'Empire of Light' with Olivia Colman to screen at BFI London Film Festival

Aug. 11 (UPI) -- Empire of Light will screen at the 2022 BFI London Film Festival.

Organizers said Thursday that the film will have its European premiere at the 66th annual festival in October.

Empire of Light will screen Oct. 12 during the festival's American Express Gala at the Southbank Centre at Royal Festival Hall.

Writer and director Sam Mendes, producer Pippa Harris and cast members Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward, Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Tanya Moodie, Tom Brooke and Crystal Clarke will attend the event.

Empire of Light takes place in an English seaside town in the early 1980s. The film is a love story that explores human connection and the magic of cinema.

"I'm absolutely delighted to be included in this year's BFI London Film Festival as the AMEX Gala screening. Empire of Light is a very personal movie for me, and I can't wait to show it in my home town," Mendes said.

"Empire of Light explores the importance of community, the power of storytelling and of the movies, specifically the thrill of watching a film in a dark cinema, and the tactile pleasures of celluloid. And these are themes so close to our hearts at BFI," BFI London Film Festival director Tricia Tuttle said.

Colman and Firth previously starred together in the 2021 film Mothering Sunday.

Mendes is known for such films as American Beauty, Jarhead, Revolutionary Road, Skyfall and 1917.