Fantastic opening for London Film Festival

The lineup for the London Film Festival will be revealed in full by organisers today. The event, which this year hopes to raise it's international profile, counts over a dozen world premieres among the 300 films marked for inclusion.

Stars including Meryl Streep and George Clooney will be present on opening night, which sees the premiere of "Fantastic Mr Fox", Wes Anderson's animated adaptation of the Roald Dahl classic. Children from the UK and Ireland who were raised on the story will doubtlessly raise eyebrows at some of Anderson's more contemporary touches, but its blend of international appeal and nostalgia inducing comfort for locals make this an ideal selection to open the festival.

The festival closes on Oct. 29 with "Nowhere Boy", Sam Taylor-Wood's film about the young John Lennon.

London Film Festival is in it's 52nd year, but has never handed out awards considered prestigious like Cannes, Venice or Toronto. The event began with a "Festival of Festivals" dream, to screen the best films from other international festivals, as well as assisting emerging British filmmakers. In recent years it has started to focus more on new talents of world cinema.

The screenings are divided into themes which cover different areas of interests. Last year's were Galas and Special Screenings, Film on the Square, New British Cinema, French Revolutions, Cinema Europa, World Cinema, Experimenta, Treasures from the Archives, Short Cuts and Animation. The festival featured the world premieres of Ron Howard's "Frost/ Nixon", Nick Moran's "Telstar" and Nicolas Winding Refn's "Bronson", European premieres of "Slumdog Millionaire", "W" and "The Brothers Bloom", and new films from Woody Allen, Steven Soderbergh and Michel Gondry.

The London Film Festival begins on Oct 14.