The London Film Festival unveiled its 197-feature lineup Wednesday, including 11 world preems, 23 international preems and 33 European preems.
Guests expected on the red carpet include Julianne Moore, Colin Firth, Hilary Swank, Natalie Portman and Helena Bonham Carter.
Among the European premieres in the Gala section are Andy De Emmony’s “West Is West,” the follow-up to 1999’s cross-cultural comedy “East Is East”; Debs Gardner-Paterson’s “Africa United,” about three Rwandan kids who walk 3,000 miles to the soccer World Cup in South Africa; Tony Goldwyn’s “Conviction,” in which Swank plays a working mom who trains as a lawyer to save her brother, played by Sam Rockwell; and Tom Hooper’s “The King’s Speech,” about the friendship between British monarch George VI (Firth) and his speech therapist (Geoffrey Rush).
Other high-profile pics in the section are Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan,” which toplines Natalie Portman and Winona Ryder; Julian Schnabel’s “Miral,” starring Freida Pinto; and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s “Biutiful,” starring Javier Bardem.
As previously announced, the fest opens Oct. 13 with Mark Romanek’s “Never Let Me Go,” starring Keira Knightley and Carey Mulligan, and closes Oct. 28 with Danny Boyle’s rock-climbing drama “127 Hours.”
Notable European preems in the Film on the Square section, which gathers some of the past year’s strongest films, include Matt Reeves’ “Let Me In,” a redo of Swedish vampire tale “Let the Right One In”; Errol Morris’ “Tabloid,” about a beauty queen’s quest for love; and Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s “It’s Kind of a Funny Story,” a dramedy set in a mental health clinic.
Also screening in the section are George Clooney starrer “The American”; Olivier Assayas’ “Carlos,” a biopic of the Venezuelan terrorist; and Ken Loach’s Iraq-set drama “Route Irish.”
The world preems, which mostly come within the New British Cinema section, include Chris Hall and Mike Kerry’s “The Ballad of Mott the Hoople,” Hannah Rothschild’s documentary “Mandelson: The Real PM?,” Brian Welsh’s “In Our Name” and Julie Moggan’s “Guilty Pleasures.”
Source: http://www.variety.com/.
