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
- The ICO are recruiting a new Chair of the Board of Trustees. This role is a great opportunity for a dynamic individual to support the vital work we do in delivering world-class exhibition training, audience development, equitable access to culture, support for new filmmaking talent and advocacy for the independent film sector nationwide.
- Find out more and apply by 10am, 19 May. Join us for an information session at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, 1 April, to learn more. ICO Director Catharine Des Forges and current Chair Dorothy Wilson will outline the responsibilities and expectations of this key role, and you will have opportunities to ask any questions you may have about applying.
- This month, the ICO welcomed Haverhill Arts Centre to our programming network. Learn more about our programming services on our website or by emailing info@independentcinema.org.uk.
- Time for a Spring skills refresh! Our online training courses cover key topics such as programming, sustainability, marketing, and audience development and give you the freedom to learn in your own time – find out more and enrol today.
- We recently conducted an industry survey to find out more about capital investment needs in the independent film exhibition sector. Thanks to everyone who responded. We’ll be publishing a report on our findings very soon.
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
- Read Screen Daily’s six major takeaways from the recent UK Cinema Association conference.
- The Audience Agency’s Oliver Mantell dissects the legacy of lockdown on audiences, drawing out key trends and indicators which venues should be aware of (via Arts Professional).
- Hear from the team at 20th Century Flicks in Bristol, one of the UK’s last remaining DVD-rental shops, reflecting on the cultural space the shop occupies and the ways they still resonates with film lovers.
- For MUBI Notebook, Gabriel Winslow-Yost examines the developing technology of 4DX screenings, and the ways it furthers the legacy of previous technologies and big-screen “novelties”.
- The ICO’s Duncan Carson writes on his return to staging grassroots, community screenings and the major takeaways from his first event.
Image credit: All That Heaven Allows, dir. Douglas Sirk. Courtesy of Park Circus. Part of the Too Much: A Season of Melodrama programme.