Colin Firth as King George VI stars with Helena Bonham Carter in The King's Speech. (London Film Festival)

The London Film Festival has opted for a splash of Hollywood glamour and a large helping of British filmmaking for its lineup announced Wednesday.

The lineup of 300 features and shorts will bring Colin Firth, Keira Knightley, Natalie Portman, Naomi Harris and Julianne Moore to the red carpet.

High profile Hollywood offerings include The American, starring George Clooney, and ballet thriller Black Swan, starring Portman, which has already been well-received in Venice.

British films getting the gala treatment including Mike Leigh's Another Year, a gentle exploration of aging and family starring Jim Broadbent, and The King's Speech, with Firth playing King George VI who is forced to overcome a severe stutter after he takes on the throne with the abdication of his brother.

"It's hard to recollect a year when the program has been so varied," artistic director Sandra Hebron said. "And there's the strongest British selection we've had for a long time."

There are fewer A-list Hollywood movies and fewer world premiers, a reflection of austere times, she said.

A lineup of New British Film includes Brian Welsh's In Our Name, an exploration of mental illness among Iraqi vets and Pink Saris, a documentary by Kim Longinotto about a woman fighting social injustices in Northern India.

International fare

Writer Ayub Khan-Din's semi-autobiographical East is East, about a Pakistani family in Britain, gets a follow-up, West is West, directed by Andy De Emmony.

The Great White Silence, an official record of Robert Falcon Scott's turn-of-the-century expedition to the South Pole, will be screened in a restored version with live musical performance from Simon Fisher Turner.

Lemmy, a documentary by Greg Olliver and Wes Orshoski about the Motorhead lead singer, is also set to unspool.

International fare includes Julian Schnabel's Palestinian story Miral, Cannes Palme d'Or winner Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Africa United, about a group of children trying to reach South Africa in time for the World Cup.

The Oct. 13 opener is Mark Romanek's Never Let Me Go, an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro's haunting novel starring Knightley, Carey Mulligan and Andrew Garfield as friends at an unusual boarding school.

The London Film Festival runs Oct. 13 to Oct. 28. It will celebrate the London BFI film awards as part of the festival.