Welcome back to your regular monthly update from the Independent Cinema Office! See the latest opportunities for your cinema, festival or film society, plus industry highlights from across the UK.
ICO News
- Explore case studies, learn from accessibility practitioners and create a bespoke Disability Action Plan with Accessibility Across the Board, a new, hybrid short course for BFI FAN members delivered by the ICO. Offering practical, adaptable solutions, this course is designed to enable meaningful changes within organisations, ultimately becoming more inclusive for disabled audiences and staff. Sign up before 5 November.
- Time to refresh your business’s outlook? BFI FAN’s Revisiting Your Cinema Business Model open webinars that we are delivering are the perfect place to begin! With sessions exploring fundraising, data management and finance, these webinars will start you on the path to developing a sustainable business model, helping your organisation thrive in the long term. Book individual webinars for £10, or attend all three for just £25.
- There are just two weeks left to apply for Cultural Cinema Exhibition 2025. Featuring a host of industry experts, the ICO’s flagship training course is the best way to accelerate your film exhibition career, with alumni achieving top jobs at institutions including the BFI, Curzon Cinemas, Sheffield DocFest, Altitude, and film festivals around the world. Watch a recording of our information session to find out more and apply ASAP for your best chance of securing a place before the final deadline of 15 November.
- There’s still time to pick up your online pass for Autumn Screening Days 2024, giving you access from anywhere in the UK and Ireland to some of the best new and indie cinema from 18 to 24 November. We’ve just announced the final titles for the line-up, featuring soon-to-be audience favourites and exciting debuts. Click here to see the full programme and pick up your passes today.
- And keep an eye out for announcements coming very soon about Archive Screening Days, coming to Hyde Park Picturehouse (Leeds) and our online platform in January 2025. Registration will open very soon!
- The ICO is seeking new members for our Board of Trustees: providing direction, evaluation and support to our leadership team. We’re particularly looking for people with skills in finance, HR, fundraising and organisational development, young trustees, people who reflect more widely the communities we serve, and people who love cinema just as much as we do. To apply, read our Board Recruitment Pack and send a cover letter to info@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk.
- Finally, this month has been a great one for the ICO programming network, with ActOne – a community-run cinema in Acton – joining the client list and the long-awaited reopening of Stoke Film Theatre, one of the UK’s oldest film theatres. Read more about all our client cinemas online and get in touch via info@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk to learn more about what our programming team can do for your organisation.
Opportunities and Resources
- Develop your relationship with audiences with “Evaluation for Arts, Culture, and Heritage: Principles and Practice” – a two-week digital course from the Centre for Cultural Value and the University of Leeds. With sessions outlining creative means of data gathering and how collecting such information can benefit your organisation, this professional development course could be the next step to ensuring your organisation is as accessible and open to audiences as possible.
- Do you work in archives or screen heritage? The National Archive is seeking participants for a series of roundtables to create a new strategic vision for archives within the contemporary landscape. Taking place online and in-person throughout November, these meetings are your opportunity to shape what UK archive culture looks like going forward. Sign up now.
- European Arthouse Cinema Day returns on 17 November, organised by the International Confederation of Arthouse Cinemas (CICAE) in collaboration with Eurimages and the Europa Cinemas network. Founded to bring together organisations across borders, the ninth edition will unite more than 700 cinemas from over 40 countries in a day of events exploring the democratic, transformative possibilities of arthouse cinema.
- Learn new ways to incorporate accessibility and inclusion into your organisation with Film Hub Scotland’s monthly Accessible Cinema Bulletin, highlighting new research publications, initiatives and opportunities from the BFI and beyond.
- Tickets are still available for London’s Screen Archive Conference on Thursday, 28 November. Featuring archivists, researchers, and film professionals from across the UK, this year’s conference will be centred around ‘Undocumented’, an LSA project which seeks to address the gaps in representation in London’s film archives.
- Sign up for the Access Culture Survey from Indigo Share and All In to gain valuable insight into inclusivity and develop your organisation. Registration is open now, and surveys will be distributed from mid-November to mid-December.
- Calling exhibitors working with heritage buildings! BFI FAN and Historic England are partnering on a new online training course on Carbon Literacy on 14 & 18 November discussing sustainable frameworks and the ways these can benefit your practice. Sign up before 4 November.
Good Reads
- Recent blogs from ICO staff and contributors featuring highlights from the BFI London Film Festival, a case study of youth engagement at the Cornwall Film Festival, and a reflection on how to programme responsively in challenging times.
- Read a report on the recent BFI FAN CON in Belfast on The Bigger Picture.
- Read about the Independent Film Tax Credit (IFTC), a new tax relief designed to incentivise more home-grown, independent British feature productions.
- Discover the Wider World of Film from the BFI – a new study investigating the place films occupying within wider British viewership trends.
- Hear the incredible story of the Ritz cinema, Belfast, in a new podcast, “The Wonder Cinema”.
- Arts Council England has released the findings of the Cultural Freelancers Study 2024, their largest piece of research into the realities and challenges facing freelancers today.
- Earlier this month BIFA released their longlists for this year’s awards – read the nominations here and keep an eye out for shortlists coming 5 November.
- Discover the feminist history of Luchadora movies in a new blog from Invisible Women
- And for all you horror lovers, enjoy The Devil, Probably from MUBI Notebook to help you enjoy Halloween!
Header image: On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (dir. Rungano Nyoni), courtesy of Picturehouse Entertainment