- Title: London Film Festival unveils star-studded line-up
- Date: 4th September 2024
- Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (SEPTEMBER 4, 2024) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) 'SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY' CO-DIRECTOR, PETER ETTEDGUI, SAYING: "It (The film) juxtaposes his (Reeves) life before his tragic accident and after and threads the two strands together. And ultimately, we started off thinking we were making a film about one of the great on-screen
- Embargoed: 18th September 2024 16:44
- Keywords: ANORA BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL BLITZ ELTON JOHN FILM GRAND THEFT HAMLET MARIA PIECE BY PIECE QUEER SUPER/MAN: THE CHRISTOPHER REEVE STORY
- Location: VARIOUS
- City: VARIOUS
- Country: UK
- Topics: Arts/Culture/Entertainment,Europe,Film
- Reuters ID: LVA00L154604092024RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: EDITORS, PLEASE NOTE THIS EDIT CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT WAS ORIGINALLY 4:3 AND MONOCHROME
From a documentary about Elton John's final U.S. live shows to Angelina Jolie's Maria Callas biopic, this year's BFI London Film Festival promises a star-studded line up kicking off with Oscar winner Steve McQueen's World War Two drama.
The London-born director will open the festival for a third time with the world premiere of his movie "Blitz" on Oct. 9. It stars actor Saoirse Ronan as Rita, a London mother who sends her young son George, played by newcomer Elliott Heffernan, to safety in the countryside during World War Two. But George is determined to return home despite the many dangers ahead.
Vatican-set thriller "Conclave" starring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci, Daniel Craig's "Queer" in which the former James Bond star plays a drug-addicted American living in 1950s Mexico, Cannes Festival winner "Anora" about an exotic dancer who gets involved with a Russian oligarch's son and "Nightbitch" starring Amy Adams as a stay-at-home mother who starts exhibiting canine instincts are also on the programme.
Like Craig, Jolie premiered her film "Maria" at the ongoing Venice Film Festival. As well as "Anora", other films premiering in London that screened at Cannes in May include "Emilia Perez", starring Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldana and Karla Sofia Gascon and "The Apprentice" about a young Donald Trump.
"We have a lot of wonderful films that have premiered throughout the year at some of the biggest festivals in the world," BFI Festivals director Kristy Matheson told Reuters on Wednesday (September 4).
"And then of course we have 39 world premiere films as well."
One of those is "Joy", starring Thomasin McKenzie, Bill Nighy and James Norton in a retelling of the birth of the world's first "test-tube baby", Louise Joy Brown, in 1978.
Among the documentaries screening will be "Elton John: Never Too Late" about the musician's return to performing at Los Angeles' Dodger Stadium, "Twiggy" about the British model and "Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story", which looks back at the late actor's rise to fame as the superhero and his life following a horse riding accident that left him paralysed.
"(The film) juxtaposes his life before his tragic accident and after and threads the two strands together," co-director Peter Ettedgui told Reuters.
"We started off thinking we were making a film about one of the great on-screen superheroes and we wound up realising we were making a film about one of the great off-screen heroes because the work that he did as an activist and advocate for disability causes and for science, medicine was quite remarkable.”
Other films in the programme include "Grand Theft Hamlet" about the staging of the Shakespeare play inside a video game and "The Stimming Pool" created by five neurodiverse artists.
Pharrell Williams' Lego biopic "Piece by Piece" will close the festival on Oct. 20
(Production: Will Russell, Marie-Louise Gumuchian)
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