Morning:
6°c
Record-breaking London film festival ends on emotional high
Louise Jury, Chief Arts Correspondent31 Oct 2008
THE London Film Festival notched up record audiences in a two-week run ending with the European premiere of the new movie from Trainspotting director Danny Boyle.
Slumdog Millionaire, a tough but heart-lifting tale filmed in India, was the final movie in a programme that attracted about 120,000 people.
The total will be confirmed today, but is several thousand higher than last year's attendance figure of 115,000, making it the largest in the festival's 52-year history.
The event, organised by the British Film Institute, went out on an emotional high with warm applause and cheers for Boyle's new movie. It wowed a last-night crowd that included John Hurt and directors Stephen Frears, Gurinder Chadha and Stephen Woolley. Chadha, director of Bend It Like Beckham and the Bollywood Jane Austen Bride And Prejudice, said it was her "must-see" of the festival - not least because of Boyle's bravery in shooting in the slums of India.
"Some of the crew who worked with me on Bride worked on this. Danny is such a fantastic film-maker and such a maverick. He will go the whole nine yards again and again," she said.
Boyle, who lives in east London, was accompanied to the screening by the film's star Dev Patel and co-stars, Anil Kapoor, an enormous name in India, and Freida Pinto, on her first visit to the UK.
But he admitted the film did not even have a North American distributor until recently and was set to prove a disaster. "Until about eight weeks ago, we were dead in the water," he said. The Telluride and Toronto Film Festivals - where an instant buzz prompted talk of Oscar nominations transformed its fate. The film will now be seen in America and, in January, in the UK.
"It's easy to forget about the importance of film festivals, but they give a platform to films that no one knows about and to films that have been dismissed as worthless. We were a bit of an underdog but we're not any more," Boyle said.
Amanda Nevill, director of the British Film Institute, said it was sad the fortnight had gone so quickly.
But she added: "Every year, the festival gets better and better. There were more world premieres, more European premieres and British films this year than any of us can remember."
Hurt, who said he had been to "as many films as possible", said: "I think it's been a fantastic festival."
