London Film Festival to open with Emerald Fennell’s ‘Saltburn’
The BFI London Film Festival has announced the movie that will open the highly anticipated 2023 iteration. Saltburn, directed by Emerald Fennell, is the second effort by the Academy Award-winning director of 2020’s Promising Young Woman.
Saltburn will get its international premiere at the Royal Festival Hall in London as the opener of the LFF on October 4th later this year. The film stars Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, Archie Madekwe and Carey Mulligan.
Some have compared the film to The Talented Mr. Ripley, and it’s been described as a “beautifully wicked tale of privilege and desire” by the organisers of the London Film Festival.
Fennell’s second film takes place in the mid-2000s and focuses on Keoghan’s Oliver, who is brought into the world of aristocracy by his fellow Oxford University student Felix, played by Elordi.
Oliver is shown to Saltburn, Felix’s family’s luxurious estate, where the two spend the summer together. The director of the London Film Festival, Kristy Matheson, said of 2023’s opener, “As soon as the credits rolled on Saltburn, it was clear we’d met our opening night film.”
“Academy Award winner Emerald Fennell returns with an expertly crafted and exhilarating thrill ride of a film that showcases an enormous depth of UK talents in front of and behind the camera,” Matheson added. “With its exceptional performances, delicious plot twists and a soundtrack of early 21st-century pop bangers, this hugely ambitious film immediately stole our hearts, and we can’t wait to share it with audiences in London and across the UK this October.”
Fennell stated: “I’m honoured that our film is able to open this year’s BFI London Film Festival. It is a festival that inspired me so much growing up, one that I followed excitedly from my bedroom on the other side of London. It feels extra-special that Saltburn, this very British tale of excess, is able to make its international debut at the wonderful BFI.”
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