‘Gangs of London’ Producer Pulse Films’ ‘Name Me Lawand’: Watch First Clip From London Film Festival Selection (EXCLUSIVE)

Tricia Tuttle will step down as BFI Festivals Director following this year’s London Film Festival, the BFI announced today. She will remain in post through to early 2023 while the BFI recruits a replacement. 

Guy Lodge Film Critic A total of 164 feature films will play at this year’s London Film Festival, alongside an abundance of shorts, TV series and an expanded program of XR (extended reality) works — and that’s in a comparatively slimmed-down era of curation for a public-facing festival that has long aimed to bring the best of the global festival circuit to non-traveling cinephiles. What has definitely grown is the LFF’s national reach: In what fest director Tricia Tuttle terms the festival’s “new normal” format after a few years of structural shifts and COVID-era adjustments, the capital-centered event will also be hosting screenings in 10 other cities around the U.K., from Manchester to Edinburgh to Belfast — sealing its status as the country’s preeminent film festival. A digital program of up to 20 titles will also be made available for online viewing, while short films and screen talks will be free to stream on the BFI Player platform: “It’s really important to us to get to those places we can’t reach with our venue partnerships,” says Tuttle, adding that their priority is “to give new audiences a taste of what the festival is like.”

EXCLUSIVE: Barbara Broccoli, one of the teams of producers behind the powerhouse film Till, about the extraordinary efforts of Maimie Till Mobley to find justice after the lynching of her 14-year-old son Emmett Louis Till, for whistling at Carolyn Bryant, a white woman, by white supremacists in Mississippi in 1955, told Deadline, that audiences must seek out the movie: ”This is not a time for us to look away.”

It looks like Lily James and Matt Smith are friendly exes!

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor In contemporary British drama “Pretty Red Dress,” which has its world premiere on Oct. 9 at the BFI London Film Festival, Dionne Edwards delivers a portrait of London life that embraces both its “grit and glamour.” It was a look and feel that was inspired by “Saturday Night Fever,” says the writer-director. The film kicks off with Travis, a tough, black guy from South London with a gangland past, being released from prison, to be met by his partner Candice. We learn that their daughter, Kenisha, is in trouble at school for fighting, and that Candice, who works in a grocery store, has a thwarted ambition: she wants to be a professional singer. We discover too that both Travis and Kenisha have aspects of their personalities that they keep hidden.

Naman Ramachandran Neil Maskell, whose acting credits include “Kill List” and “Peaky Blinders,” makes his feature directorial debut with “Klokkenluider,” which is playing at the BFI London Film Festival. A dark comic thriller, the film revolves around a hapless government whistleblower and his partner who hide out in a remote Belgian cottage, accompanied by two eccentric bodyguards. “‘Klokkenluider’ came out of a combination of circumstances. I was on holiday in East Flanders and the atmosphere of the house we were staying in set off some voices in my head. There were four characters and they were trapped there but it took me a while to work out who they were” Maskell told Variety.

The BFI London Film Festival has unveiled its full industry lineup, which will include keynote conversations with the Italian producer and CEO of Apartment Pictures Lorenzo Mieli and Fionnuala Jamison of MK2 Films.

Naman Ramachandran Joachim Back’s “Corner Office,” featuring “Mad Men” star John Hamm, will open the 30th edition of London’s Raindance Film Festival (Oct. 26-Nov. 5). Austin Bragg and Meredith Bragg’s “Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game” will close the festival. To mark its 30th anniversary, Raindance will screen iconic independent films that had their U.K. premieres at the festival, including “Pulp Fiction,” “Memento,” “The Blair Witch Project” and “Oldboy.” Special screenings of new films include the world premiere of Stephen Moyer’s “A Bit of Light” (U.K.), starring Anna Paquin and Ray Winstone; director Moshe Rosenthal will take part in a Raindance masterclass and present the U.K. premiere of “Karaoke” (Israel); and the world premiere of Dilshad Husain’s British Asian feature “Banglatown.”

The BFI London Film Festival will present nine new feature films and documentaries by UK-based filmmakers at its third annual Works-in-Progress showcase. Scroll down for the lineup.

Saudi Arabian media and entertainment giant MBC Group has officially launched its new headquarters in the capital of Riyadh.

The Santa Fe International Film Festival (SFiFF) has announced its first 15 feature titles. These films are part of the Special Presentation section and will be followed by a full schedule of competition films, short films, panels and events. SFiFF starts October 19 and will run through October 23.

EXCLUSIVE: The UK Jewish Film Festival (November 10-20) has revealed its lineup of 2022 gala screenings and premieres, including special presentations of the single shot drama Shttl and Three Minutes: A Lengthening, the WWII drama co-produced by Steve McQueen and narrated by Helena Bonham Carter.

Brent Lang Executive Editor It was supposed to be all about the movies. But even here at the Toronto International Film Festival, an ocean away from the United Kingdom, the death of 96-year-old Queen Elizabeth II has loomed large. It has provided an opportunity for festival organizers, filmmakers and talent to reflect on the life and legacy of a monarch whose 70-year reign ranks as the longest in her country’s history. That’s partly due to Canada’s status as a member of the British Commonwealth, but it’s also because the festival is such an international A-list affair, one that attracts movie stars and directors who have often had personal encounters with the queen.

The great acting legend Sidney Poitier died in January at age 94. He did not live to see the thrilling new documentary on his life and career, Sidney, which had its World Premiere Saturday night at the Toronto International Film Festival. However it had its blessing, and that of his family, for the film which has been percolating and in development and then production for five years. And although Poitier himself didn’t get to see the finished work, everyone else will beginning on Friday September 23 when it begins streaming on Apple TV+ and playing in selected theatres.

Ana de Armas is a proud actress. The 2022 Venice Film Festival comes to an end tomorrow and Thursday saw the world premiere of the highly anticipated film about Marilyn Monroe’s life, Blonde. Once the movie ended, there was a 14-minute long standing ovation.According to Variety, the Cuban-Spanish actress was glowing as tears ran down her face.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Pascal Breton’s European banner Federation Entertainment (“The Bureau”) has acquired a majority stake in Vertigo Films, the U.K. production company behind the hit TV shows “Britannia” and “Bulletproof.” The London-based company is also the producer of B.O. films such as “StreetDance 3D,” “The Sweeney” and award-winning titles including Gareth Edwards’s “Monsters” and Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Bronson.“ Founded 20 years ago by executive producers Allan Niblo and James Richardson, Vertigo is currently in post-production with Jez Butterworth’s new comedy-drama series “Mammals,” starring James Corden and Sally Hawkins for Amazon, and the 1980s-set gangster epic “A Town Called Malice” by Nick Love for Sky Max. The banner just wrapped principal photography on a new film for Sky Cinema, with further details to be announced at a later date.  

Federation Entertainment has hit the M&A trail once again by taking a majority stake in Britannia, Bronson and Bulletproof producer Vertigo Films, its first British acquisition.

Following the premiere of Olivia Wilde’s new film Don’t Worry Darling at the 2022 Venice International Film Festival, one piece of footage prompted fierce online debate. The clip in question, however, wasn’t from the film itself but from its screening’s aftermath, and it depicts what many are convinced is Harry Styles spitting on his co-star, American actor Chris Pine.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Academy Award-winner Eddie Redmayne will be awarded a Golden Eye for his career achievements during the 18th Zurich Film Festival (Sept. 22-Oct. 2). The British actor will receive the award in person on Sept. 25 prior to presenting the European premiere of Tobias Lindholm’s thriller “The Good Nurse,” in which he plays a nurse who poses a deadly threat to his patients. He will also participate in a ZFF Masters session. Redmayne is one of his generation’s leading character actors. The broader public will recognize him as Newt Scamander from the fantasy franchise “Fantastic Beasts,” the arthouse crowd will know him from more challenging dramas like “Trial of the Chicago 7.” Redmayne won the Academy Award for best actor for his portrayal of the paralysed physicist Stephen Hawking in “The Theory of Everything” (2014).