Stop-motion animation Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio and Asif Kapadia’s Creature are among the 22 features having their world premiere at the 66th BFI London Film Festival (LFF, October 5-16).
Scroll down for full line-up
Pinocchio is directed by del Toro and Mark Gustafson, and produced by del Toro, Lisa Henson (Jim Henson Company), Gary Ungar, Alex Bulkley, and Corey Campodonico (Shadow Machine).
The ensemble voice cast includes Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, Christopher Waltz, Tilda Swinton, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Tim Blake Nelson, Burn Gorman, and newcomer Gregory Mann.
Creature, from the UK documentarian behind 2015’s Amy and 2010’s Senna, captures the latest project from choreographer Akram Khan – an adaptation his 2021 stage production inspired by Georg Büchner’s play Woyzeck.
The film is produced by Uzma Hasan for English National Ballet and the BFI recently acquired UK and Ireland rights.
Nora Twomey’s animation My Father’s Dragon is also having its world premiere at the festival. Made with Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon, the Netflix film sees a boy and a young dragon stranded on an island with unknown beasts.
Cartoon Saloon’s previous four features, The Secret Of Kells (co-directed by Twomey), Song Of The Sea, The Breadwinner (directed by Twomey) and Wolfwalkers were all nominated for best animated feature at the Academy Awards.
The festival’s world premieres feature 12 UK productions and co-productions, including the previously announced Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical from Working Title.
Among the other UK productions are Neil Maskell’s comedy Klokkenluider and Edward Lovelace’s coming-of-age documentary Name Me Lawand.
Three TV series from the UK will also premiere at LFF. Hugo Blick’s The English stars Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer and follows one woman’s journey to avenge the death of her son. It is made for BBC Two and Prime Video.
Playwright Jez Butterworth will bring his Prime Video series Mammals to the festival. Starring Sally Hawkins and James Corden, the episodic series explores marriage and monogamy.
The third series world premiering at LFF is A Spy Among Friends, created by Alexander Cary and directed by Nick Murphy. Guy Pearce plays an MI6 agent exposed as a KGB spy, with Damian Lewis and Anna Maxwell Martin also starring.
Feature films
Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio (US)
Dirs. Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson
Creature (UK)
Dir. Asif Kapadia
The Estate (US)
Dir. Dean Craig
Becoming Plant (UK-Den-Nor)
Dir. Grace Ndiritu
Blue Bag Life
Dirs. Lisa Selby, Rebecca Hirsch Lloyd-Evans, Alex Fry
If The Streets Were On Fire (UK)
Dir. Alice Russell
Inland (UK)
Dir. Fridtjof Ryder
Klokkenluider (UK)
Dir. Neil Maskell
Name Me Lawand (UK)
Dir. Edward Lovelace
Pretty Red Dress (UK)
Dir. Dionne Edwards
She Is Love (UK)
Dir. Jamie Edwards
Super Eagles ’96 (UK-Nig)
Dir. Yemi Bamiro
The Origin (UK)
Dir. Andrew Cumming
The Blue Rose Of Forgetfulness (US)
Dir. Lewis Klahr
The Girl From Tomorrow (It-Fr)
Dir. Marta Savina
The Blaze (Fr)
Dir. Quentin Raynaud
Kanaval: A People’s History Of Haiti In Six Chapters (Haiti-UK)
Dirs. Leah Gordon, Eddie Hutton Mills
My Father’s Dragon (Ire)
Dir. Nora Twomey
Xale (Senegal-Ivory Coast)
Dir. Moussa Sene Absa
The Store (Swe-It)
Dir. Ami-ro Sköld
Shttl (Ukr-Fr)
Dir. Ady Walter
TV series
The English (UK-Sp)
Dir/creator. Hugo Blick
A Spy Among Friends (UK)
Creator. Alexander Cary, Dir. Nick Murphy
Mammals (UK)
Scr. Jez Butterworth, Dir. Stephanie LaingG
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