The 50th Times BFI London Film Festival

The 50^th anniversary festival ran from 18^th October – 2^nd November 2006 and was the biggest and most successful yet.  A total of four million pages were viewed on the website from press launch to the end of the festival, an increase of thirteen per cent on 2005.

 

The festival featured 183 feature films and 131 short films from 48 countries, 438 screenings and 1649 visiting international filmmakers and industry professionals. Online ticket sales leapt to 38.6%, a twenty per cent increase on 2005.  The festival attracted 10,000 new email subscribers bringing the total to 35,000.

 

To mark the 50^th year of the festival the regular programme was supplemented with a spectacular screening in Trafalgar Square and the largest ever surprise screening shown simultaneously in 50 venues across the city. 

 

Among the highpoints of the Festival’s sixteen glamour packed days was the Opening Gala screening of Kevin Macdonald’s, The Last King of Scotland attended by Oscar winner Forest Whitaker (Best Actor for his role as Idi Amin). Will Ferrell, Emma Thompson and Dustin Hoffman introduced Stranger than Fiction, Anthony Minghella introduced the Gala performance of Breaking and Entering and the Festival’s closing night gala performance of Babel was attended by Director Alejandro González Iñárritu and actors Gael Garcia Bernal and Rinko Kikuchi. 

 

In addition to the public screenings, the Festival hosted over 90 education and industry screenings and events, including Think Shoot Distribute and ‘How to be a Stuntperson’ for school-children.  The Filmmakers’ Breakfasts hosted over 200 interviews between the visiting filmmakers and international journalists (a total of nearly 900 accredited press from over 50 countries).

 

Festival Artistic Director Sandra Hebron commented, “We’ve been delighted by the enthusiastic response of filmmakers and audiences alike to our special birthday Festival.  The diversity of the films on offer, the range and calibre of guests who’ve attended, and the success of our industry and educational events puts the Festival in a very strong position as we look forward to our next 50 years”.