The 68th BFI London Film Festival concluded last night with the UK premiere of 'Piece by Piece,' a LEGO biographical documentary/comedy directed by Morgan Neville. The film chronicles the life and career of musician Pharrell Williams. The closing night gala at the Royal Festival Hall was marred by a protest from animal rights activists representing PETA. They displayed a banner reading, 'Pharrell: Stop Supporting Killing Animals For Fashion,' a reference to Williams' role as men's creative director for Louis Vuitton.

'Shame on you, Pharrell. Animals are skinned alive and tortured,' one protester yelled from the balcony. 'Stop the torture, stop the pain, LVMH you are to blame,' they chanted. 'Animals are not fabrics, they're not handbags...Fashion is violence.' Security swiftly removed the protesters, according to a BFI representative, who noted that the situation was handled effectively.

In a statement, PETA UK's senior campaigns manager, Kate Werner, criticized the film, saying, 'While Pharrell's life story is told in this navel-gazing film, animals are confined in filth on farms before their heads are bashed in and their skin is ripped off while they're still conscious – all so pieces of their bodies can be made into Louis Vuitton's fleeting fashion pieces.' Werner urged Williams to 'use his power for good, stop being complicit in cruelty, and push Louis Vuitton into the 21st century by refusing to use wild-animal skins and fur.'

Williams responded, 'God bless you. Rome wasn't built in a day and the changes that they see, they don't happen overnight. It takes a lot of planning and we are working out those things. They wanted to be heard so we heard them.' He added, 'That is not necessarily the way to do it, and sitting in my position, when I have conversations on behalf of organizations like that unbeknownst to them, they come out here and do themselves a disservice. But that's OK, when that change comes, everybody in this room will remember that I told you, we are actually working on that. And if she would've just asked me, I would've told her. But instead, she wanted to repeat herself.'

The BFI London Film Festival ran from 9-20 October. The Australian stop-motion animation film 'Memoir of a Snail' won the Best Film award in the official competition. The film, which also won the Best Animated Cristal at the Annecy Festival in June, tells the story of two separated twins navigating life's challenges in a small town. This marks the first time a stop-motion film has received the top prize at the BFI London Film Festival. The jury praised Adam Eliot's film, calling it 'a singular achievement in filmmaking. Emotionally resonant and constantly surprising, Memoir tackles pertinent issues such as bullying, loneliness and grief head-on, creating a crucial and universal dialogue in a way that only animation can.'

Rungano Nyoni's Cannes hit 'On Becoming a Guinea Fowl' received a special mention, described as an 'intricately crafted story brimming with imagination that dares to say the unsayable about a sexual predator in a close-knit Zambian community.'

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