Screen icons featured in this year’s line-up include Isabelle Huppert (Special Treatment and Copacabana), Gerard Depardieu and Isabelle Adjani (Mammuth) and Kristin Scott Thomas in Lola Doillon's In Your Hands. Isabelle Czajka returns to the festival with Living On Love Alone, the follow up to her debut The Year After.

Cinema Europa:

Celebrating the best in new cinema from mainland Europe, highlights include Mysteries Of Lisbon, a four and a half hour epic from Raúl Ruiz; Womb, an unusual love story starring Eva Green and Matt Smith; My Joy, a beautifully shot, dark parable; the surreal and hypnotic The Temptation Of ST Tony; and Silent Souls, an almost mystical road movie.

Here, the spotlight also falls on women directors including Pernille Fischer Christensen, whose film A Family picks up on a recurrent theme of families; Even The Rain, directed by Icíar Bollaín, written by long term Ken Loach collaborator Paul Laverty, and starring Gael Garcia Bernal; Draquila - Italy Trembles by Sabina Guzzanti, a provocative exposé of Silvio Berlusconi; and returning filmmaker Isabelle Stever (Blessed Events).

More debate is provoked in Picco, the German film exploring the extreme violence experienced in a youth prison.

World Cinema:

From around the globe, a diverse selection of fiction features and documentaries are presented. Amongst a host of US indies are Spork, a wonderfully unexpected take on the high school movie; Geoff Marslett's unique animated film, Mars, an inventive slice of slacker sci-fi; Cold Weather, a new spin on the crime genre; and The Taqwacores, about Muslim punks in Upstate New York.

Smash His Camera turns the camera on one of the original paparazzi, Ron Galella. Catfish raises unsettling issues around social media, whilst Lemmy is the definitive portrait of the legendary Motorhead singer and ultimate rock god.

Another revered musical subject features in Strange Powers: Stephin Merritt And The Magnetic Fields. The Tillman Story examines the controversy surrounding the death of the NFL player turned US soldier in Afghanistan.

Other highlights from the rest of the world include Microphone, set in the exuberant underground music scene of the Egyptian capital; AUtumn, about the conflict in Indian Kashmir; and Leap Year, the Mexico City set feature which won director Michael Rowe the Camera D'Or at Cannes. Amongst the many strong East Asian titles are Dear Doctor, the third feature from Japan's Miwa Nishikawa and Chang Tso-Chi's beautifully observed family piece, When Love Comes.

Treasures From The Archive:

Showcasing the best recent examples of conservation work, and provoking debate in equal measure, titles include digital restorations of Renoir’s Boudu Saved From Drowning and David Lean’s epic The Bridge On The River Kwai and the latest project from Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Foundation, Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day.

Missing scenes, incorrect focus problems and technical difficulties have been overcome to bring back to the screen Pandora’s Box, starring the iconic Louise Brooks and Mauritz Stiller’s Gunnar Hedes Saga.

Gritty pre-code films The Match King and The Mayor Of Hell with James Cagney are rediscovered, with light relief provided by screwball comedy Turnabout and endearing musical Sunny Side Up.

Life in post-war London is captured in three short films restored by the BFI in Bow Bells And Waterloo Sunsets. Other welcome new restorations include the seminal Man With A Movie Camera and Manoel de Oliveira’s Rite Of Spring, as well as the first feature-length gay documentary Word Is Out.

Experimenta:

Highlights include feature length works by Sharon Lockhart (Double Tide), John Akomfrah (The Nine Muses) and Li Hongqi, whose film Winter Vacation won the Golden Leopard in Locarno.

An important aspect of Experimenta is the weekend of artists' film and video on 23-24 October. Eight curated programmes offer the opportunity to experience a range of international work by prominent and emerging moving image artists.

This year's survey includes Prolix Satori, a new series of collage animations by Lewis Klahr, making his first UK appearance, and three films by Festival regular Nathaniel Dorsky.

Every Time I See Your Picture I Cry is a unique live performance piece by Daniel Barrow. There will be installations by Emily Richardson and Martin Arnold, and David Gatten will present a film shot in the Galapagos Islands at the Natural History Museum.

Short Cuts And Animation:

This year, ten programmes celebrate the short film and animation formats, appealing to a wide ranging audience. New filmmakers from the capital are represented in London Calling whilst animation from all corners of the globe are featured, including those in a delightful programme aimed at children.

This section doesn't shy away from controversy with hard-edged stories including The Good North and Burn My Body. The spotlight once again focuses on women in the Pretty Girls Make Graves selection. As well as being a place for talent spotting, the section features established names including actors-turned-directors, Sir David Jason and Rupert Friend.

Events:

To complement the film screenings as ever there will be a full programme of inspiring and thought provoking events. This year's Screen Talks feature directors Darren Aronofsky and Mark Romanek. Peter Mullan and Olivier Assayas will lead Masterclasses.

Other highlights include music supervisor Randall Poster’s Film School of Rock; a forum about adapting books for the screen; and a special screening of Christy Turlington Burns' directorial debut about maternal health, No Woman, No Cry presented in association with Brightwide.com.The Festival has once again partnered with Time Out to bring a series of free events based around panel discussions with filmmakers. In a year noted for the wealth of films from the UK, filmmakers come together to discuss their work in British Cinema: Breaking with Convention.

Awards:

Following last year's inaugural ceremony, the BFI London Film Festival Awards return for a second year to celebrate the finest films within the Festival and to recognise the achievements of filmmakers, both new and established. This year's Awards will take place on 27 October at Jerwood Hall, LSO St Luke's, before a panel of judges composed of figures from across the international film community. The full Awards shortlists will be announced on 28 September.

Film Guests:

As well as many of the names already highlighted, we expect to welcome guests including Julianne Moore, Colin Firth, Hilary Swank, Natalie Portman, Helena Bonham Carter, Naomie Harris, Julian Schnabel, Lisa Cholodenko, Pablo Trapero, Gillian Wearing, Kim Longinotto, Joanna Hogg, Ferzan Ozpetek, Richard Ayoade, Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Christy Turlington Burns.

Tagged in