“Potter” Alumni Star at the BFI London Film Festival This October!
Last month we saw how Potter alumni took over the Toronto Film Festival, and now it’s the turn of London! The BFI London Film Festival takes place this October, and many familiar faces will be featured in the films being shown over the course of the festival.
The Opening Night Gala will feature Suffragette, staring Helena Bonham Carter (Bellatrix Lestrange) and Brendan Gleeson (Mad-Eye Moody). The Opening Night Gala will take place on Wednesday, October 7. We posted a teaser for the film back in April this year, so we’re excited that the film will be out soon! The film is
an urgent and compelling film – made by British women, about British women who changed the course of history – and it is, quite simply, a film that everyone must see. Director Sarah Gavron (Brick Lane, Village at the End of the World) returns to the Festival with an intense drama that traces the story of the foot soldiers of the early feminist movement as they fought for the right to vote.
And that’s not the only film featuring Potter alumni to take center stage. Who Killed Nelson Nutmeg?, starring Bonnie Wright (Ginny Weasley), will premiere at the festival.
Here’s some more about the film:
Nelson Nutmeg is the squirrel mascot at Nelson’s Retreat seaside holiday park. He is also the centre of the park’s family activities. When Billie sees Nelson involved in a scuffle on a cliff top and fears that he may have been pushed, she and her gang come together to investigate. Their suspicions are further aroused when new Manager Diane (Bonnie Wright […]) starts behaving strangely, a new Nelson Nutmeg arrives for duty and one of their own mysteriously disappears. Soon, no one feels safe as they ask ‘who killed Nelson Nutmeg?’
Dame Maggie Smith (Professor McGonagall) will also feature at the festival, in highly anticipated film The Lady in the Van. The role is one that Maggie previously played in 1999 and again in 2009.
It’s the late 1960s, and Alan Bennett (Alex Jennings) has just moved to leafy Gloucester Crescent in Camden. No sooner has he arrived than he encounters Miss Shepherd (Maggie Smith), a destitute and irascible lady of an indeterminate age who resides in her van up the street. When she outstays her welcome with the neighbours, Bennett takes pity on her and allows her to park the van in his driveway, not realising that she will remain there until her death 15 years later.
Brendan Gleeson isn’t the only Gleeson who will be appearing in a film at the Festival. Brooklyn, featuring Domhnall Gleeson (Bill Weasley), as well as Jim Broadbent (Professor Slughorn) and Julie Walters (Mrs Weasley). Here’s some more about it:
the exquisite pain of choosing – between an Irish homeland and the new promise of America, between the dapper certainty of one suitor and the infectious dreams of another – this is the dilemma that faces Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) and is at the heart of both Colm Tóibín’s best-selling novel and Nick Hornby’s stirring adaptation.
Ralph Fiennes (Lord Voldemort) also makes an appearance in A Bigger Splash. In the film, Ralph plays a music producer, starring alongside Tilda Swinton and Dakota Johnson. Here’s an outline of the plot:
Marianne (Tilda Swinton) is a glittering rock star on a hiatus with her filmmaker lover Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts). Recovering from an operation on her throat, she has retreated from both the public gaze and her performance persona (an androgynous cross between Mick Jagger and David Bowie). Poolside, stripped naked in the scorching Italian sun and seemingly at ease, the lovers are completely unprepared for the sudden arrival of cocky music producer Harry (Ralph Fiennes) and his recently discovered daughter, the petulant and sexy Penelope (Dakota Johnson).
Check out a clip below – warning, adult language!
The Danish Girl is one of the many films that featured at the Toronto Film Festival – and stars our very own Newt Scamander. While Eddie Redmayne is a newcomer to the Potter family, we’ve welcomed him with open arms – and we can’t wait to see this! Check out the trailer here and read our review of the film.
Also new to the Potter family is Colin Farrell, and he stars in The Lobster, another film that was featured at the Toronto Film Festival. The Lobster is a film set in a
near-future dystopia, [where] singledom is outlawed. Anyone not successfully paired up must report to [t]he Hotel, where they have forty-five days to find a mate; otherwise, they’re transformed into an animal of their choosing. In desperation, paunchy divorcee David (Colin Farrell) – who selects the eponymous crustacean for its lengthy lifespan and fertility – flees, prepared to take his chances with [t]he Loners, forest-dwelling fugitives with their own strict individualistic creed.
The BFI London Film Festival runs October 7-18, and the films will be shown across London at a number of venues. Find out more here.
Are you going to any of the screenings? Let us know in the comments.