{"id":6517,"date":"2009-09-09T23:31:39","date_gmt":"2009-09-09T22:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=6517"},"modified":"2009-09-09T23:35:45","modified_gmt":"2009-09-09T22:35:45","slug":"lineup-for-london-film-festival-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2009\/09\/09\/lineup-for-london-film-festival-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"Lineup for London Film Festival 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"London<\/a><\/p>\n

The official lineup for this year’s London Film Festival<\/a><\/strong> has been announced.<\/p>\n

Featuring 191 features and 113 shorts from almost 50 countries, it takes place next month from 14th-29th October.<\/p>\n

The big news angle is that George Clooney<\/a><\/strong> stars in three of the major films, including: the world premiere of Wes Anderson’s Fantastic Mr. Fox<\/strong> (as the voice of the title character); The Men Who Stare at Goats<\/strong> as a self-proclaimed “Jedi warrior” leading paranormal experiments for the U.S. military, and as a management consultant addicted to air travel in Jason Reitman’s Up in the Air<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The festival’s artistic director Sandra Hebron said that Clooney provided the closest thing there is to a theme at the 53rd annual festival.<\/p>\n

“There are three George Clooney films and four films with nuns in them. That’s about it”.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

On a more serious note she said that if there was a trend to be gleaned from this year’s selection of films, it would be “the return of the auteur”, which was also what some commentators felt about Cannes this year.<\/p>\n

Some of the biggest names in world cinema are in a lineup that includes Austrian director Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon<\/strong> which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes; the acclamed prison drama A Prophet<\/strong> from France’s Jacques Audiard; Jane Campion’s John Keats biopic Bright Star<\/strong>; Steven Soderbergh’s whistle-blower saga The Informant<\/strong>; Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock<\/strong>; Joel and Ethan Coen’s A Serious Man<\/strong>; and Lone Scherfig’s An Education<\/strong> the Nick Hornby-scripted adaptation of Lynn Barber’s memoir about coming of age in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

Among the stars coming over to attend screenings are the aforementioned Clooney, Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Julianne Moore and Emma Thompson.<\/p>\n

For the first time, the festival will give out a best-picture award and\u00a0Amanda Nevill, director of festival organizer the BFI, said her goal was “to take the (London) film festival into the top tier.”<\/p>\n

British films in the schedule include Lucy Bailey’s documentary Mugabe and the White African<\/strong>; Julien Temple’s documentary Oil City Confidential<\/strong>; and Sam Taylor-Wood’s biopic about the young John Lennon Nowhere Boy<\/strong>, which closes the festival.<\/p>\n

Here are the lineups for the two major strands of the festival:<\/p>\n

GALA & SPECIAL SCREENINGS<\/strong><\/p>\n