European premiere of Steve Jobs to close 59th BFI London Film Festival

The 59th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express® is delighted to announce that this year’s Closing Night film will be Steve Jobs. 

Working from Walter Isaacson’s best-selling biography, Steve Jobs is directed by Academy Award winner Danny Boyle and written by Academy Award winner Aaron Sorkin. The film takes us behind the scenes of the digital revolution to create a revealing portrait of the man at its epicentre. Steve Jobs stars Michael Fassbender in the title role, Academy Award winner Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg and Katherine Waterston. Boyle, Fassbender and Winslet will attend the Closing Night Gala, which marks the film’s European Premiere, on Sunday 18 October at the Odeon Leicester Square. Steve Jobs is the third film directed by Boyle to close the BFI London Film Festival, following Slumdog Millionaire (2008) and 127 Hours (2010).

Spanning a period of 14 years between 1984 and 1998, the story is built around three seminal product launches – of the Macintosh in 1984, the NeXT ‘Cube’ in 1988 and the iMac in 1998 – and it uses this innovative structure to create a cross-hatched portrait of Jobs’ life and to tell the story of the new mass-market technologies that have revolutionised how we communicate with one another.

Clare Stewart, BFI London Film Festival Director, comments:

“We are thrilled to announce that Steve Jobs will be this year’s BFI London Film Festival Closing Night gala. Danny Boyle has created an exhilarating and audacious film starring Michael Fassbender as the complex, charismatic digital pioneer.”

Director Danny Boyle, says:

“If London was the cradle of the Industrial Revolution then San Francisco is the Bethlehem of the digital one. We had a brilliant time making this movie in Silicon Valley and I hope Londoners will enjoy a behind-the-scenes look into the making of the modern world. It’s always special to bring work home so thanks to BFI London Film Festival for their continued support.”

In addition to Fassbender and Winslet, the film stars Seth Rogen as Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, and Jeff Daniels as John Sculley, the former Apple CEO. The principal cast also includes Katherine Waterston as Chrisann Brennan, Jobs’ ex-girlfriend, and Michael Stuhlbarg as Andy Hertzfeld, one of the original members of the Apple Macintosh development team.

The producers are Mark Gordon, Guymon Casady, Scott Rudin, Boyle, and Christian Colson. Universal Pictures release the film in cinemas across UK and Eire on 13 November, 2015.

Universal Pictures and Legendary Pictures present—A Scott Rudin/Mark Gordon Company/Entertainment 360/Decibel Films/Cloud Eight Films production of a Danny Boyle film: Michael Fassbender in Steve Jobs, starring Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg, and Katherine Waterston. The music is by Daniel Pemberton, and the costume designer is Suttirat Larlarb. The film’s editor is Elliot Graham, ACE, and its production designer is Guy Hendrix Dyas. Steve Jobs’ director of photography is Alwin Küchler, BSC, and its executive producers are Bernard Bellew, Bryan Zuriff, Eli Bush. The drama’s producers are Mark Gordon, Guymon Casady, Scott Rudin, Danny Boyle, Christian Colson, and it is based on the book by Walter Isaacson. The film’s screenplay is by Aaron Sorkin, and it is directed by Danny Boyle. ©2015 Universal Studios.

The 59th BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express® runs from Wednesday 7 October-Sunday 18 October 2015. The full programme for the Festival will be announced on Tuesday 1 September 2015.