From the 26th-29th January, the glorious souls over at the BFI Southbank are hosting LoCo’s first London Comedy Film Festival. The four day spectacle promises to champion the craft of comedy film-making with an array of previews, classics, masterclasses and parties, with help from on-screen greats ranging from Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton to the mighty Kermit himself. With films ranging from the latest Hollywood blockbusters to independent, and international films, LoCo’s comedy film festival is quite literally laughing in the face of January. Hurrah!

Not only is the festival opening with a ridiculously anticipated preview of the new Muppet film, but its got Edgar Wright kicking about to introuduce a double bill of Shawn Of The Dead and Mike Leigh’s Life Is Sweet. Silent film fans (ie, anyone who’s seen The Artist) will be delighted to discover two classics of silent cinema by the masters of comedy, Charlie Chaplin in The Champion and Buster Keaton in Sherlock Jr – with live piano accompaniment!

It’s also a brillo opportunity for comedy-makers, seeing as LoCo’s year-round education programme LoCollege are doing a two-day course for young film-makers on kickstarting your comedy career. The LoCo Discovery Screening on Saturday 28th will showcase a new British comedy short and a British comedy feature film that does not yet have distribution, giving new film-makers prestigious BFI Southbank screening slots. Take THAT, worst month of the year.

Learn more about the festival at the official website here, but hurry, tickets are going MEGA-fast. Happy Monday!