Registration will be held from 8.30am each morning, at which you will be issued with a badge for the day(s) you are attending. This will be your entry pass into all screenings. The registration area will be staffed by the ICO throughout the event.  We’ll be on hand to offer advice on topics including programming, distribution, audience development and more.

Films will be shown in cinemas 1, 2 and 4 at Showroom on Saturday and Sunday, and in cinemas 1, 2 and 3 at Showroom on Monday.

Yes! There will be a drinks reception on Saturday evening for delegates to meet and network with fellow colleagues and catch up on the all-important films of the day. Other additional activities will be confirmed by email closer to date.

Showroom is keen to be as welcoming, inclusive and accessible as possible for all customers, audiences, staff and visitors. A sloped ramp leads to the main cinema entrance which is electronically assisted. Lift access is provided to cinemas at the lower level. All 4 screens have level access. Accessible toilet facilities are available on the lower level and within the café/bar. Guide dogs and hearing dogs are very welcome. For further details, click here.

We work closely with distributors to select independent, world and art house cinema that will be released in the following quarter. We focus on titles that are unlikely to have a vast marketing budget so need the keen curatorial eye and advance notice that a viewing at Screening Days can provide for your programme. We also occasionally include higher profile titles, particularly in the lead-up to awards season, which we believe delegates will be keen to see in order to assess suitability for their programmes. Our goal is to provide you with the opportunity to see the widest range of films so you’re able to broaden programmes in your venues, and we hope the Screening Days programme reflects that.

We always try to finalise the schedule as soon as possible so you can plan ahead. Unfortunately, we are limited in how far in advance we can do so. Because distributors offering us their films often haven’t determined their schedule in advance, or are waiting on delivery of the materials, we often receive final confirmations quite close to the event. Then, in order to evenly space the films across the different screens, we need to carefully schedule the films, which takes time.

See the schedule here.

We try to give you as many breaks as possible between films and usually have morning, lunch and afternoon breaks, but are restricted by the availability of the screens and the length of the films. Most cinemas can’t take out their evening public screenings due to conditions set by distributors, and so they don’t disappoint their local (paying) audience. This means we can only screen films between 9am – 5.30pm. We try to keep in mind that the main purpose of the event is for you to be able to see as many films as possible.

The purpose of Screening Days is to encourage strong audiences for a more diverse selection of films. Programmers, organisers (e.g. the most senior person in a community screen, members of the selection committee of a film society) and marketers are the people in a best position to both select films and advocate for these films in their venues. We are often oversubscribed, so this is the fairest way to ensure that key staff get the opportunity to attend.

Our Screening Days events have been selling out for the past few years and starting at this event we are now limiting the number of passes per any one organisation to four. This is to ensure that the largest possible number of organisations can attend Screening Days to maximise their benefit across the film exhibition sector.

As we only screen three films at any one time, you will still be able to see all of the titles shown.

Attendees must also be engaged in one of the following roles within their organisation: programming, marketing, education, audience development, or on the selection committee of a film society/club.

Our funders for Screening Days, in addition to the distributors that lend us their films, stipulate that exhibitors must hold 12 or more screenings per year to attend (and must have done so in the year to date).

Your regional Film Hub may be able to offer support to their members to attend, in the form of a bursary towards fees, travel and accommodation. For further information and/or links to contact your local Hub to enquire, see below:

• Film Hub Midlands http://filmhub.broadway.org.uk
• Film Hub London http://filmlondon.org.uk/film-hub-london/support-for-exhibitors/film-hub-bursaries
• Film Hub North https://filmhubnorth.org.uk/contact
• Film Hub Northern Ireland filmhubni.org/Hub-Services
• Film Hub Scotland http://www.filmhubscotland.com/opportunities/training
• Film Hub South East
• Film Hub South West
  https://watershed.co.uk/filmhub/training-support/bursaries
• Film Hub Wales http://www.filmhubwales.org/support

The next Screening Days events are:

• Archive Screening Day 2019 (now open for registration!)
  Thurs 5 December | BFI Southbank, London
• Spring Screening Days 2020
  Sat 7 to Mon 9 March | BFI Southbank, London

Sign up to our mailing list to stay up to date.

No. While we appreciate your enthusiasm (or otherwise) for films you see at Screening Days, the terms that we receive the films under completely prohibit any social media or film forum discussion of films in the Screening Days programme, however positive it is! Distributors monitor social media channels for discussion of the films. Please do feel free to discuss the films in person with other delegates, and if you’d like to talk about the event in general on social media you can find us at @ICOtweets #ScreeningDays.