Organizers of the 68th BFI London Film Festival have announced that this year’s Closing Night Gala will present the U.K. Premiere of Piece by Piece, with Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville (20 Feet from Stardom) and subject/voice star/producer Pharrell Williams in attendance. The CG LEGO animation builds the story of Williams’ life and career journey.
This year’s festival will be held October 9-20 across multiple venues, including the BFI Southbank, BFI IMAX and partner cinemas.
“The BFI London Film Festival has been supportive of my career for a long time, with my first time screening there being over twenty years ago,” said Neville. “Bringing Piece by Piece to the LFF means the world to me, and getting to be the closing night gala is the cherry on top of this huge honor. I’m thrilled to celebrate this film with the London audience.”
Kristy Matheson, BFI London Film Festival Director, commented, “Piece by Piece is a film of enormous joy and invention. In telling the story of Pharrell Williams, entirely in LEGO, acclaimed documentarian Morgan Neville brings a sense of wonder to this story that matches the creativity and verve of his subject. This is a must for fans and will charm the uninitiated alike, and we couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome Piece by Piece to close this year’s BFI London Film Festival.”
Piece by Piece will close the BFI London Film Festival on Sunday, October 20 at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, with the Festival’s nine U.K.-wide partner venues screening the film simultaneously. The film will receive a wide release in U.K. cinemas on November 8. (As previously announced, U.S. audiences can catch it in theaters through Focus Features from October 11.)
Alongside multi-Grammy-winner and Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated singer-songwriter-producer Williams, the star-studded cast includes Jay-Z, Missy Elliot, Gwen Stefani, Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar and Timbaland. These music luminaries populate the film’s story as it follows Williams from his childhood in Virginia Beach and early career as a producer for The Neptunes and performer in N.E.R.D., through to his superstar status today.
In other BFI news, the institute recently announced it was bringing the British animated feature classic Watership Down back to the big screen for the first time in nearly 50 years. Richard Adams’ saga about a group of refugee rabbits searching for their lapine utopia will be presented in a new 4K restoration produced by BFI and Silver Salt Restoration.
Watership Down will be in cinemas in the U.K. and Ireland from October 25, coinciding with the half term holidays. The first chance for audiences to see the restoration will be at the World Premiere at the BFI London Film Festival 2024, where it will screen in the Treasures section, which spotlights new restoration premieres from around the world. A new trailer will be released later this summer.
Following the theatrical release, a home entertainment release from the BFI on November 11 will present the film both in Limited Edition Ultra High Definition (UHD) for the first time and on Limited Edition Blu-ray, with a raft of extras including a set of four postcards, a poster and a perfect bound book.
Based on Adams’ novel, the 2D animated feature Watership Down was originally released in 1978, directed by Martin Rosen. The story unfolds as a building project threatens the tranquil lives of the wildlife residing in a British woodland area, not least the rabbits who reside in one of the local warrens. The clan’s smallest rabbit Fiver, who has a sixth sense, has distressing visions of destruction and persuades a small group to join him on a challenging journey to find a new home.
Featuring the voices of some of Britain’s best-known actors, including John Hurt, Richard Briers, Ralph Richardson, Denholm Elliott, Roy Kinnear and Hannah Gordon, the movie was a huge success and spawned the smash-hit original song “Bright Eyes,” written by Mike Batt and recorded by Art Garfunkel, which was No. 1 on the U.K. Singles Chart for six weeks and was Britain’s biggest-selling single of 1979.
