BFI Flare: London LGBTQ+ Film Festival has just announced that they will open this year’s festival with the UK premiere of Chanya Button’s VITA & VIRGINIA. The movie is adapted from adapted from Dame Eileen Atkins’ award winning play of the same name, the film tells the true story of the passionate relationship between literary trailblazer Virginia Woolf (Elizabeth Debicki), and the enigmatic aristocrat Vita Sackville-West (Gemma Arterton).

The film, which had its World Premiere at Toronto Film Festival last year, also stars Isabella Rossellini, Rupert Penry-Jones and Peter Ferdinando and follows their encounters which inspired Woolf’s famous novel ‘Orlando’ and is a love story about two women who smashed through social barriers to find solace in their forbidden connection.

This is the 33rd edition of the annual LGBT+ film which will open on  March 21 at BFI Southbank.