Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” will headline the 65th BFI London Film Festival’s gala this October.
The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch (“The Imitation Game”), Kirsten Dunst (“Spider-Man”) and Jesse Plemons (“The Irishman”). Kodi Smit-McPhee (“Let Me In”) also stars.
Campion, an Academy Award and Palm d’Or Award winner, will attend the gala, which also serves as the film’s U.K. premiere following its world premiere at Venice next month, alongside key cast. She last attended the festival in 2003 with “In the Cut,” starring Meg Ryan.
The 2021 gala will take place on Oct. 11. at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
“The Power of the Dog” is based on the 1967 novel by Thomas Savage and sees Cumberbatch play a ranch owner whose brother (Plemons) unexpectedly marries a young widow (Dunst).
“I am thrilled to share ‘The Power of the Dog’ at the LFF,” Campion said. “It will be an honor to be there along with so many of my British team members, large amongst them the brilliant Benedict Cumberbatch who is the broken heart and dark soul of this story.”
“Jane Campion is one of the world’s great filmmakers,” said Tricia Tuttle, BFI London Film Festival director. “An artist with the ability to get under your skin, make you see things in people and situations you would otherwise miss. And that is so true of THE POWER OF THE DOG. It’s a sumptuous new work with many delicately revealed surprises, not least a deliciously dark performance from Benedict Cumberbatch. It’s such a pleasure to have Campion return to the LFF with our American Express Gala.”
“The Power of the Dog” is a See-Saw Films, Bad Girl Creek and Max Films production in association with Brightstar, The New Zealand Film Commission, Cross City Films and BBC Film.
The film, which will be streamed on Netflix later this year following a U.K. theatrical release, is produced by Campion, Tanya Seghatchian, Emile Sherman, Iain Canning and Roger Frappier.