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  • 5 days ago
The 70th edition of the BFI London Film Festival has officially launched on the South Bank.Speaking to The Standard, BFI CEO Ben Roberts and LFF Artistic Director Kristy Matheson revealed how this year’s festival celebrates the capital - from opening with Elsinore, an Andrew Scott-led drama set next door at the National Theatre, to showcasing films from 88 countries.

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00:00I mean it's incredible every year we're just astounded by the array of talent that is working
00:05in front of and behind the screen and this is no exception. I think cinema is a very unique medium
00:10it really allows you to have this very intimate relationship with a story or a place that could
00:16be very disconnected to your own experience and there's something about being in a room
00:20with many many strangers sitting in the dark it disarms people in a way and it makes them
00:26much more open and receptive to receive ideas so I think that's what makes cinema very special
00:31and the world is a is a very strange and troubled place and so now more than ever I think
00:36it's
00:36really important that we try and understand other and we try and understand each other
00:41and that's what film really does. We're Londoners and we're very proud of the city we live in
00:46for being so intersectional and diverse and like all of the world is in London and I feel that's
00:53exactly what you see on the screen like the whole world film's brilliant at telling taking you to
00:59places to have the whole world come through filmmaking to London for 12 days I think the
01:06audiences just naturally meet that with great enthusiasm. Depending on what your mood is we have
01:10got a film for you if you love your cult films and you like things a bit scary then we've
01:14got plenty
01:15of great films to choose from there there's a lot of great films in laugh we have some very funny
01:19films this year wonderful documentaries and also some really thought-provoking films about our time
01:26so Al Skibney has a new film on Elon Musk which is incredible and very dense and then some wonderful
01:33films from all over the world all up we have 88 countries represented in the program. We've got films
01:37in the festival that are a real celebration of London you know the opening night film being sort of
01:43centered right next door at the National Theatre is a is a really big deal we have a lot of
01:50London
01:50filmmakers here it's multi-disciplinary games immersive work TV shows feature films from the UK and around
01:59the world it's just a very very dynamic multimedia celebration over 12 days I mean it doesn't get any better
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