If you ask me what my most enjoyable cinema trip has been to date, I'll tell you I've already peaked. Last year at the BFI London Film Festival, I was sat watching a little-known film called La La Land. Two and a bit hours later, I had laughed and cried my way through and as I was rethinking my entire life's choices, listening to brilliant Director Damien Chazelle speak about the filming process, Ryan Gosling sauntered in. End of story. Which is why I absolutely cannot wait for BFI LFF 2017; it is a brilliant film festival and showcases such brilliant films - with some star-studded bonuses along the way. Today, the full line-up was released and it looks good!

The festival opens on 4th October with Andy Serkis's directing debut Breathe (starring Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy), and it will be the 61st LFF. A whopping 243 films will be shown over 11 days, from 67 countries and taking place in 15 iconic London cinemas. You can find the full line-up here, plus a few of my highlights below!

On Chesil Beach (Directed by Dominic Cooke)

This is the Love Gala pick, starring Saoirse Ronan and Billy Howle, with Ronan in another Ian McEwan adaptation.

Battle of the Sexes (Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris)

How to Talk to Girls at Parties (Directed by John Cameron Mitchell)

Nicole Kidman and Elle Fanning star in this cosmic 70s eclectic film that has already made waves at other festivals this year.  Watch the trailer, it'll make you go oooooh.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos)

Downsizing (Directed by Alexander Payne)

It's a social satire sci-fi comedy where you can actually shrink and live in a mini-world to save resources. Matt Damon does but his wife Kristen Wiig doesn't. Awks! But imagine that, you could live in a house made from actual LEGO...


Find out more about all the films and how to get your hands on tickets here!

I'm officially back from a bit of an unofficial summer hiatus and boy have we got loads to catch up on! Whilst I have to admit I've found August a bit of a less inspiring cinema month compared to our usual summer corkers, I have got loads to share music-wise. Firstly, did you know Taylor Swift has a new song out? Really, she does??? There goes my internal debate of "is it Look What You Made Me Do? Or Look At What You Made Me Do?", and my internal debate of "do I even like T-Swift music these days? It's not the same as it used to be",  and "oh, her songs are smart but she's a bit annoying"...and then BAM. We're exactly where T-Swift knew we'd be. And she's all over the newspapers not just on her album cover. But then I realise - there's so much more NEW music out there we should be talking about. So that's exactly what I'm going to do.

Starting with The Script - Rain. Taken from the upcoming album Freedom Child, this was actually released in July but momentum keeps steadily building and I've actually had this track on repeat and then some. It's different to their previous music which I also adore, but it has this upbeat summer vibe that's fresh and puts Danny O'Donoghue's signature falsetto to good use.



From one band singing about rain to another, I'm excited about the release of new music from Hudson Taylor with Feel it Again. I interviewed the brothers in 2015 when they were releasing Singing for Strangers, but with it being their debut album they had a back catalogue of songs going back years. It's really good to hear brand new music, and this one has an impressive backing track, gorgeous soulful harmonies and a bit of a rock-n-roll Elvis feel morphing into an anthemic power-chorus.



Demi Lovato - Tell Me You Love Me, taken from her upcoming album of the same name, is an empowering with more layers than a potato salad. The chorus has a big gospel sound, complete with claps.



If you're looking for a chilled out, happy song, look no further than Ryan Keen - Friday Morning Feeling. This is the sort of music I spent my teenage years seeking out, and I still love it. The verse is a bit Newton Faulkner-esque, and like with Hudson Taylor, I've been waiting for Ryan Keen to release some new music.



Gabrielle Aplin's music seems to change with every album/EP and following her addictive track Miss You, new release Waking Up Slow has a similar bouncy electro-pop thing going on.



As I've been away and we clearly have loads of music to catch up on, my notable highlights include OneRepublic - Rich Love, Nick Mulvey - Unconditional, HONNE - Just Dance, and Nina Nesbitt - The Moments I'm Missing. Check it out!

And one last song, because it's called Pizza. PIZZA. Martin Garrix, that's 5 stars from me already. Ok yeah it's repetitive as hell but it's the soundtrack to pizza.


All tracks out now!