BBC News Online: Entertainment: Film

London screens Australia's best

The festival aims to bring audiences "the best in new Australian cinema".

Blanchett, the festival's patron, said: "It has been another good year for Australian cinema, both at home and on the international scene."

The seven-day festival is screening mainstream movies such as The Dish, starring Sam Neill, about the televising of the moon landing in 1969, as well as controversial movies such as Chopper and Tackle Happy.

'Huge audiences'

"Movies such as The Dish, Chopper and The Magic Pudding have attracted huge attendances of Australian cinema goers," said Blanchett.

Tackle Happy is a comedy about men who go on tour doing weird and unusual things with parts of their anatomy and has developed a cult following in Australia.

She added: "At film festivals across the world titles such as Paul Cox's Innocence and Clara Law's The Goddess of 1967 have received much critical acclaim."

Cate Blanchett is one of Australia's most established stars, most recently appearing in the Sam Raimi film, The Gift.

Festival highlights include Innocence, Strange Fits of Passion, about a young woman's rite of passage, and Better than Sex, the story of a couple whose relationship starts with a one-night stand.

The Australian actor and director Yahoo Serious is showing his new film Mr Accident at the festival and the dance movie, Bootmen, will also be screened.