The 63rd BFI London Film Festival announced its full lineup yesterday, on 29 August 2019, along with the screening dates. Run by the British Film Institute (BFI) in partnership with American Express, the full programme includes 229 feature films. These are from 78 countries, with 40% of them directed or co-directed by women. And five of these are from India.
The festival will run from 2 – 3 October 2019, with the tickets up for sale from 12 September 2019. Find out all about the films along with screening dates below.
Bombay Rose by Gitanjali Rao
SECTION: Special Presentations
Screening Dates: 12 – 13 October
Producer: Rohit Khattar, Anand Mahindra
CAST: Cyli Vivek Khare, Amit Deondi, Gargi Shitole
Bombay Rose is inspired by the romance of Bollywood and told through exquisite hand-painted animation created by award-winning animator Gitanjali Rao. Based on true events, and painted frame by frame and woven delicately through music, a red rose brings together three tales of impossible loves. Love between a Hindu girl and a Muslim boy. Love between two women. Love of an entire city for its Bollywood stars.
Gitanjali Rao’s film has opened the 34th Venice Critics Week at the Venice Film Festival with great reviews and is also playing at Toronto Film Festival. Watch the trailer here.
The Sky in Pink by Shonali Bose
SECTION: Love
Screening Dates: 6 – 7 October
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala, Siddharth Roy Kapur
CAST: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Farhan Akhtar, Zaira Wasim
The Sky is Pink is inspired by late Indian author Aisha Chaudhary and her family and has been touted as a humorous love story. Aisha Chaudhary was a young Indian author and motivational speaker with pulmonary fibrosis who passed away at the age of nineteen. She is the author of the book My Little Epiphanies, published one day before her death. In the film, the deceased teenage daughter narrates the story of her mother and father’s poignant, affecting, and inspiring romance.
This is Shonali Bose’s fourth outing, her previous being Amu (2005), Chittagong (2012) and Margarita With A Straw (2014). While Zaira Wasim plays the role of Aisha Chaudhary, Priyanka Chopra and Farhan Akhtar play her parents in The Sky is Pink. Rohit Saraf plays Aisha’s brother Ishaan Chaudhary in the film. The film will also have a Gala Premiere on 13 September 2019 at the Toronto Film Festival.
Jallikattu by Lijo Jose Pellissery
Writer: S Hareesh
SECTION: Thrill
Screening Dates: 3 – 5 October 2019
Producer: Thomas Panicker
CAST: Chemban Vinod Jose, Antony Varghese, Sabu Abdusamad
The inhabitants of a village find themselves increasingly addicted to red meat, placing both butchers and abattoirs in high demand. In a bootleg slaughterhouse, a buffalo fights its would-be executioners and escapes, wrecking a local neighbourhood as it flees. Jallikattu takes you down a thrilling ride into the depths of human bloodlust and the darkness of the heart, where the rampaging buffalo is hunted by a violent mob.
This is the seventh film by veteran Malayalam filmmaker Pellissery, whose last two films Ee Ma Yau and Angamaly Diaries have found cult fame.
Axone by Nicholas Kharkongor
SECTION: Laugh
Screening Dates: 2 – 3 October
Producer: Vikram Mehra, Siddharth Anand Kumar
CAST: Sayani Gupta, Lin Laishram, Dolly Ahluwalia
This bittersweet comedy follows a group of girlfriends from the north-east states of Assam and Meghalaya, who are trying to throw a secret wedding party for a soon-to-be bride. With a Punjabi busybody landlady and useless boyfriends to boot, the group’s plans soon go awry as the women attempt to cook the traditional axone wedding stew. A pork stew with pungent local herbs, the overpowering smell of the ingredients creates further drama. Will food and love be enough to save the day?
Axone is Nicholas Kharkongor’s second film. His debut film Mantra featured Rajat Kapoor and Kalki Koechlin, which he made after crowdfunding successfully for Rs 20 lakhs.
The Gold Laden Sheep and The Sacred Mountain by Ridham Janve
SECTION: Journey
Screening Dates: 6 – 8 October 2019
Producer – Writer: Ridham Janve, Akshay Singh
CAST: Arjun Pandit, Lokendra Gurung
Myth and film converge in the Himalayas in The Gold Laden Sheep and The Sacred Mountain. Gaddi shepherd Arjun and servant Bahadur guide their herd with skilful precision on the harsh landscape, passing time in the gruff friendship that their difference in age and status allows. One night, friends bring in the news of a crashed fighter jet in a distant valley on a mythical sacred mountain, with rumours of gold on board. As their thoughts turn to the reward for its location, their humble mountain existence turns into a scene of increasing chaos.
Ridham Janve’s debut film, which moves between documentary observation and metaphysical fable, won the Silver Gateway Award at the 2018 Mumbai Film Festival and the FIPRESCI Award at the 2019 Hong Kong International Film Festival.