'Pinocchio' by Guillermo del Toro, 'My Father's Dragon' at the BFI London Film Fest world premieres

The 66th BFI London Film Festival (taking place from 5 to 16 October) has announced that this year it will premiere Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio and director Nora Twomey's new film My Father's Dragon (Cartoon Saloon). Also on tap is Creature, a new collaboration between acclaimed choreographer Akram Khan and Academy Award winner Asif Kapadia and the previously announced opening gala, the big-screen adaptation of the hugely successful and award-winning stage musical. Olivier Matilda the Musical by Roald Dahl.

Netflix has just announced release dates for its next animation slate, including these two LFF preview titles.

As part of its mission to highlight the impressive range of creative talent in the UK, the BFI London Film Festival will help launch a rich selection of homegrown world premieres. In addition to the three UK productions World Premiereing as part of the episodic strand, the Festival will present the claustrophobic comedy about whistleblower Klokkenluider, the directorial debut of actor Neil Maskell (Kill List) starring Amit Shah, Tom Burke and Jenna Coleman, and Welsh La bittersweet love story by director Jamie Adams, partly improvised, She Is Love, starring Sam Riley (Control) and Haley Bennett (Cyrano). Award-winning short filmmaker Dionne Edwards delivers on the promise of early work with her heart-pumping debut, Pretty Red Dress, which investigates black masculinity and family dynamics.

Other UK debuts to be launched at the Festival include Andrew Cumming's low-budget Paleolithic horror, The Origin; Fridjof Ryder Inland's dark thriller, starring Mark Rylance and acclaimed Anglo-Kenyan artist, Grace Ndiritu's long-running debut, Becoming Plant.

UK documentary cinema is also well represented with world premieres including Edward Lovelace's ecstatic Name Me Lewand (The Possibilities Are Endless) which explores the experience of a deaf Kurdish boy, If the Streets Were on Fire, a portrait London's BikeStormz community which was featured in LFF's Works-in-Progress showcase as part of the UK's New Talent Days 2021 and two new Kanaval films: A People's History of Haiti in Six Chapters and Blue Bag Life, produced by Natasha Dack-Ojumo, co-founder of Tigerlily Film (Polystyrene: I Am a Cliché). Yemi Bamiro also returns to LFF with his sequel to Michael Jordan's portrait, One Man and His Shoes, with Super Eagles '96, on the Nigerian football team.

You can find details on the previously announced XR selections and short films in competition on the BFI London Film Festival website.

www.bfi.org.uk/bfi-london-film-festival

My Father's Dragon
BFI LFF WORLD PREMIER (on Netflix November 4th and in select cinemas)
From the five-time Oscar-nominated animation studio Cartoon Saloon ( The Secret of Kells, Song of the Sea, Wolfwalkers ) and Oscar-nominated director Nora Twomey ( The Breadwinner ), comes an exquisite film inspired by Newbery-honored children's book by author Ruth Stiles Gannett. Struggling to cope with a move to the city with his mother, Elmer escapes in search of Wild Island and a young dragon waiting to be saved. Elmer's adventures introduce him to ferocious beasts, a mysterious island and the friendship of a lifetime.

Directed by Twomey and written by Meg LeFauve, both executive producers alongside Tomm Moore, Gerry Shirren, Ruth Coady and Alan Maloney, the voice by My Father's Dragon is played by Jacob Tremblay, Gaten Matarazzo, Golshifteh Farahani, Dianne Wiest, Rita Moreno, Chris O'Dowd, Judy Greer, Alan Cumming, Yara Shahidi, Jackie Earle Haley, Mary Kay Place, Leighton Meester, Spence Moore II, Adam Brody, Charlyne Yi, Maggie Lincoln, Jack Smith, Whoopi Goldberg and Ian McShane.

Pinocchio by Guillermo del Toro 
BFI LFF WORLD PREMIERE (On Netflix on December 9th and in some cinemas) The
Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro and award-winning stop-motion legend Mark Gustafson reinvent the classic Carlo Collodi story of the legendary wooden boy with an extravagant tour de force that finds Pinocchio on an enchanted adventure that transcends worlds and reveals the life-giving power of love.

Del Toro directs the project as director with Gustafson, screenwriter with Patrick McHale and producer with Lisa Henson, Gary Ungar, Alex Bulkley and Corey Campodonico. The voice cast includes Gregory Mann, Ewan McGregor, David Bradley, Tilda Swinton, Christoph Waltz, Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Tim Blake Nelson and Burn Gorman.