London Film Festival, London

The Times BFI London Film Festival is the UK's largest public film event, screening over 300 films from 60 countries. The festival, the LFF, currently in its 53rd year, is held every year in the second half of October by the British Film Institute and currently sponsored by The Times newspaper. The Festival presents selected new films from the full spectrum of world cinema, with an extensive schedule of industry and public forums, education events, lectures and celebrity interviews.

The festival is 'topped and tailed' by the opening and closing galas which feature a more formal atmosphere, larger venue in central London and speeches by organisers, directors or producers, and often the actors themselves. The closing gala also gives awards to people involved in film for their various achievements. Other than these two events the screenings are quite informal and similar to normal cinema experience except for two things; the Q&A session and people actually watching the credits! Many of the screenings are attended by some of the people involved in making the film in question, from actors and directors, to producers and stuntmen. They speak briefly about the film before it screens and often request the audience to ask questions after the film in a Q&A.

The festival is divided into themes which cover different areas of interest - in 2008 these were; Galas and Special Screenings, Film on the Square, New British Cinema, French Revolutions, Cinema Europa, World Cinema, Experimenta, Treasures from the Archives, Short Cuts and Animation. In 2008 the festival, whilst focused around Leicester Square and the BFI Southbank (formerly known as the NFT) in central London, used 18 venues around central London for their screenings.