Film · London
Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman Open the 70th London Film Festival
Simon Stone's Elsinore opens LFF's milestone edition on 7 October — a National Theatre story premiering a few hundred metres from where it happened.
The BFI London Film Festival turns 70 this year, and it opens with a film about this city's own stage. Simon Stone's Elsinore — the European premiere — opens the festival at the Royal Festival Hall on 7 October, with the festival running to 18 October. Andrew Scott and Olivia Colman lead, with an ensemble that reads like a British acting census: Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn, Juliet Stevenson, Joe Locke, Adeel Akhtar, Peter Mullan.
The film tells the story of Scottish actor Ian Charleson, who faced incredible odds while preparing to give the performance of his life in Hamlet at the National Theatre, from a script by Stephen Beresford. The BFI itself points out the resonance: the Royal Festival Hall sits near the National, where Charleson's celebrated performance took place. London's flagship film festival, opening its 70th edition with a London story, on the street where it happened.
A Hamlet story, premiered a few hundred metres from the stage it happened on.
The festival closes on 18 October with the UK premiere of Jesse Eisenberg's musical comedy The Debut, also at the Royal Festival Hall. The full programme lands on 2 September; standard tickets go on sale in September from £10 plus booking fee, with £6 tickets for anyone 25 and under. Elsinore reaches UK cinemas on 29 January 2027 via STUDIOCANAL — but the room that matters sees it first.