Other international filmmakers who flew into London included: Joko Anwar (The Forbidden Door); Marco Berger (Plan B); BFI Fellowship Award recipient Souleymane Cissé (Tell Me Who You Are); Mar Coll (Three Days With The Family); Giorgio Diritti (The Man Who Will Come); Bruno Dumont (Hadewijch); Xiaolu Guo (She, A Chinese); René Bo Hansen (The Eagle Hunter’s Son); Cedric Kahn (Regrets); Ahmed Maher (The Traveller); Samuel Maoz (Lebanon); Cristian Mungiu (Tales from the Golden Age); Tarik Saleh (Metropia); Gabriele Salvatores (As God Commands); Elia Suleiman (The Time That Remains); Warwick Thornton (Samson & Delilah) and Nicolas Winding Refn (Valhalla Rising).

Director Robert Connolly was joined by lead actor Anthony LaPaglia for Balibo, Hans-Christian Schmid attended Storm with Kerry Fox and Mia Hansen-Løve was joined by actor Louis-Do de Lencquesaing for Father of my Children.

As their directors were unable to attend, actress Jane Birkin introduced Around A Small Mountain and actress Emily Watson presented Cold Souls. Representing independent American cinema were directors Andrew Bujalski (Beeswax), Harmony Korine (Trash Humpers) and Joe Swanberg (Alexander The Last), as well as Nicholas Jasenovec, who presented Paper Heart with actress/comedian Charlyne Yi. In addition, experimental filmmakers Sarah Turner (Perestroika) and Ken McMullen (An Organization of Dreams) each introduced their films.

Jane Campion, Julianne Moore, Clive Owen and Sam Taylor-Wood were welcomed on stage for the Screen Talks Sponsored by TalkTalk series of career interviews while Gaspar Noé (Enter the Void) discussed his craft at a Masterclass presented in association with Script Factory and NFTS. Jacques Audiard’s Masterclass was presented in association with Unifrance, and another popular event was Nick Park’s career interview in celebration of the 20th anniversary of Wallace & Gromit.  

Italian directors were present for the panel discussion Maestri & Multiplexes: Italian Cinema Now including Giuseppe Piccioni (Giulia Doesn’t Date At Night) and Valerio Jalongo (What Do You Know About Me), and a host of Iranian directors, including Bahman Ghobadi (No One Knows About Persian Cats) and Shirin Neshat (Women Without Men) debated the current state of Iranian films at the Iranian Cinema: Post New Wave, Post-Election...Where Now? event.

The London Film Festival’s annual free screening of short films from the BFI National Archive and London’s Screen Archives once again took place in Trafalgar Square.  Bringing classic films to the public and greeted with outstanding attendance figures, London Moves Me, in association with Film London, was a celebration of transport in London from 1896 to 2009. 

All films were accompanied by a live piano score, improvised by pianist Neil Brand, who also made an appearance with Prima Vista Social Club at the Festival’s  first ever Archive Gala, the BFI’s new restoration of Anthony Asquith’s Underground.

On Tuesday night the London Film Festival announced award winners at a high profile ceremony held at London’s Inner Temple. Hosted by Paul Gambaccini, the six awards were presented by some of the most respected members of the film community. Anjelica Huston presented the Star of London for Best Film to Tahar Rahim, lead actor of Jacques Audiard’s winning film A Prophet whilst Dominic Cooper and Jodie Whittaker presented the Star of London for Best British Newcomer to Jack Thorne, screenwriter of The Scouting Book for Boys. 

The Sutherland Trophy was presented by director Alfonso Cuaron to Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani for their film Ajami and the London Film Festival Grierson Award for Best Documentary in the Festival was presented by Nick Broomfield to Yoav Shamir for Defamation. 

BFI Fellowships, the highest accolade that the British Film Institute bestows were awarded to John Hurt and Souleymane Cissé for their significant achievements in the fields of acting and directing. 

Hurt received his award from producer Jeremy Thomas and director Michael Caton-Jones both of whom have worked with Hurt on a number of films. Cissé’s Tell Me Who You Are had its UK premiere at the festival this week and his award was presented to him by actress Charlotte Rampling.

Festival Artistic Director, Sandra Hebron, commented: "I'm delighted that this year's festival has been so warmly received by the public, by the media and by the industry at large. We have been fortunate to have a strong and diverse line-up of films and a host of inspiring and enthusiastic visiting film makers.

"These, together with increased investment in key areas, have brought us record levels of public attendance, a wealth of lively industry and educational events and have made for a particularly enjoyable and successful festival."

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