The Times BFI 51^st London Film Festival: 17 October - 1 November 2007

The Times BFI London Film Festival is the most highly regarded and anticipated film event in the UK’s cultural calendar, attracting leading international filmmakers, industry professionals and the media together with large public audiences to London for a two week showcase of the best cinema from around the world.  The Times BFI London Film Festival is one of Europe’s largest non-competitive festivals. The 2006 edition welcomed 1,649 visiting international filmmakers and industry professionals as well as 900 press delegates from 51 countries.

Alongside a public screening programme which presented 183 feature films and 131 short films in 2006, the Festival hosts panel discussions, live events, screen talks, and Q&As as well as a comprehensive education programme and a slate of industry events and screenings.

All about French films (click on the title to see the screenings):

A Secret (Un Secret)      
All is forgiven (Tout est pardonné)      
Angel      
Back to Normandie (Retour en Normandie)      
Before I Forget (Avant que j'oublie)      
Captain Ahab (Capitaine Achab)      
Caramel      
Chaos (Le Chaos)      
Don't touch the Axe (Ne Touchez pas la Hache)      
Eve (Eva)      
Flight of the Red Balloon (Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge)      
Heartbeat Detector (La Question Humaine)      
Horse Thieves (Voleurs de chevaux)      
I Always Wanted to be a Ganster (J'ai toujours rêvé d'être un gangster)      
I Do (Prête-moi ta main)      
In Your Wake (Nos Retrouvailles)      
Max & Co      
Mister Lonely      
Persepolis      
Return to Goree (Retour à Gorée)      
Substitute      
Terror's Advocate (L'Avocat de la terreur)      
The Band's Visit (La Visite de la Fanfare)      
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et le Papillon)      
The last mistress (Une Vieille Maîtresse)      
The Secret of the Grain (La Graine et le mulet)      
Very Well, Thank You (Très bien, merci)      
Water Lilies (Naissance des pieuvres)

Short Cuts & Animation: French Films Programme

- Nyaman 'Gouacou (Your Mother's Meat) / Nyaman 'Gouacou (Viande de ta mère): Laurent Sénéchal, 2006, 19 mins: An African teenager plays a joke on her classmate.
Part of the "Global Journeys in the 21st Century" programme, Friday 27 October at 8.45 & Monday 29 October at 4.00, BFI Southbank.

- The Guitar Lesson / La Leçon de Guitare: Martin Rit, 2006,18 mins: Michel is not doing much with his life. When he comes across an ad saying "young man gives guitar lessons for  beginner" he decides to get started.
- Hinterland, Geoffrey Boulangé, 2007, 28 mins: Three characters in the vast landscape of the Central Massif. Leaving the moutain's well-trodden paths behind, a boy gives his young brother and mother a difficult choice to make.
Part of the "Death to Short Film 2" programme, Wednesday 24 October at 6.30 & Thursday 25 October at 3.30, BFI Southbank.

- La Queue de la Souris: Benjamin Renner, 2007, 3 mins: Can a mouse outwith a lion?
- The First Journey / Premier Voyage, Gregoire Sivan, 2007, 10 mins: Chloe and her father share their first real conversation during a trip.
Part of the "International Animation Panorama" programme Saturday 20 October at 1.45 & Monday 22 October at 2.00, BFI Southbank.

Tickets can be booked online at www.lff.org.uk  or by telephone on: 020 7928 3232 from Saturday 29 September. 
BFI members booking opens on Wednesday 26 September.

For more information, visit www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/lff/