importance.
The London film festival will run from 7 to 18 October 2015. Tickets are available on the website of the BFI London Film Festival 2015.
