When
12th - 27th October 2011
Where
BFI Southbank
2011 marks the 55th year of London’s most famous and biggest film festival. With dozens of films, glamorous premieres and celebrity talks, this year’s London Film Festival is sure to be one of the best. Each day we’ll be putting up reviews to some of the festival’s top films, so check back soon to see what View London thinks about 2011’s selection.
Gala events and premieres
With several world premieres and an impressive number of UK premieres too, the 2011 London Film Festival is a movie fanatic's dream. With big films such as We Need to Talk about Kevin starring Tilda Swinton getting their debut as well as gala events and headline grabbing films such as The Ides of March starring and directed by George Clooney getting special screenings at the 2011 festival, there's sure to be plenty to get stuck into at this year's event.
Opening and closing galas
This year's festival opens with the European premiere of 360, written by Peter Morgan and directed by Fernando Meirelles, and starring British talents Rachel Weisz, Jude Law and Anthony Hopkins. The feature set to wrap up the list of films for this year is the new Terrence Davies project, The Deep Blue Sea starring Rachel Weisz as the wife of a high court judge who leaves her husband for an ex-RAF pilot.
Celebrity appearances
One thing the LFF is known for is its celebrity guests, who are often in town promoting their films or heading up Q&A sessions. Anthony Hopkins, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston, Rhys Iffans, Joely Richardson, George Clooney and Vanessa Redgrave are just some of the stars of films to be screened at this year's London Film Festival, and movie buffs will be keeping their fingers crossed many more celebrities put in personal appearances to support their latest projects for 2011.
See films before they’re released
The London Film Festival is also great for showcasing films that are sure to be huge hits when they’re released officially. This year the eagerly anticipated new film version of Wuthering Heights from Andrea Arnold, Another Year, is sure to attract a great deal of attention, as will The Kid with the Bike, the Cannes Grand Prix winner from the Dardenne brothers. Other frontrunners for this year's most talked about film are We Need to Talk about Kevin starring Tilda Swinton and Coriolanus, starring and directed by Ralph Fiennes.
Ones to watch
This year’s festival features a host of new films from some of the most exciting new and independent directors on the international film scene. The Cinema Europa strand celebrates the work of up and coming European film makers, including Benito Zambrano's post Spanish Civil War drama The Sleeping Voice. Fans of world cinema can look forward to more excellent films this year. Other strands in the festival programme include French Revolutions, which highlights the best in recent Gallic cinematic output, as well as the finest new films from the UK in the New British Cinema series.
Reviews
Want to know which films we rated last year and which we thought you should give a miss? Click below for our film festival reviews from 2010. Reviews from the 2011 festival will be available soon. And if you really can't wait to see what's hitting the BFI screens, check out the trailers at the bottom of the page for a taste of what's to come when the festival opens.
London Film Festival Reviews
Get your tickets
Public booking for tickets to the 2011 festival starts on 26th September, whilst booking for BFI members opens on 19th September. You can book online once again this year, by phone, by post or in person at the film festival box offices. For more information and to book tickets for 2010 once the box office opens, call (020) 7928 3232.
The Times BFI London Film Festival 2011 takes place at venues across London from Wednesday 12th October - Thursday 27th October 2011.
London Film Festival Film Reviews
London Film Festival Screen Talks
London Film Festival Recommended Films