Almost Famous Kate's big night

Only four years after her mother, Goldie Hawn, sashayed on to the stage of the Odeon Leicester Square to launch the London Film Festival, Kate Hudson found herself last night doing much the same.

And the young star of Almost Famous, Cameron Crowe's warm-hearted coming-of-age movie set in the world of Seventies rock music, found the reception she got from the packed audience was just as generous.

Accompanying her on stage were her co-stars, Noah Taylor and 18-year-old Patrick Fugit, who won his role in the film as an embryonic rock journalist with no more experience under his belt than a few school plays.

"I didn't even know mum did that," said Kate afterwards. "But she is excited for me and she is proud, which is what any mum would be."

As she chatted about the film with her boyfriend, Chris Robinson from the rock group the Black Crowes, it was clear that she had thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

"It's a real movie, the way movies should be," she said. Her boyfriend agreed. "It has a little bit of soul which is what tends to be lacking in movies nowadays - and she is reeking it," he added.

Though she leaves for the United States tomorrow, she is already looking forward to returning in January to film The Four Feathers directed by Shekhar Kapur. "I love it here," she said.

Her opinion of Almost Famous was shared by many of the audience at this, the Regus 44th London Film Festival and the largest ever mounted. They thought it just the right kind to get the festival off to a flying start.

"It's not a film you can dislike," said film director Alan Parker, who is also chairman of the Film Council. "All of us lived through that period, though we don't necessarily want to remember it.

"Actually someone just asked me if I dressed like that. The answer was yes, only I looked much uglier."