Our regular monthly update featuring the latest news and opportunities for your cinema, festival or film society.
ICO News
- Applications are now open for Cultural Cinema Exhibition 2025. The twelfth edition of our flagship film programming training course will take place in London between 12-17 January, and the deadline to apply is Friday 15 November. Whether you currently work in cinema or festival programming, film curation, artists’ moving image, film education, specialist film, film marketing or audience development; or you want to in the future, this course is comprehensive, practical and will immeasurably boost your skills and knowledge.
- We’ve announced two films in our Autumn Screening Days line up: La Cocina, a claustrophobic yet captivating portrait of life behind the scenes of a busy Times Square restaurant and Sister Midnight, a surreal, punkish and distinctive comedy about a woman fighting patriarchal norms. You can catch these titles and more between 16-18 November at Broadway, Nottingham with the online programme running 18-24 November. We’re also holding an in-person audience development day for theatrical venues on Friday 15 November. Tickets are selling fast and we only have limited numbers of in-person passes remaining, so make sure to book soon if you’re planning to join us at Broadway.
- Our International Film Festival Network is growing, with 24 members from 17 countries and a combined annual attendance of over 500,000 film fans across the world. The mission of the network is to secure a vibrant future for film festivals and we welc0me new members to join.
- Last month, our Marketing Officer Sami Abdul-Razzak attended Europa Cinemas’ Audience Development and Innovation Lab in Bologna, which took place alongside this year’s Il Cinema Ritrovato festival. In a blog piece, Sami highlights some of the ideas that have stuck with him since returning home.
Opportunities & Resources
- BFI FAN CON 2024 is just around the corner, taking place at QFT & Queen’s University Belfast from 11-13 September. Its final programme is confirmed with 21 sessions and workshops, a preview screening, conference dinner and curated cinematic tour of Belfast on offer. This new conference is for cinemas and film exhibitors from across the UK to strengthen their professional networks, learn about some of the most exciting FAN projects, and draw inspiration on new ways to reach and engage audiences in a diverse screen culture. Book your tickets by Monday 2 September.
- Join BFI FAN for a Social Media Insights open session from the REACH: Strategic Audience Development programme, taking place on Wednesday 4 September. This one off event is open to all UK-wide BFI FAN members and costs £10 to attend. It will be delivered online via Zoom.
- Check out this exploration of past BFI Southbank programmes by Edward Smyth on Letterboxd, from its beginnings in the 1950s up to the present day.
- National Cinema Day is back this Saturday 31 August with hundreds of cinemas across the UK offering all tickets to all shows from just £4. A great opportunity to head to your local independent.
- The BFI is inviting applications from disabled film professionals to join a Group Attendance trip to participate in the industry activities, IFFR Pro, of the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) from 1 to 5 February 2025.
- T A P E Collective present a snapshot of Black girlhood through a mixture of archive and contemporary short films, featuring BFI NETWORK’s commissioned short Essex Girls (dir. Yero Timi-Biu) at BFI Southbank on Tuesday 24 September, 18:10.
- The newly refurbished BEAM Hertford (located on the site of the previous Hertford Theatre) has opened its doors. Great to see former FEDS Trainee Patrice Robinson as the Cinema Programmer on their team.
- Julie’s Bicycle has launched a free Resource Hub as part of the BFI‘s Sustainable Screen Programme. Explore 150 resources and examples specifically designed to help those working ‘beyond production’. They also have a webinar on Building Energy Management, coming up on 19 September between 10:00 and 11:30 exploring the essential strategies and responsibilities for optimising energy use in your building, in collaboration with Pilio.
- Art of Action is a new BFI season celebrating the artistry of real action choreography that has kept film audiences on the edge of their seats since the early days of cinema. Presented by the BFI FAN using funds from the National Lottery, Art of Action will take place at cinemas across the UK from October – December 2024, with the chance to get behind-the-scenes insights from those working in the action and stunt communities, via special events, demonstrations, talks and screenings throughout the season.
- A new limited Berlinale Talents bursary offer specifically designed to support UK Black and Global Majority filmmakers is available from the British Council.
- The new Creative Evaluation Toolkit For Cinemas by Film Hub Wales aims to help independent cinema exhibitors to think about making evaluation more accessible. Use the toolkit to make deeper connections with your audiences and learn about what cinema means to your community.
- BFI FAN: Green Hour is a series of events for UK film exhibitors focusing on environmental sustainability. You can join the Festivals and Environmental Sustainability session on Thursday 10 October from 14:00 to 15:00. Open to all UK-wide BFI FAN members.
- Submissions are now open for Oska Bright Film Festival 2025, the world’s leading festival for films made by or featuring people with learning disabilities or autism due to take place in October 2025.
- BFI London Film Festival have Early Bird Accreditation for their Industry Forum. Register before the 2 September for the cheapest passes.
- You can catch Screening the Sahara by Emma Bouraba and Abiba Coulibaly, from 3 to 17 September at the Barbican. Ciné-Sahra is a project dedicated to sharing films from the breadth of the Saharan region, exploring the often obscured space as a site of social, environmental and narrative pluralism through contemporary, archival, and artists’ film.
Good Reads
- Out of the shadows: Sergei Parajanov
- Film for Exiles: Mahdi Fleifel on “To a Land Unknown”
- August book reviews from Criterion
- Alain Delon remembered
- That Summer Feeling: Film Comment on the films of Jacques Rozier
- A primer on 1950s Hindi Noir
- Is the super-sized mulitplex chain on its way out in the UK?
- Francis Ford Coppola Didn’t Want ‘Megalopolis’ to Be ‘Some Woke Hollywood Production’
Header image: Sister Midnight (dir. Karan Kandhari) courtesy of Altitude Film Entertainment.