Bookings open today for the special anniversary 20th London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. This year the festival celebrates two decades of the very best in queer cinema with a magnificent gala opening at the Odeon Leicester Square in the heart of the city’s West End, followed by a unique opportunity to attend the festival’s 20th birthday party at the legendary Café de Paris. 

The Opening Night Gala screening on 29 March will be the witty and compelling LA epic Happy Endings (courtesy of Sony Pictures), directed by Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex) and featuring a star-studded cast including Maggie Gyllenhaal, Lisa Kudrow, Steve Coogan, Tom Arnold, Jason Ritter and Laura Dern. This classic West Coast comedy of manners is set against the brutal ironies of love, betrayal, sperm donors and adoption with a stand-out performance from Coogan as an extremely convincing gay man and Dern obviously relishing her role as a lipstick lesbian.  Following this Gala screening and as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations, the LLGFF is hosting a fabulous after-show party at the Café de Paris with special guest performers and DJs to be announced. As well as invited guests, we are able to offer for the first time in the festival’s history a strictly limited number of tickets for sale to the public, priced at £10. To be part of this largest-ever lesbian and gay film event book at the Box Office on 020 7928 3232 or online at www.llgff.org.uk. The LLGFF runs from 29 March–12 April 2006 with screenings and special events at the bfi National Film Theatre, a Closing Night Gala at the Odeon West End ¬– this year featuring Jan Dunn’s stunning, award-winning first feature Gypo (courtesy of Redbus), and a further collaboration with Tate Modern on artist’s film and video.

The London season is followed by a nationwide tour to more than 40 towns and cities across the UK and Ireland from May to September. Full venue and screening details for the tour will be available on the website www.llgff.org.uk as they are confirmed. For people with less than perfect hearing or vision, we are delighted to present two special audio described and subtitled screenings: the debut feature and teen shock psychological thriller Show Me from director Cassandra Nicolaou (Interviews With My Next Girlfriend) and Stewart Main’s delightful account of growing up gay in a 1970s New Zealand farming community 50 Ways of Saying Fabulous –¬ ¬his long-awaited follow-up to the 1993 cult hit Desperate Remedies. The LLGFF is the UK’s third largest film festival and offers an unrivalled showcase of the very latest in European and World lesbian and gay film-making, with audiences of over 25,000 and more than 100 visiting film-makers and actors. This year’s features and short films come from Japan, Argentina, Israel, Iceland, the Philippines, Korea, Spain, Norway, France, Germany, Canada, the USA, India and the UK. Booking informationLLGFF Box Office tel: 020 7928 3232 or website www.llgff.org.uk

Ticket prices
Opening and Closing Night Galas: £15
Centrepiece screenings: £10
Standard film screening: £8.20
Standard film screening for NFT Members: £7.20
Concession rate*: £6.25 / concession rate* for NFT Members: £5.25
(*Concessions can be bought on day of screening only)

Special ticket prices
Matinee tickets for 16–18-year-olds: £4
‘4 for 3 offer’ Buy 4 tickets for 4 different films across the festival and get the cheapest free.

Telephone booking call 020 7928 3232
Online booking www.llgff.org.uk
The box office is open daily from 11.30–20.20.