London film festival 2013: key films - in pictures

The LFF is headlined by its galas, showcasing marquee titles that have premiered at other festivals. This year, that means the likes of Blue is the Warmest Colour, 12 Years a Slave, Gravity, Inside Llewyn Davis, Labor Day and Philomena Photograph: PR

There's loads of other smaller titles we've reviewed at other festivals well worth checking out, too. This little lot are Only Lovers Left Alive, Don Jon, Heli, Exhibition, Grigris and Adore (previously titled Two Mothers) Photograph: PR

Captain Phillips: The opening night gala is literally all at sea as Tom Hanks tackles Somali pirates and a container ship is stranded on its way to Mombasa. Based on the real Captain Phillips’ account of a 2009 hijack, the film is directed by Paul Greengrass, back in urgent, fact-based United 93 vein Photograph: Allstar

Abuse of Weakness: Catherine Breillat whips up a tale of the artist and her muse, with Isabelle Huppert as a paralysed dramatist and Kool Shen as her wayward main player. Talents clash and power shifts and one person’s weakness is the other one’s strength Photograph: PR

Foosball: In which table football figurines come to life and Latin-American animation competes with the big guns. Director Juan Jose Campanello scored an Oscar for his last film, the live action The Secret in Her Eyes. He’s about to walk out on a whole different pitc Photograph: PR

Ida: Director Pawel Pawlikowski fled his native Poland at the age of 14 but heads home to make Ida, a tale of faith and convention, hinging on the relationship between a young novice nun and her libertarian aunt. The black and white photography looks good enough to eat Photograph: PR

We Are The Best: Swedish director Lukas Moodysson gives a rambunctious salute to the geek outsider with his tale of two teenage girls who want to form a punk band. Played out in early-80s Stockholm, it’s a film that stokes warm memories of Together and Show Me Love. Photograph: Per-Anders Jorgensen/PR

La Maison de la Radio: Documentary maker Nicolas Philibert is fascinated by language and communication, whether it’s in kids (Etre et Avoir) or in animals (Nenette). His latest work is a deliberate paradox: a film about radio, charting a day in the life of Radio France Photograph: PR

Rags and Tatters: The Arab spring thrums and rattles in the background of Ahmad Abdallah’s searing political drama, all played out in the early months of 2011. Asser Yassin stars as the fugitive at large in the back alleys of Cairo, trying to make sense of a nation in flux Photograph: PR

Stranger by the Lake: Alain Guirade won both the “Queer Palm” and the Cannes best director award for this stealthy Hitchcockian thriller, all played out around the local swimming pool. Down on the beach stroll the cruisers, the sunbathers and the possible killer Photograph: PR

The Lunchbox: A banquet-sized hit in its native India, The Lunchbox puts a contemporary twist on The Shop Around the Corner with its tale of missed communications that somehow come right. Irrfan Khan is the aging accounts clerk who receives the wrong lunchbox and finds love in the tin Photograph: PR

Tom at the Farm: Tom is a slick city kid who travels into rural Quebec to attend his boyfriend’s funeral. His arrival rattles family skeletons and turns up dark secrets, and maybe even Tom himself is not entirely to be trusted. Cheered to the rafters on its debut at Venice, Xavier Dolan’s thriller teases and tantalises and grips like a vice Photograph: PR

Good Ol' Frieda: The secretary of the official Beatles fan club gets her own spell in the limelight with this documentary, given the seal of approval by Paul and Ringo. Freida still taps her fingers and wiggles her own moptop back in Liverpool, director Ryan White records her story with affection Photograph: PR

Tell Me Lies: A restoration job has meant re-release is imminent for Peter Brook's seminal 1968 agitprop drama-documentary in which RSC leading lights such as Glenda Jackson protest against the Vietnam war Photograph: PR

Saving Mr Banks: The curtain comes down with another Tom Hanks drama. This time around he’s playing Walt Disney, shepherding wary author PL Travers (Emma Thompson) through the big screen adaptation of Mary Poppins. Photograph: Fran ois Duhamel/PR