The 66th BFI London Film Festival is set to host the world premiere of Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, the Oscar-winning director’s dark take on the classic fairy tale about a wooden marionette brought to life to mend the heart of a grieving wood carver named Geppetto.
The film will debut in the Royal Festival Hall at the Southbank Centre during the festival, which takes place October 5-15, 2022.
The stop-motion film was directed by del Toro and Mark Gustafson and is from a screenplay by the Mexican filmmaker Patrick McHale. The film’s voice cast includes Ewan McGregor as Cricket, David Bradley as Geppetto and Gregory Mann as Pinocchio. Finn Wolfhard, Cate Blanchett, John Turturro, Ron Perlman, Tim Blake Nelson, Burn Gorman and Christoph Waltz and Tilda Swinton also star.
The film’s music will be provided by the Oscar-winning composer Alexandre Desplat, who has also written the score. Netflix is set to release the film theatrically in November before making it available for streaming in December.
In addition to Pinocchio, LFF will also host the world premiere of Creature, the latest film from British filmmaker Asif Kapadia. Based on a 2021 stage production by the Olivier award-winning choreographer Akram Khan, Creature follows an outsider’s search for belonging. The film features performances by dancers from the English National Ballet with Jeffrey Cirio, Erina Takahashi, and Stina Quagebeur in the principal roles. BFI Distribution is releasing the film.
In total, the festival will debut 23 feature films and three TV series, including The English, the new sweeping Western drama series from Hugo Blick starring Emily Blunt and Chaske Spencer.
“This is perhaps the richest overall selection of world premieres we have had the privilege of hosting at BFI London Film Festival, and we want to give these artists a moment in the sun before the full programme launch,” Tricia Tuttle, BFI London Film Festival Director, said of the world premiere lineup.
“Securing world premieres for their own sake is never an aim of our audience-facing Festival, but it is an honour that these filmmakers and artists entrust us help them to launch their beautiful work. And this is, at least in part, down to the passion and commitment of our audiences.”
Feature films
GUILLERMO DEL TORO’S PINOCCHIO, dirs: Guillermo del Toro, Mark Gustafson
CREATURE, dir: Asif Kapadia
THE ESTATE, dir: Dean Craig
BECOMING PLANT, dir: Grace Ndiritu
BLUE BAG LIFE, dir: Lisa Selby, Rebecca Hirsch Lloyd-Evans, Alex Fry
IF THE STREETS WERE ON FIRE, dir: Alice Russell
INLAND, dir: Fridjof Ryder
KLOKKENLUIDER, dir: Neil Maskell
NAME ME LEWAND, dir: Edward Lovelace
PRETTY RED DRESS, dir: Dionne Edwards
SHE IS LOVE, dir: Jamie Adams
SUPER EAGLES ’96, dir: Yemi Bamiro
THE ORIGIN, dir: Andrew Cumming
THE BLUE ROSE OF FORGETFULNESS, dir: Lewis Klahr
THE GIRL FROM TOMORROW, dir: Marta Savina
THE BLAZE, dir. Quentin Raynaud
KANAVAL: A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF HAITI IN SIX CHAPTERS, dirs: Lean Gordon, Eddie Hutton Mills
FARAAZ, dir: Hansal Mehta
MY FATHER’S DRAGON, dir: Nora Twomey
XALÉ, dir: Moussa Sene Absa
THE STORE, dir: Ami-ro Sköld
SHTTL, dir: Ady Walter
TV shows
THE ENGLISH, Dir/Series Creator: Hugo Blick
A SPY AMONG FRIENDS, Scr/Series Creator: Alexander Cary and Dir: Nick Murphy
MAMMALS, Scr: Jez Butterworth and Dir. Stephanie Laing
