THE red carpets of London will be worn to their threads over the next two weeks as a record number of A-list film-makers attend The Times bfi London Film Festival in pursuit of film prizes.

The festival offers no awards of its own, but will be the last staging post for more than 500 actors, directors and writers hoping to hear their names read out at the Bafta and Academy Awards ceremonies in February and March.

Oscar-tipped films such as John le Carré’s The Constant Gardener, which will open the festival tonight, must make the most of their London premieres to impress American and British academy members just before they receive their ballot papers in December.

Ralph Fiennes, who plays a vengeful widowed diplomat in Fernando Meirelles’s adaptation of le Carré’s thriller, will attend the premiere alongside his co-star Rachel Weisz and le Carré.

Meirelles, who received international acclaim for his previous film City of God, will introduce the film. Six of the other principal actors will also attend. They will be the first in a line of stars including actresses such as Kirsten Dunst and male stars from Gael García Bernal to Guy Pearce.

Clare Danes, who rose to prominence in Romeo plus Juliet, will attend the premiere of Shopgirl with her director Anand Tucker.

Gwyneth Paltrow will add glamour to Proof, John Madden’s film of mathematical geniuses that has received a mixed reception from the critics.

John Hurt will attend all three of his films: Shooting Dogs, in which he plays a teacher embroiled in the Rwandan genocide; Manderlay, Lars von Trier’s follow-up to Dogville; and The Proposition, a modern western set in the Outback.

Guy Pearce, Hurt’s co-star in The Proposition, will also appear, as will Nick Cave, who put his music career on hold to write the screenplay.

Other directors include Terry Gilliam, who will present The Brothers Grimm with the actor Jonathan Pryce, Atom Egoyan and Shane Black, the director of the Lethal Weapon films. His film Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is the centrepiece screening on Friday, October 28.

Sandra Hebron, artistic director for the festival, said that London had earned a reputation for boosting films’ profiles among industry insiders and intelligent filmgoers. “It is becoming an event that people want to come to,” she said. “Festivals are seen as sexy events to attend, but there is also a business case for being here. The awards season is getting earlier and earlier. This year we have seen some Bafta screenings happening before the film festival. It applies to both the Baftas and the Academy Awards. London is strategically placed.”

Distributors see London as a good platform to promote their films in the European markets, and film-makers believe that they receive valuable feedback from sophisticated audiences.

“The festival makes it possible for audiences to talk to film-makers, but we often forget that it gives film-makers that chance to talk to audiences,” Ms Hebron said. “Feedback is very important, even if it’s just an audience responding rapturously. It’s much more than just reading a list of box-office figures.”

FIVE MUST-SEE FILMS

James Christopher, Film Critic, Recommends

Blood and Bones

A “harrowing” thriller from Yoichi Sai about a misanthropic businessman who abuses his family in postwar Japan (Saturday, October 22 and Monday, October 24)

Bubble

Steven Soderburgh’s “stripped-down thriller with amateur actors” that sets a murder mystery story in a doll factory (Wednesday, October 26 and Saturday, October 29)

A Cock and Bull Story

Michael Winterbottom’s film within a film starring Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon as bickering actors in the unfilmable The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy (Friday, October 21 and Wednesday, October 26)

The Sentimental Bloke

Australia’s favourite silent film has been restored to its 1919 glory and will be shown with live musical accompaniment (Thursday, October 20)

Shooting Dogs

John Hurt plays a teacher in a fictionalised account of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, featuring survivors of the massacres as cast and crew (Sunday, October 30 and Monday, October 31)

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