The London Film Festival 2006
Feature by Lizzie Guilfoyle
THE PROGRAMME for The Times BFI 50th London Film Festival, which runs from October 18 to November 2, 2006, has been announced by Artistic Director Sandra Hebron.
The full line-up includes 181 features and 131 shorts alongside a host of live events, special commissions, screen talks and masterclasses.
The European premiere of Kevin Macdonald’s The Last King of Scotland – with Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, Kerry Washington and Gillian Anderson – opens the event on Wednesday, October 18.
While the UK premiere of Alejandro Gonzalez Inarratu’s Babel, starring Cate Blanchett, Brad Pitt and Gael Garcia Bernal, brings the Festival to a close on Thursday, November 2.
The Festival which showcases both established and emerging talent, includes four world premieres, 32 European premieres and 123 UK premieres.
The programme also includes the latest work from Golden Lion winner Jia Zhang-ke (Still Life), Barbara Albert (Falling), Penny Woolcock (Mischief Night), Pablo Trapero (Born and Bred), Mira Nair (The Namesake), Lars Von Trier (The Boss Of It All), Phillip Noyce (Catch A Fire), Roger Michell (Venus), Lee Jun-Ik (The King And The Clown), Anthony Minghella (Breaking And Entering), Aki Kaurismki (Lights In The Dusk) and Nanni Moretti (The Caiman).
And among debut feature directors will be Cam Archer (Wild Tigers I Have Known), Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson), Daniel Snchez Arvalo (Dark Blue Almost Black), Djamila Sahraoui (Barakat!) and Andrea Arnold (Red Road).
Films from around the globe will transport cinema-goers to over 50 countries – from Israel, the Philippines, Latin America, Turkey and Bulgaria.
Egypt’s box office smash hit The Yacoubian Building by Marwan Hamed sits alongside Australia’s 10 Canoes by Rolf de Heer, Iranian Ali-Reza Amini’s hard-hitting Time Froze and Thai director Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Syndromes And A Century. Also included are Gianni Amelio’s The Missing Star and Stephane Briz’s Not Here To Be Loved.
Britain too, is strongly represented with Nick Broomfield’s Ghosts and Shane Meadows’ This Is England. There’s also a variety of documentaries and shorts, while Sacha Baron Cohen stars in Larry Charles’ Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan.
Other documentaries include factual features (22 in all) including Olivier Meyrou’s Beyond Hatred, Sydney Pollack’s Sketches of Frank Gehry and Ben Hopkins’ 37 Uses For A Dead Sheep. While for music lovers there’s Barbara Kopple and Cecilia Peck’s Dixie Chicks: Shut Up And Sing; and the world premieres of Mike Kerry and Chris Hall’s Love Story and Stephen Kijak’s Scott Walker: 30 Century Man.
The Treasures from the Archives strand celebrates restorations from archives around the world, including the BFI National Archive’s Great Expectation, Oliver Twist and Distant Voices, Still Lives which will be introduced by Terence Davies.
And Dr Strangelove: Or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb will also feature alongside The Big Country, screening for the first time in all its newly restored 35mm glory.
Guests discussing their work in career interviews and masterclasses include Forest Whitaker, Richard Linklater, Tim Burton, Dustin Hoffman, Christine Vachon, Paul Verhoeven, John Cameron Mitchell and Yo La Tengo.
While introducing their films will be Emilio Estevez, Lukas Moodysson, Roger Michell, Robin Wright Penn, Anthony Minghella, Kenneth Anger, Mira Nair, Peter O’Toole, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Hanif Kureishi, Nanni Moretti, Toa Fraser and Todd Field.
Finally, as a celebration of its jubilee year, the Festival plays host to two major special events: a free, outdoor live-mix screening A Portrait of London: Trafalgar Square, and the world’s largest surprise film screening in 50 Screens.
Booking: opens on September 29, 2006 (September 18 for NFT members).
Programmes will be distributed throughout London from September 18, 2006.
For more information and tickets call 020 7928 3232 or visit the website.
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