Award-winning filmmaker Emerald Fennell is set to open London Film Festival this year with the international premiere of her new film SALTBURN.
Written, directed and produced by Fennell, SALTBURN boasts an all-star cast. Barry Keoghan, who won a BAFTA this year for his performance in The Banshees of Inisherin, will lead the cast, joined by Euphoria’s Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, Archie Madekwe and Carey Mulligan, who last worked with Fennell on the excoriatingly dark 2020 comedy Promising Young Woman.
Billed as “a beautifully wicked tale of privilege and desire”, SALTBURN is set in the mid-2000s and follows Keoghan as student Oliver Quick, struggling to find his place at Oxford University and finds himself drawn into the orbit of the aristocratic Felix Catton (Elordi). It is Felix who invites him to Saltburn, the Catton family’s country estate, for an unforgettable summer… which we presume means chaotic and life-changing.
“I’m honoured that our film is able to open this year’s BFI London Film Festival,” Fennell said. “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."
“As soon as the credits rolled on SALTBURN it was clear we’d met our Opening Night film,” said the BFI’s London Film Festival director, Kristy Matheson.
“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.”â¯
The film has been produced by Fennell, Margot Robbie and Josey McNamara. It will be screened at the LFF Opening Night Gala on October 4 at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, with additional screenings taking place around the UK.
The news comes as the London Film Festival gets ready to celebrate its 67th year. Taking place from October 4-15 this year, this is Matheson’s first in her new role as the BFI’s Festival Director.
It has also been a big year for Fennell. Best known for Promising Young Woman, her directorial debut, she also appeared this year in Greta Gerwig’s mega-hit, $1 billion-grossing film Barbie, as Barbie’s pregnant friend Midge – and has been working as co-writer with Shay Hatten (John Wick chapters 3 and 4) on the upcoming 2024 action thriller Ballerina.
SALTBURN will be released in cinemas on November 24.
