Andrew Scott’s Elsinore has been selected to open the 70th BFI London Film Festival, where it will receive its European premiere on October 7 at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. Opening one of the world’s leading film festivals is among the highest-profile launch slots in British cinema, making the selection a significant milestone for Simon Stone’s upcoming drama ahead of its theatrical release.
The film tells the story of acclaimed Scottish actor Ian Charleson, remembered by film audiences for portraying Olympic champion Eric Liddell in the Academy Award-winning Chariots of Fire. Elsinore follows the final months of Charleson’s life as he takes on the role of Hamlet at London’s National Theatre while privately battling AIDS in the early 1990s. Charleson died in January 1990 at the age of 40, only weeks after the production concluded, and his performance has since been regarded as one of the defining theatrical portrayals of Hamlet while helping reshape public understanding of the illness during that period.
Andrew Scott stars as Charleson, with Olivia Colman portraying the doctor who cared for him during his illness. The supporting cast includes Billie Piper, Johnny Flynn, Luke Thompson, Monica Dolan, Juliet Stevenson, Joe Locke, Adeel Akhtar, Matthew Beard, Peter Mullan, David Dawson, Kadiff Kirwan and Dickie Beau.
The film also reunites Billie Piper with director Simon Stone following her Laurence Olivier Award-winning performance in Yerma at London’s Young Vic Theatre. Stone, a BAFTA-nominated filmmaker best known for The Dig, directs from a screenplay by BAFTA-winning and Golden Globe-nominated writer Stephen Beresford, whose previous credits include Pride.
Speaking about the film’s selection, Stone said he and his team “couldn’t be prouder” to present what he described as “this quintessentially London film” on the festival’s opening night. He added that Charleson experienced many of his greatest artistic triumphs on London’s stages before concluding his career with his acclaimed performance as Hamlet at the National Theatre.
BFI London Film Festival artistic director Kristy Matheson also praised the film, calling Scott’s central performance one that will leave “a lasting imprint” on audiences. She said the festival was proud to open its landmark 70th edition with a film that celebrates “community, resistance and the triumph of art.”
Beyond leading the cast, Scott also serves as a producer alongside Andrea Occhipinti of Lucky Red, Gabrielle Tana of Magnolia Mae Films, Pete Shilaimon and Mickey Liddell of LD Entertainment, and Stefano Massenzi and Carolyn Marks Blackwood.
The film will be released by Focus Features in select North American theatres on November 20, 2026, before StudioCanal launches it across the UK and Ireland on January 29, 2027. Its London premiere follows an earlier debut at a Canadian film festival, with the BFI London Film Festival running from October 7 to 18. The full festival programme will be announced on September 2.
The opening-night screening also carries symbolic significance. The Royal Festival Hall sits just a short walk from the National Theatre, where Charleson delivered the real-life Hamlet performance that inspired the film more than three decades ago. With its London setting, celebrated creative team and emotionally resonant true story, Elsinore will launch this year’s BFI London Film Festival before beginning its theatrical rollout in North America and the UK.
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