Clooney pix topline London fest

LONDON -- Double doses of George Clooney and Michael Fassbender topline the 55th BFI London Film Festival, which once more offers the U.K. launchpad for a lot of Oscar and BAFTA challengers opened at Venice and Toronto.Clooney will attend together with his political drama "The Ides Of March" and Alexander Payne's "The Descendents," while Fassbender displays his range in Steve McQueen's "Shame" and David Cronenberg's "A Harmful Method."The 2010 festival, which runs March 12-27, may be the swansong of artistic director Sandra Hebron after nine years in control. On her final event, she's designed 204 fiction and documentary features, including 11 world premieres, 18 worldwide premieres and 22 European premieres.The LFF advantages of another strong year for British cinema, with local premieres for Lynne Ramsay's "We have to Discuss Kevin," Michael Winterbottom's "Trishna," Rob Fiennes' "Coriolanus," Andrea Arnold's "Wuthering Levels" and Nick Murphy's "The Awakening," as well as the world premiere of Marc Evans' "Hunky Dory."Gleam first opportunity for the London audience to determine Madonna's "W.E."As formerly introduced, the fest will open with Fernando Meirelles' "360" and close with Terence Davies' "The Dark Blue Ocean," both starring Rachel Weisz. Another actress doing dual purpose in the fest is Vanessa Redgrave, who stars in "Coriolanus" as well as in Roland Emmerich's "Anonymous."The Film About The Square section includes Roman Polanski's "Carnage," Gus Van Sant's "Restless," Werner Herzog's "In to the Abyss: An Account of Dying, An Account of Existence," Todd Solondz's "Dark Equine," Sean Durkin's "Martha Marcy May Marlene," Drake Doremus' "Constantly,Inch Miranda July's "The Near Future,Inch Richard Linklater's "Bernie," Oren Moverman's "Rampart" and Jonathan Demme's "I am Carolyn Parker."One of the foreign-language highlights are "The Little One Having a Bike" in the Dardennes siblings, Nanni Moretti's "You will find there's Pope" and Michel Ocelot's animation "Tales from the Evening." "The Artist," Michel Hazanavicius' homage to Hollywood's quiet era, can also get a gala screening.Special occasions include talks by Payne and Winterbottom. Abi Morgan, Miranda This summer, Alexandre Desplat and Craig Ackroyd can give masterclasses, and you will see an in-depth consider the making of "We have to Discuss Kevin" with key people from the cast and crew.The 2010 archive gala may be the BFI National Archive's restoration of Miles Mander's 1928 quiet melodrama "The Very First Born," with a brand new score by Stephen Horne.Eight from the fest's world premieres have been in its New British Cinema section, with game titles including Carol Morley's "Hopes for a Existence," Richard Jobson's "The Sonambulists" and D.R. Hood's "Wreckers." Contact the range newsroom at news@variety.com