London Film Festival 2008
52nd London Film Festival is set to be bigger than ever, with a huge selection of screenings, talks and special events lined up.
London film fest artistic director Sandra Hebron unveiled a program that includes 15 world, 20 European and 119 U.K. preems.
“We are excited that London in October will play host to world renowned directors, writers and actors, as well as to some of the most important new voices in international cinema,”
she said and added:
“I spent the weekend reading about the Venice Film Festival and some of the things that I read suggested that it wasn’t a vintage year for cinema. Well, luckily for us, while we do give awards for short films, the fact that we are not a prize-giving festival gives us much freer reign to screen a series of great films.”
The festival’s opening and closing gala screenings had already been announced: Ron Howard’s “Frost/Nixon” reimagines a series of interviews between the British TV personality and the disgraced American president and Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire.”
With films from all over the world, each year there are close to 180 feature films screened as well as documentaries, restored classics, shorts, animation and artists’ film and video installations, featuring approximately 20 screenings and special events every day.
This year’s London Film Festival includes a record number of world and European premieres with a total of 189 features and 108 shorts screening.
Scarlett Johansson denies premiere snub
Scarlett Johansson has dismissed claims that she snubbed the premiere at Cannes Film Festival of her new film because her “diva” demands were not met.
The actress sparked speculation when she failed to show up at the screening of Woody Allen movie Vicky Christina Barcelona at Cannes on Saturday.
It was rumoured that the French arm of distributor Warner Bros had refused to agree to her list of demands, which were said to include a £4,000-per-day makeup artist.
Her publicist denied the reports that Johansson’s absence was a result of unavoidable “scheduling conflicts”.
