As film festival season gathers pace, the 68th BFI London Film Festival (LFF) has announced its full 2024 programme, featuring a whopping 39 world premieres.
Angelina Jolie, Daniel Craig and Sir Elton John are among the stars to head up the 255-strong collection of movies from around the world.
Here are seven LFF films to look out for – with some hotly tipped for the coming awards season.
Image: Saoirse Ronan in Blitz. Pic: BFF via Getty
Blitz
London-born director Steve McQueen opens the festival for the third time, with the world premiere of his World War Two drama Blitz. The movie re-creates a war-torn London, bombarded by nightly air raids, as battle rages all around.
Saoirse Ronan stars as Rita, an East End mother who makes the heartbreaking decision to send her young son George, played by newcomer Elliott Heffernan, to safety in the countryside. But, George has other ideas, and is determined to return home despite the many dangers ahead.
The ensemble cast includes Kathy Burke, Benjamin Clementine, Harris Dickinson and Stephen Graham, with a score by Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer.
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Image: Angelina Jolie stars as Maria Callas. Pic: BFF via Getty
Maria
Angelina Jolie makes a return to the big screen after several years away, starring in the biopic about famed opera singer Maria Callas, one of the greatest sopranos of all time.
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While the majority of the vocals we hear in the movie are from original recordings of Callas in her prime, the depictions of singing at the end of her life are mostly Jolie’s own voice. The Oscar-winning actress, who spent seven months training for the role, has called it the most demanding of her career.
Directed by Pablo Larrain, it depicts Callas’s final days in Paris when she was addicted to anti-anxiety drugs, looking back to the peak of her career when she wowed audiences around the world. Larrain has said he hopes it will encourage people to listen to more opera.
Image: Daniel Craig in Queer. Pic: BFF via Getty
Queer
Bond star Daniel Craig plays a drug-addicted American living in 1950s Mexico, in the historical drama Queer.
Based on the 1985 semi-autobiographical novel by Beat Generation author William Burroughs, the film delves into the nightlife of Mexico City, in an immersive flood of colour, and doesn’t shy away from full-on sex scenes.
With some reviewers praising it as Craig’s best performance to date, it also stars Jason Schwartzman, Lesley Manville and newcomer Drew Starkey.
Image: Amy Adams in Nightbitch. Pic: BFF via Getty
Nightbitch
A comedy horror starring the ever-adaptable Amy Adams as a stay-at-home mother who slowly thinks she may be turning into a dog.
Based on the 2021 novel by Rachel Yoder, it’s pitched as a modern feminist fable, examining a society in which women are told they can “have it all”.
The movie is directed by Marielle Heller, who in 2020 was one of the female filmmakers many felt were snubbed by the Oscars and Golden Globes when she failed to get a nomination for her movie A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood. Heller will no doubt be hoping this film – as offbeat as it is – is a different story.
Image: Jeremy Strong and Sebastian Stan (L-R). Pic: Apprentice Productions Ontario / Profile Productions/ Tailored Films
The Apprentice
One of the most polarizing political figures of the 21st century, this film unpacks the young Donald Trump, examining his life before politics, and his career in real estate in New York in the 1970s and 1980s.
Directed by Iranian-Danish filmmaker Ali Abbasi, it stars Sebastian Stan stars as Trump, with Succession actor Jeremy Strong (aka Kendall Roy) playing attorney Roy Cohn.
Possibly the most controversial film of the year, it’s been beset with legal issues, not least of which include a cease-and-desist letter from Mr Trump’s legal team.
With a US election due in November, this one will at least be topical when it finally makes it to cinemas.
Image: Sadie Frost with her subject, Twiggy. Pic: BFF via Getty
Twiggy
This is the first fully approved documentary to tell British model Twiggy’s life story.
Directed by actor-turned-director Sadie Frost it tells the story of the fashion icon – whose real name is Lesley Lawson – going back to her working-class childhood in northwest London, through to her international stardom as a celebrity model, and her career as an actor, singer, fashion designer, writer and TV presenter.
Other noteworthy documentaries screening at LFF include Elton John: Never Too Late, about the singer’s final US live shows, 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 from the neck down.
Image: Pharrell Williams’s life story in Lego. Pic: Courtesy of Focus Features
Piece By Piece
A movie about the life of musician Pharrell Williams will close the festival – but told entirely using Lego.
Directed by Morgan Neville, and produced by Williams himself, it depicts the Happy singer’s early life in Virginia, through to his rise to fame as he tops the charts.
Williams recorded five new songs for the soundtrack, and many think it’s a likely contender for best animated feature and best original song come awards season.
LFF takes place from Wednesday 9 October to Sunday 20 October.
A woman who saw a man falling from an upper tier at Wembley Stadium says a similar incident at an Oasis concert over the weekend in which a fan died makes her wonder whether lessons have been learned.
Stephanie Good, 39, said a man fell during a Euro 2020 match between England and Croatia at Wembley in June 2021.
He landed “right next to where we were” on the “stairwell between rows of seats”, she said.
Named as Jon, he reportedly survived but suffered two broken ankles, a fractured femur and fractured pelvis just before kick-off.
Ms Good said she tried to give feedback but was unable to and felt the “emergency response was really lacking”.
The man reportedly fell from the stadium’s upper tier.
In his 40s, he was found with “injuries consistent with a fall” and pronounced dead at the scene, the Met Police said.
Ms Good, an NHS manager from east London, said what happened at the Oasis gig was “so similar” to what she witnessed that it made her wonder “were lessons learned”?
Image: Liam and Noel Gallagher on stage for the first Wembley night of the Oasis reunion tour. Pic: Lewis Evans
During that incident, among stadium staff “nobody seemed to know what to do”, she told the Press Association.
She thinks the man may have been trying to attach a flag to the front of a stand and “somehow managed to fall straight over”.
She said: “They (staff) didn’t seem well-trained in terms of how to respond to a really big emergency.
“Their stewards were kind of paralysed a little bit by fear, or they just weren’t well trained and didn’t know how to call for paramedics.
“It was us who were sort of shouting at them that they needed to get some paramedics.
“The first person on the scene wasn’t a stadium paramedic or St John Ambulance. It was an off-duty firefighter who had seen the guy fall and ran down to just try and offer some help.”
Regarding the follow-up, Ms Good said staff moved spectators to other seats but did not ask for witness statements.
She added: “They didn’t seek any input from people who’d seen the incident or the aftermath of it. They didn’t seem interested in speaking to anybody about it.
“I was a bit concerned, because I felt that the emergency response was really lacking.”
She then tried to get in touch to give feedback, but was unable to do so and did not receive a response to a message on social media, she said.
A Wembley spokesperson said: “Wembley Stadium operates to a very high health and safety standard, fully meeting legal requirements for the safety of spectators and staff, and is certified to and compliant with the ISO 45001 standard.
“We work very closely and collaboratively with all relevant event delivery stakeholders – including event owners, local authorities, the Sports Grounds Safety Authority and the police – to deliver events to high standards of safety, security and service for everyone attending or working in the venue.”
Sean “Diddy” Combs has been denied bail ahead of his sentencing on prostitution-related charges.
Judge Arun Subramanian said the hip-hop mogul had failed to show sufficient evidence he is not a flight risk and also cited admissions of previous violence made during his trial.
Combs, 55, has been in prison since his arrest in September last year.
During a two-month trial, jurors heard allegations that he had coerced former girlfriends, including singer and model Cassie Ventura, into having drug-fuelled sex marathons with male sex workers, while he watched and filmed them.
Image: Diddy fell to his knees after the verdict was delivered last month. Pic: Reuters/ Jane Rosenberg
The rapper’s legal team hailed this a “victory” and immediately applied for bail ahead of sentencing, citing his acquittal on the top charges.
After this was denied, they submitted another application last week. Judge Subramanian has now rejected the request again.
In denying the motion for bail, the judge found Combs had failed to show sufficient evidence to counter arguments he is a flight risk, writing in a court filing: “Increasing the amount of the bond or devising additional conditions doesn’t change the calculus given the circumstances and heavy burden of proof that Combs bears.”
Image: Judge Arun Subramanian heard Diddy’s trial and will also sentence the rapper
He also found that an argument by the music star’s legal team that the squalor and danger of the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), where he is being held, did not warrant release.
“The public outcry concerning these conditions has come from all corners,” the judge wrote. “But as Combs acknowledges, MDC staff has been able to keep him safe and attend to his needs, even during an incident of threatened violence from an inmate.”
The judge has not yet responded to this application.
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How the Diddy trial unfolded
How long could Diddy be jailed for?
Combs is due to be sentenced on 3 October and could be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison.
Discussions on sentencing guidelines which followed the jury’s verdict suggest it is unlikely he will be jailed for this long, with an estimate of around two to five years, taking into account time already served.
However, it is ultimately up to Judge Arun Subramanian to decide the rapper’s punishment.
On Friday, Donald Trump was asked during an interview about a potential pardon for Combs following speculation about the issue.
The president said it was unlikely, adding that the rapper was “very hostile” during his presidential campaign.
Combs, who co-founded Bad Boy Records and launched the career of the late Notorious BIG, was for decades a huge figure in pop culture – a Grammy-winning hip-hop artist and business entrepreneur, who presided over an empire ranging from fashion to reality TV.
As well as the criminal conviction, he is also facing several civil lawsuits.