Benedict Cumberbatch, Dame Helen Mirren and Dame Maggie Smith are among the big British stars leading the 2015 BFI London Film Festival (LFF).

The trio are expected to attend the premieres in the capital of their new films, Black Mass, Trumbo and The Lady In The Van respectively, during the 12-day festival, which runs from October 7 to October 18.

Johnny Depp and Benedict Cumberbatch in Black Mass
Johnny Depp and Benedict Cumberbatch in Black Mass (Warner Bros)

Benedict, who plays William “Billy” Bulger in the biopic about Boston mobster Whitey Bulger – played by Johnny Depp – will join director Scott Cooper. The 39-year-old actor, who opened last year’s LFF with The Imitation Game, is currently starring as Hamlet on the London stage.

Dame Helen will attend the premiere of Trumbo alongside co-star Bryan Cranston and filmmaker Jay Roach.

Bryan Cranston in Trumbo
Bryan Cranston as Hollywood screenwriter Dalton Trumbo (Entertainment One)

Dame Maggie stars as an elderly woman who lived in a battered car on the driveway of the writer Alan Bennett for 15 years in The Lady In The Van, directed by Nicholas Hytner and adapted from Alan’s play.

Dame Maggie Smith in The Lady In The Van
Dame Maggie Smith stars in The Lady In The Van (Sony Pictures)

This year’s star-studded list of attendees also include Meryl Streep, Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, Kate Winslet and Cate Blanchett, who will be receiving the BFI Fellowship award.

The film line-up is biopics heavy, as Sarah Gavron’s drama Suffragette, starring Meryl, Carey and Helena Bonham Carter, opens the festival, while Danny Boyle’s biopic about late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, starring Michael and Kate, will close the event.

Stephen Frears’ film about disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong, featuring Ben Foster, The Program, Yorgos Lanthimos’ sci-fi romantic thriller The Lobster starring Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz, and Ben Wheatley’s film version of JG Ballard’s High-Rise with Tom Hiddleston will also be shown as part of the gala screenings at the festival.

Tom Hiddleston stars in Ben Wheatley's High-Rise
Tom Hiddleston stars in Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise (Film4/StudioCanal)

Davis Guggenheim’s documentary He Named Me Malala and James Vanderbilt’s Truth, starring Cate Blanchett, are amongst the special presentations, with Rob Letterman’s big-screen adaptation of RL Stine’s children’s books Goosebumps, starring Jack Black, part of the family gala.

Jack Black plays horror author RL Stine in Goosebumps
Jack Black plays horror author RL Stine in Goosebumps (Sony Pictures)

Christopher Nolan, the filmmaker behind Interstellar, Inception and The Dark Knight, will give a talk as part of LFF Connects.

Festival director Clare Stewart said this is “the year of the strong woman”, adding that Suffagette is “universal in its themes and London-specific in its story”.

“The LFF programme team declares 2015 the year of the strong woman,” she explained.

“She is Carey Mulligan in Suffragette fighting for her right to vote; Kate Winslet standing up to her iconoclastic colleague in our closing night film Steve Jobs and Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara falling in love in Carol.”