London Film Festival announces 2016 programme

London Film Festival, the UK's flashiest celebration of cinema, will return in October with some of the most eagerly anticipated films of the year.

The wide-ranging lineup includes two great British filmmakers taking their first dip across the pond. Ben Wheatley follows up his JG Ballard adaptation High-Rise with high octane crime film Free Fire, starring Oscar-winner Brie Larson, while Andrea Arnold brings her sun-soaked and tune-filled American Honey, which won the Jury Prize at Cannes earlier in the year. Other much-talked-about Cannes titles include Paul Verhoeven’s Elle, comedy Toni Erdmann from German filmmaker Maren Ade, Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson starring Adam Driver, and Park Chan-wook's The Handmaiden.

There’s also new films from some Skinny favourites, including Xavier Dolan (It’s only the End of the World), Terence Davies (A Quiet Passion), Pablo Larraín (Neruda), François Ozon (Frantz) and Kelly Reichardt (Certain Women).

Other much anticipated titles appearing at LFF: Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash follow-up La La Land, starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, which is currently getting five-star raves at Venice Film Festival; Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi film Arrival, starring Amy Adams; and Sundance smash Manchester-by-the-Sea, from Kenneth Lonergan.

The festival opens on 2 Oct with the European Premiere of Amma Asante’s A United Kingdom, starring David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike, and closes 14 days later with Wheatley’s Free Fire. Our writers will be there sending back reviews, as well as interviews with the great and the good attending the festival. Look out for more on LFF at theskinny.co.uk/film