The BFI Film London Film Festival is an annual event eagerly anticipated by the filmmaking community, and the London Film School is proud to have connections to four entries in this year’s schedule (#LFF2016):
After a plethora of festival selections around the world, MADRE comes to London after being selected in the DARE SHORTS - TEEN CREEPS category, a selection of films that show how coming of age can be a scary experience. Written and directed by LFS Alumnus Simon Mesa Soto,MADRE tackles this theme by following 16-year old Andrea as she leaves her neighbourhood to attend a downtown casting call for an adult pornographic movie.
Photo Credit: Juan Sarmiento
Soto’s selection at LFF comes off the back of a second invitation to Cannes with MADRE, after becoming Colombia’s first winner of a Palme d’Or with his graduation film LEIDI in 2014.
Catch the final screening of MADRE at BFI Southbank’s NFT3 on Thursday 13th October at 20:45.
As previously reported on the LFS website, personally attending the Gala premiere of MAGNUS will be LFS alumnus and Director of Photography Øyvind Asbjørnsen. Ten years in the making, Director Benjamin Ree’s documentary follows Magnus Carlsen, heralded the ‘Mozart of Chess’, coupling tense match footage sequences with family home movies. The end product is a gently moving film, where natural talent and tenacity are developed by the love and support of Carlsen’s unique family.
Photo Credit: Øyvind Asbjørnsen
One of Øyvind Asbjørnsen’s most notable works also revolved around Magnus Carlsen, entitled The Prince of Chess, a 2005 full-length documentary about the child prodigy, who was 13 years old at the time. Asbjørnsen also found and was publisher-in-chief of Fritt Forlag, along with being the head of the production company Main Island Production. Since September 2013, Asbjørnsen has been publisher-in-chief at NKI Forget, a Norwegian non-fiction publishing company.
Tickets are available here for MAGNUS’ two screenings during the BFI London Film Festival.
The LFF’s London Calling programme screens a selection of new shorts from some of the capital’s most exciting up-and-coming filmmakers, supported by Film London’s production schemes. After being shortlisted earlier this year, MA Screenwriting alumnus Lawrie Doran’s THE PREVAILING WINDS will finally be screened in the programme, which offers grants of up to £4,000 for emerging filmmakers with storytelling experience and contains a crucial training component with guidance from industry mentors.
Photo Credit: Michael Paleodimos
While Doran occasionally writes comedies, THE PREVAILING WIND is described as an atmospheric drama in which the antagonist is an airborne toxin, capable of killing a lone hiker as she searches for her sister on the moorlands.
All tickets for the London Calling programme have sold out, but you can follow THE PREVAILING WINDS’ progress by liking its page on Facebook.
RICHARD LINKLATER: DREAM IS DESTINY
The fourth and final BFI LFF entry differs from the rest as filmmaker and LFS Honorary Associate Richard Linklater finds himself, for once, in front of the cameras, being the subject of the feature documentary RICHARD LINKLATER: DREAM IS DESTINY.
In the 1980s and early 1990s, Linklater’s films spawned a low-budget, in-your-own backyard movement. More recently, he enjoyed Oscar success with his feature film BOYHOOD after various studio-assisted missteps, and the documentary follows him on his most recent project, EVERYBODY WANTS SOME, as well as interviews with some of the stars he has had the priveledge to work with.
Photo Credit: David Layton
Watch the trailer before purchasing tickets to either of the Saturday 15th or Sunday 16th October screenings of RICHARD LINKLATER: DREAM IS DESTINY.
ABOUT THE BFI LONDON FILM FESTIVAL
Originally to be the “festival of festivals”, the first LFF only screened 15 to 20 films from filmmakers such as Akira Kurosawa, with a strong selection from other European festivals. Nowadays, the LFF shows new discoveries “from important and exciting talent” from world cinema. While it is attended by international industry professionals and journalists, it significantly offers opportunities for the public to see films that may not otherwise get UK screening.
Written by Ben Corbett