Hundred’s of dedicated CumberFans braved the rain in London to watch Benedict Cumberbatch walk the red carpet at Leicester Square as The Imitation Game opened the 58th BFI London Film Festival.

Opening Night Gala at the BFI London Film Festival

Cumberbatch and his beautiful Co-star, Keira Knightley made quite the glamorous pair posing for photos and, despite the rain, stopped along the way to sign autographs for fans who were lining the red carpet some of them since 4am that morning!

The dazzling duo looked spectacular on the carpet creating a media frenzy! Knightley wore a multi-teared, re-embroidered gold lace gown with sheer sleeves….looking all ready for award season, if you ask me!

The fans and the fashion were all exciting but the true reason for last night’s celebration was the film, The Imitation Game which is already creating Oscar buzz. This film is a nail-biting race against time following Alan Turing (pioneer of modern-day computing and credited with cracking the German Enigma code) and his brilliant team at Britain’s top-secret code-breaking centre, Bletchley Park, during the darkest days of World War II.

Cumberbatch on his way to Oscar!

Benedict spoke to BBC about his portrayal of British mathematician, Alan Turing the man who cracked the Enigma code, and what it meant to play him: “To be asked to play such a phenomenal human being – a true English hero – is a great honour and comes with a great responsibility,” Cumberbatch said,  adding that he knew ”embarrassing little” about Turning prior to signing on to the film. He continued, “That’s the tragedy of this man’s extraordinary life – his achievements and his heroism and his criminal prosecution are not well known. He should be on the front cover of text books.”

Cumberbatch’s brilliantly nuanced performance already has bet makers saying he could be on his way to his first Academy Award nomination! I hope joining the leagues of Hollywood’s elite will not prevent him, however, from doing his now-famous ‘selfies’ like the one he took last night:

Another CumberSelfie!

Also at last night’s Fest-Opener, Fellow castmembers Allen Leech (Downton Abbey), Charles Dance (Game Of Thrones), Mark Strong and Matthew Beard and director Morten Tyldum and Studio God, Harvey Weinstein who seems to procure the rights to any film headed to Oscar Gold!  After the premiere, the cast and guests headed to Roundhouse in North London for the afterparty.

Cumberbatch and Super-PR Agent Extraordinare: Karon Maskill

For those of you that missed BFI’s LIVE Stream coverage of the red carpet, here it is in its entirety! Enjoy!

Lady Anglophile…Calling up Valentino!