LONDON (AP) — The London Film Festival is kicking off with the European premiere of British director Steve McQueen's whip-smart heist thriller "Widows."
The film stars Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez and Elizabeth Debicki as women who band together after their husbands are killed in a robbery gone wrong.
This year's festival includes David Mackenzie's kilts-and-carnage Scottish epic "Outlaw King"; Joel and Ethan Coen's Western anthology film "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"; Alfonso Cuaron's Mexico-set "Roma"; and Peter Jackson's World War I documentary "They Shall Not Grow Old."
Organizers say 38 percent of all films and 30 percent of the 225 features in the lineup have female directors, an increase on 24 percent of features in 2017.
The festival opens Wednesday and closes Oct. 21 with the Laurel and Hardy biopic "Stan & Ollie."
