This year's Opening Gala is Armando Iannucci's comedy The Personal History of David Copperfield, starring Dev Patel, Ben Whishaw, Hugh Laurie, Peter Capaldi, Benedict Wong and Tilda Swinton. Other Gala screenings include Rian Johnson star-studded black comedy / thriller Knives Out as the American Express Gala; Taika Waititi's wartime satire Jojo Rabbit; Michael Winterbottom's Greed, with Steve Coogan as a vulgar, vastly wealthy retail mogul; A Beautiful Day In The Neighbourhood, directed by Marielle Haller and with Tom Hanks as 60's US children's TV idol Fred Rogers, the subject of Morgan Neville's documentary Won't You Be My Neighbour, which played the LFF last year; Le Mans '66, to be released in the US as Ford Vs Ferrari, with Matt Damon as car designer Carroll Shelby, tasked by the Ford company to come up with a racer to beat the cars being made by Enzo Ferrari at the 1966 Le Man 24-hour race, Christian Bale playing the obstinate, difficult and unpredictable British race driver Ken Miles; Marriage Story, starring Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson, and which writer / director Noah Baumbach admits is based on his own divorce, and, as The Mayor Of London's Gala, The Aeronauts, starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, reuniting after the Oscar-winning The Theory Of Everything, as two Victorian researchers, attempting to make the world's highest ever ascent in a balloon for the purpose of studying the weather.
There are also Strand Galas, showcasing films from the festival's various strands - Love, Debate, Laugh, Dare, Thrill, Cult, Journey, Experimenta and Family, and include the Cannes Jury prize-winning Buacurau, written and directed by Kleber Mendonça Filho & Juliano Dornelles, as the Thrill Gala. As the Dare Gala, writer / director Mirrah Foulkes' first feature Judy & Punch, a dark 16th Century spin on the traditional puppet show and the puppeteers who perform it, and starring Mia Wasikowska and Damon Herriman, and as the Laugh Gala, Korean director Kang Hyo-jin's body-swap comedy Naeaneui Geu-nom / The Dude In Me. The Debate Gala will screen Gavin Hood's Official Secrets, starring Keira Knightly as Katherine Gun, the government contract worker who suddenly found herself involved with official documents regarding the UK's involvement in the invasion of Iraq and facing a huge crisis of conscience, and co-starring Matt Smith, Ralph Feinnes and Matthew Goode. The Cult Gala is Robert Eggers' much anticipated two-hander The Lighthouse, with Willem Defoe and Robert Pattinson as two lighthouse keepers on the New England coast at the turn of the century. The Family Gala will feature the animated Abominable, directed by Jill Cullen and Todd Wilderman, with Shanghai teenager Yi becoming the unlikely friend of a Yeti, which has escaped from captivity, and becomes determined to get it back to the mountains of Tibet.
The Festival will close on the 13th with the much anticipated Martin Scorsese-directed crime drama The Irishman, starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci, and based on the book I Heard You Paint Houses by Charles Brandt, De Niro plays Frank Sheeran, an aging hitman, who reflects on his career and his possible involvement with the disappearance of union boss Jimmy Hoffa. Backed by Netflix, Scorsese has said that he only went with the streaming giant since he couldn't raise the considerable budget, estimated by some sources to be as much as $159m (£129.48m), through the usual channels, the film uses considerable de-aging' CGI to show younger representations of De Niro and Pacino's characters in extensive flashbacks.
In the Screen Talks sidebar, director Kim Longinotto, maker of the documentary Shooting The Mafia, will be the subject of an in-depth interview, with more subjects being confirmed nearer the Festival.
In the Special Presentations bracket, screenings will include Cory Finley's black comedy Bad Education, starring Hugh Jackman and Alison Janney and based on what is described as the biggest case of embezzlement in the New York public school system; Blackbird, Roger Michell's remake of Swedish director Bille August's Stille Hjerte / Silent Heart, with Susan Sarandon as a wife and mother with a terminal illness, determined to spend a few days with her family before she takes events in to her own hands; Gitanjali Rao's animated romance Bombay Rose; the documentary The Cave, concerning an underground hospital in Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus, the Syrian capital; Cannes Best Screenplay winner Portrait De La Jeune Fille En Feu / Portrait Of A Lady On Fire, written and directed by Céline Sciamma; Hatsukoi / First Love, estimated to be Takashi Miike's 103rd feature film, and concerning one night in the life of a young boxer and the young woman he falls for being caught in the middle of a Yakuza / Triad street war; and four episodes of Swedish writer / director Lukas Moodysson's black comedy TV series Gösta.
Other notable screenings include the documentaries Cunningham, dealing with famed choreographer Merce Cunningham, made in 3D, and The Kingmaker, concerning the still politically active Imelda Marcos, formerly the First Lady of the Philippines during the reign of her husband; François Ozon's Grâce à Dieu / By The Grace Of God, dealing with child sexual abuse in the French Catholic church; Adam Driver in The Report, Scott Z. Burns' film dealing with the exposure of the CIA's use of torture on suspects; Kirsten Stewart taking the title role as tragic American actress Jean Seberg in Seberg; The Days Of The Bagnold Summer, a comedy directed by Simon Bird, from the TV series The Inbetweeners, and adapted from the graphic novel by Joff Winterhart; Oliver Laxe's Galecian-set drama / thriller O Que Arde / Fire Will Come; Little Joe, a sci-fi story dealing with a genetically-engineered flower and its possible effects on humans, the first English language feature from Austrian director Jessica Hausner; Bertrand Bonello's fantasy Zombi Child; Marco Bellocchio's Sicilian Mafia drama Il Traditore / The Traitor, based on the true story of mob boss Tommaso Buscetta; Vivarium, a sci-fi drama starring Imogen Poots and Jesse Eisenberg as a young couple whose house hunting turns into a bizarre nightmare; The Hammer Films co-production The Lodge, starring Riley Keough; and Lorenzo Mattotti's animated version of Dino Buzzati's satirical novel La Fameuse Invasions Des Ours En Sicile, entitled The Bears' Famous Invasion in English.
The previously reported Official Competition entries include Maxine Peake in the title role of the period drama Fanny Lye Deliver'd, the second feature by Thomas Clay; the psychological drama Saint Maud, the feature debut of Rose Glass; the drama Rose Plays Julie. written and directed by Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor; Alejandro Landes' child soldier drama Manos, which played the Cannes Film Festival to acclaim, and Honey Boy, directed by Alma Har'el from a screenplay by Shia LaBeouf and dealing with his difficult and often emotionally abusive early years as a child actor.
The Treasures selection will feature a number of newly restored films including Roger Corman's The Masque Of The Red Death, Francesco Rosi's acclaimed drama Cadaveri Eccellenti / Illustrious Corpses, starring Lino Ventura; the 1934 Ginger Rogers starrer The Finishing School, strongly condemned by the US Legion of Decency at time of release; Nona Menkes' indie drama Queen Of Hearts, and Nietzchka Keene's 1990 Icelandic drama The Juniper Tree, with a young Björk in the lead, as well as 4K restorations of David Lynch's The Elephant Man Jean Epstein's 1929 drama / documentary Finis Terrae Bob Fosse's musical Sweet Charity, starring Shirley MacLaine, and Rene Clair's 1924 production Paris Qui Dort, regarded as one of the very earliest examples of French science-fiction.
Booking opens for BFI members at 10.00 on 6th September, and for general sale on the 13th.