London Film Festival welcomes audiences back to the movies

MOVIES from 77 countries will screen at the 2021 London Film Festival, as Britain’s leading cinema showcase welcomes mass audiences back to movie theaters after a pandemic-disrupted year.

The festival program, announced Tuesday, includes 158 features, down from 225 during its last pre-pandemic edition in 2019. The 2020 festival was a curtailed collection of 58 films, most screened online.

This year, mask-wearing, full-capacity audiences will be able to attend gala screenings at London’s riverside Southbank Centre, with many of the premieres screened simultaneously at movie theaters across the U.K.

About 37% of the features are directed by women — not yet parity, but up from a quarter four years ago and “heading in the right direction,” festival director Tricia Tuttle said.

The festival opens Oct. 6 with the world premiere of “The Harder They Fall” — a Western from British director Jeymes Samuel with a Black-led cast — and closes