Burton's 'Frankenweenie' opens London Film Festival

Gothic animation Frankenweenie is the opening gala at the London Film Festival (Disney)

This year's London Film Festival has Ben Affleck, Dustin Hoffman and the Rolling Stones — and it's bookended by one of the city's premiere cinematic couples.

Britain's biggest film showcase opens today with the London-based American director Tim Burton's Frankenweenie, the animated tale of a boy and his beloved — but dead — dog. It ends on 21 October with Mike Newell's Great Expectations, which stars Burton's partner, Helena Bonham Carter, as haunted Miss Havisham.

Highlights of the 56th annual festival include the world premiere of Rolling Stones documentary Crossfire Hurricane; Hoffman's directorial debut, Quartet, about a group of aging opera stars; Affleck's Iran hostage thriller Argo; and The Sessions, in which a polio patient in an iron lung enlists a sex surrogate so he can lose his virginity.

AP