The full line-up for this year's London Film Festival was announced today. Between opener Frankenweenie and closing gala Great Expectations, there's a solid line-up of films, including some of the most eagerly anticipated - and controversial - films of the year.
Standouts include inventive fantasy Beasts Of The Southern Wild, whose five-year-old star, Quvenzhané Wallis, is hotly tipped as one of the most impressive new talents in years. There's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, starring Britain's Riz Ahmed as a troubled young man working on Wall Street but no longer charmed by the American Dream, and Midnight's Children, a big screen adaptation of Salman Rushdie's acclaimed novel, which will be introduced by the author himself. Meanwhile, End Of Watch sees Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña as two young police officers being hunted by a vicious criminal cartel.
Probably the most controversial film selected is Compliance, based on the true story of an unknown caller who targeted fast food restaurants across America, phoning up and persuading employees to detain and mistreat young victims on the pretext that they were thieves. Previous screenings have seen many people walk out and the film is reportedly very hard to watch, but while some have called it exploitative there is little doubt that it raises some serious issues.
Alongside the films, the festival will host masterclasses and screen talk events to enable the public to find out more aout the filmmaking process. It runs from the 10th to the 21st of October and you can see our early coverage here.
