London Film Festival 2011

[superhero]

Well it's good, really shows how much you love cinema! You're putting money where your mouth is. I've gone for the galas too first, well the ones I think will sell out. There's quite a few other ones I want to see too, but I will wait and see when the public booking opens, not sure I can spend so much time watching films in those 2 weeks.
Shame the screening of The Help clashes with 2 films I want to see at the London Film Festival on that night...
And I sure hope the surprise film won't be the Help!!! That's happened to me once, I've seen the film before the surprise film screening. N-o-t g-o-o-d!

[superhero]

Well it's good, really shows how much you love cinema! You're putting money where your mouth is. I've gone for the galas too first, well the ones I think will sell out. There's quite a few other ones I want to see too, but I will wait and see when the public booking opens, not sure I can spend so much time watching films in those 2 weeks.
Shame the screening of The Help clashes with 2 films I want to see at the London Film Festival on that night...
And I sure hope the surprise film won't be the Help!!! That's happened to me once, I've seen the film before the surprise film screening. N-o-t g-o-o-d!

(although in this case it would be a few days after)

[kevinknapman]

Well it's good, really shows how much you love cinema! You're putting money where your mouth is. I've gone for the galas too first, well the ones I think will sell out. There's quite a few other ones I want to see too, but I will wait and see when the public booking opens, not sure I can spend so much time watching films in those 2 weeks.
Shame the screening of The Help clashes with 2 films I want to see at the London Film Festival on that night...
And I sure hope the surprise film won't be the Help!!! That's happened to me once, I've seen the film before the surprise film screening. N-o-t g-o-o-d!

Well it definitely won't be The Help as that's had a public screening already at Empire Big Screen. Most surprise films in the past have been films that haven't had a public screening in the UK. Plus The Help is out 3 days later, I can't see them showing a film that's released that soon afterwards.

[superhero]

I think there's at least been 2 incidences of that happening, The long kiss goodnight and Breakdown

[gump9452]

The Iron Lady is conspicuous by its absence and was rumoured to feature at some point.
I wonder if this could be the secret screening.

[kevinknapman]

I think there's at least been 2 incidences of that happening, The long kiss goodnight and Breakdown

That was a long time ago though and under a different festival director. If you're talking about films released soon after, Breakdown wasn't released until May the following year. Probably the longest gap between surprise film screening and release date they've ever had.

[superhero]

Precisely the problem with Sandra Hebron, you just know she would never go for films like that. They are "too commercial" for her

[kevinknapman]

There was School of Rock. Though she probably only chose that because it was directed by indie darling Richard Linklater. It just happened to be his most commercial film. It was an interesting change to have a festival director willing to show artier fare in that slot but it also led to more disappointments. Mrs Henderson Presents and Capitalism: A Love Story being good examples of that. Both films I wouldn't have chosen to see if they were included in the programme originally.

[kevinknapman]

Having said that the previous director had Johnny Mnemonic one year, thankfully before I started going (Breakdown was the 1st one I went too), so even he messed it up occasionally.

[superhero]

Well the whole point was to mix it up, sometimes commercial, sometimes arty. She just only ever seems to go for the arty or obscure.
Yes talking of Richard Linklater, he's back again this year. I wish they were brave enough to pick some other directors/actors. Hopefully now she's going, they won't be doing George Clooney galas every year (and most years she does 2 or 3 of them!)
(I still applied for tickets though of course)