Some of these I’ve seen in advance, at festivals such as Cannes or Venice, others I’ve just heard about from buzz and chatter, and others I just like the sound of and are worth catching because you might see their director or stars do Q&A sessions afterwards – that’s the special atmosphere of the LFF.
You’ve got to pick The Favourite – should be a major Oscar contender, with delicious performances from Olivia Colman as bilious Queen Anne and a pitched battle for her favours between Rachel Weisz ’s Lady Marlborough and Emma Stone’s scheming scullery maid.
I’m really looking forward to Can You Ever Forgive Me (featured image), a true crime story of a celebrity biographer who hits on a get-rich-quick scheme – Melissa McCarthy is, I’ve heard, amazing in the lead role in what’s already looking like a very heated Best Actress Oscar race…
Talking of which – could it be ’s time to return? She’s knockout in Colette, the French feminist writer in louche belle époque era Paris with Dominic West.
As for best actor – what about Hugh Jackman playing Gary Hart in The Front Runner, a political satire based on real events about the man who could have been President, but for morality and sexuality biting back.
And decide for yourself on Suspiria – italian maestro Luca Guadagino and his muse Tilda Swinton will be in town to present their spooky, bone-cracking tale of a Berlin Wall era ballet school and the hidden power struggles within… with a debut film score form Thom Yorke …
Can’t wait to see Jessie Buckley in British film Wild Rose alongside Julie Walters as she dreams of leaving her Glasgow life to become a country music star.
And who isn’t salivating for director Barry Jenkins follow up to Oscar winner Moonlight? If Beale Street could Talk is an adaptation of a James Baldwin novel, and is the Love Gala. Prepare to swoon, from what I hear…
You’ve just got to see ROMA from Alfonso Cuaron, the london-based Mexican film maker behind Gravity is back on earth, back in his native Mexico City for a childhood memoir in dreamy black and white, about the maid who raised him and his unruly siblings in the well-offfamily home in the suburb called Roma…
In the Official Competition, do flock to Birds of Passage, a sort of Scarface meets National Geography tale of drugs in the Amazon jungle. Hungarian film Sunset will blow you away and leave you reeling; while Italy’s Happy as Lazzaro is an out of this world tale of innocence and exploitation in modern-day Italy.
In the First Film section, vying for the prestigious Sutherland Award, look out for Belgian gem Girl about a transgender dancer; and I hear great things about Cathy Yan’s Dead Pigs, a Shanghai-set culture clash comedy. Also intriguing me is Holiday, a Turkish gangster tale set in the holiday town of Bodrum.
If Docs are your thing – and they’re very much where it’s at these days – you have to catch What You Gonna Do When the World’s On Fire, as poetic as you can be about racism in New Orleans; while Young and Alive deals with modern terrorism head on through Parisians affected by the Bataclan attacks; also very French-soudning is John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, focusing on the Super brat in the French Open final v Ivan Lendl in 1984 – sort of Zidane but with tennis – I can be serious….