Olivia Colman chats to her The Father co-star Anthony Hopkins during the AFI festival

Oliva Colman delighted fans as she appeared in conversation with co-star Anthony Hopkins following the premiere of their film The Father on Tuesday evening.

The drama was aired during the American Film Institute festival, which is this year being aired virtually due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic across the globe.

Olivia appeared in high spirits as she chatted to fellow Oscar winner Anthony, 82, in an interview after the film was shown through the AFI website.

The actress, 46, looked fresh-faced as she went make-up free and sported a simple white T-shirt for the virtual appearance.

Meanwhile Anthony looked smart in a blue shirt as he happily waved to fans watching the chat.  

The film follows Anthony who is heading towards 80 and is refusing to use the nurses his daughter Anne [Olivia] has set up for him. 

Anthony struggles as his memory begins to fade, while Anne announces she is planning a move to Paris with her new boyfriend.

However Anthony later speaks to a man who claims to be Anne’s husband and confusion sets in for the elderly man. 

The chat was led by Claudia Puig while filmmaker Florian Zeller was also present to discuss the new film.

The film has generated an early buzz that they could well be up for more coveted trophies next year, as the first look trailer for their new movie The Father was unveiled last month. 

During the trailer, as the pair sit down to speak with a medical professional, Anthony is asked if he is living with his daughter as she sits beside him.

‘The situation is very simple,’ he answers. ‘I’ve lived in this flat for 30 years now and my daughter is very interested in it.’

Ignoring protests from his daughter that what he’s saying isn’t true, he continues: ‘So she’s moved in with this man she met.

‘I don’t know what she’s cooking up against me, but she’s cooking something up. That I do know. There’s something funny going on, Believe me, there’s something going on, It’s been going on for some time. Strange things going on around us.’

His continued deterioration becomes evident throughout the emotional trailer, as he’s seen defiantly yelling at his daughter: ‘I am not leaving my flat!’

He’s shown enquiring about the whereabouts of different possessions in his house, under the apparent impression that they have been stolen. 

Ultimately, the signs of his illness become impossible to ignore as Anthony fails to recognise his own daughter one day when she walks into his abode.

‘Who are you exactly?’ Anthony asks toward the end of the trailer, before he’s also heard heartbreakingly enquiring: ‘Who exactly am I?’

Zeller directed his own screen adaptation of the project, which gives viewers the opportunity to see the dementia through the eyes of the person with the condition.

‘The idea was never just to tell a story about dementia from the outside — it was to give the opportunity to the audience to experience signs of dementia, as if they were in the main character’s head,’ he told EW earlier this year. 

‘I really wanted to keep that narrative in the adaptation,’ added the French playwright and filmmaker.

Producers David Parfitt and Philippe Carcassonne and executives at Film4 and Embankment reworked the schedule to ensure that Hopkins and Colman could be available to work together on the production, which began shooting in May 2019.

The pair did the majority of their scenes together on a sound stage at a studio complex in west London. 

Olivia Williams, Rufus Sewell, Imogen Poots and Mark Gatiss are also included in the cast of the film, which is expected to receive award nods next year.

The Father, which first premiered at Sundance in January of this year, is set to be released in the US on December 18, followed by the UK on January 8, 2021.