This year’s London Film Festival is a Tom Hanks double bill with 232 other features in between.
The 12-day movie showcase opens Wednesday with “Captain Phillips,” a drawn-from-life thriller starring Hanks as a cargo ship captain held captive by Somali pirates.
In the festival’s closer, “Saving Mr. Banks,” Hanks plays a very different real-life figure — Walt Disney, sparring with British writer P.L. Travers over the movie adaptation of her children’s classic “Mary Poppins.” The film has its world premiere in London on Oct. 20.
Artistic director Clare Stewart said the double dose of Hanks was “a happy accident.”
The 57th London Film Festival offers 234 features and 134 shorts, as well as a lineup of stars including Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Judi Dench, Carey Mulligan, Ralph Fiennes and Daniel Radcliffe.
Founded in 1957 to show the best of world cinema to a British audience, the festival has recently tried to carve out a place on the international movie calendar with bigger pictures and more glittering stars.
“Captain Phillips” is one of several films in the lineup already generating awards-season buzz; others include Alfonso Cuaron’s space odyssey “Gravity,” Joel and Ethan Coen’s folk saga “Inside Llewyn Davis” and Steve McQueen’s powerful historical drama “12 Years A Slave.”
Stewart, in her second year as festival chief, hopes to make London a more important stop for movies during Hollywood’s ever-expanding awards season.
Stewart said one of her goals is to draw attention to “films that might be quite surprising and are not on people’s radar already.”
She’s particularly excited about John Curran’s “Tracks,” starring Mia Wasikowska as a woman who walks across the Australian Outback, and “We Are the Best,” Lukas Moodysson’s tale of an all-female punk band in 1980s’ Sweden.
“Our official competition gives us the opportunity to shed light on some films that might be positioning themselves for some of the performing awards in awards season, or for some of the foreign-language prizes,” Stewart said.
The festival will hand out prizes for best picture, best first feature, best documentary and best British newcomer at an Oct. 19 ceremony. Horror icon Christopher Lee will receive an honorary British Film Institute Fellowship.
Blizzard Entertainment President Johanna Faries Talks About AI, DEI, The Return Of BlizzCon
California gaming giant Blizzard Entertainment announced Thursday that its popular event BlizzCon is coming back after several years off.
The celebration of all things Blizzard, which will be held at the Anaheim Convention Center, is scheduled for September 2026. Blizzard last held the event in 2023. Next year's BlizzCon will include staples like its opening ceremony — which typically includes big game announcements — as well as panels and other experiences.
Johanna Faries, president of Blizzard Entertainment, said BlizzCon is part of Blizzard's role as an entertainment company that stretches beyond the boundaries of making games. BlizzCon, she said, is an entertainment platform and "an opportunity to create a different kind of gathering well for gamers."
"There are so many stories at an individual level, just at BlizzCon alone, about how people's lives were changed: I met my partner there. I finally could bond with my son in a way that I couldn't before, thanks to BlizzCon," said Faries. "We take that role very seriously."
Faries discussed gaming's growing popularity in pop culture, and why the medium is at the forefront of entertainment, with comedian Conan O'Brien at the SXSW Film & TV Festival in Texas on Tuesday.
She recently spoke with The Associated Press.
Q: What do you think it is about the last few years that has propelled gaming to the forefront?
Faries: I love that it's happened. I think it's been really just wonderful to also witness that change in conversation and zeitgeist and understanding. A lot of the things we talk about now is it's really less about, you know, who is a gamer. It's really what is anyone playing at any given moment in time. This also goes back to, I think,... Read More