Celebrating 17 Years of Film.Biz.Fans.  London Film Festival
London Film Festival  Run by the British Film Institute, the
London Film Festival is the UK's largest public film festival,
usually screening over 300 films from 60 countries. Held every
October, the festival was founded in 1956 when a group of film
critics including Dilys Powell of the Sunday Times, decided that
"with Cannes and Venice having their festivals, as did
Edinburgh, so surely London should too."The first actual
festival was conceived by the then BFI British Film Institute
Director James Quinn, and took place at the NFT (National Film
Theatre, now renamed BFI Southbank). It screened only 15-20
films from a renowned selection of directors, including Akira
Kurosawa, Satyajit Ray, Yasujirō Ozu, Luchino Visconti and
Andrzej Wajda. Since then, the festival has generally been
viewed as a showcase for major works from Cannes, Toronto, and
Sundance to have their UK premieres. Recently, the festival has
made strides in branching out beyond this