News & Opportunities Round-Up: March 2025

Posted on March 27, 2025 by Leonie Findlay

Categories: News Round-Up

Welcome back to your monthly round-up from the ICO, featuring the latest opportunities for your cinema, festival, or film society and industry highlights from the UK and beyond.


ICO News

Resources and Opportunities

  • BFI FAN has unveiled its next UK-wide season: Too Much: A Season of Melodrama. BFI FAN members are invited to a Sprint event at Watershed, Bristol, to explore the themes and opportunities of this new season. Find out more and register now.
  • The Film and TV Charity’s Reel Impact fund has reopened, supporting Black and Global Majority talent and organisations. Mid-to-senior-level individuals can apply for grants of up to £10,000 for personal development, and organisations seeking to develop or fund work to advance race equity can apply for grants of up to £ 25,00. Apply by 31 March.
  • The BFI and Harlow Consulting have launched a new survey to better understand the experience of those working and studying screen heritage. To share your perspectives on the current challenges faced by the screen heritage workforce, fill in the anonymous survey before 1 April.
  • Picturehouse Create, Picturehouse’s new industry event, will be held at Picturehouse Central from 3 to 5 April. Find out more and book your spot today.
  • Cinema for All is hosting several events and activities to celebrate 100 years of community cinema and film societies. Get involved by voting for your favourite film and submitting archive photos of your film society memories.
  • The FAN Young Audience Information Pack is here to help you engage meaningfully with young audiences. With details on working with different age brackets, school and youth groups, and safeguarding considerations, the pack is available to download now via the BFI FAN website. Created by Kirsten Geekie, FAN Young Audience Champion.
  • Five Films For Freedom 2025 is available now, giving you free access to five short films from the BFI Flare programme. A collaboration between the British Council and the BFI, the films are available until 30 March, and can be watched on BFI Player or on the British Council Arts YouTube channel.
  • The 24th edition of WOW (Wales One World) Film Festival is taking place right now, bringing a week of screenings to Aberystwyth from 28 March to 4 April.
  • Indigo Ltd. has announced its bursary fund, intended to support early-career arts marketing or insight professionals attending their first Arts Marketing Association conference. The conference takes place in Edinburgh this July, and applications for the bursary should be submitted by noon on 12 May.
  • CICAE’s Arthouse Cinema Training 2025 is now open for applications. Apply by 29 April to participate in this week-long intensive cinema management training course alongside exhibition professionals from around the world.
  • The CIISA Standards are live and outline four minimum standards of behaviour expected across the creative industries. Keep an eye out for details of a webinar later this month, hosted by the ICO, exploring the standards further.

Good Reads


Image credit: All That Heaven Allows, dir. Douglas Sirk. Courtesy of Park Circus. Part of the Too Much: A Season of Melodrama programme.

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