Benedict Cumberbatch, Helen Mirren lead stars to attend London Film Festival

LONDON – Helen Mirren, Benedict Cumberbatch and Maggie Smith are among the British stars to attend this year’s London Film Festival.

Among the highlights to be screened during the Oct. 7-18 festival are “Trumbo,” starring Bryan Cranston as Dalton Trumbo, the Hollywood screenwriter who was blacklisted for being an alleged Communist sympathizer, and mobster drama “Black Mass,” starring Cumberbatch and Johnny Depp.

Other headlining films announced Tuesday include “The Lady in the Van,” which stars Smith as an elderly woman who lived in a battered car for over a decade, and “Carol,” a 1950s drama starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.

The festival will open with the European premiere of historical drama “Suffragette,” starring Carey Mulligan and Meryl Streep. The biopic “Steve Jobs,” starring Michael Fassbender, will close the festival.