ICO Spring Screening Days 2025

We want Screening Days to have the biggest possible impact on audiences for British independent and world cinema titles. Several factors influenced our decision to reduce the in-person screenings from three full days to two and to add an audience development day on Friday for theatrical exhibitors.

While we are extremely grateful to the BFI for their continued funding of Screening Days, we are operating at a reduced funding level of 25% and need to make savings, as well as bring in other sources of income.

There are also new funding priorities from BFI Screen Culture 2033 around the urgent need for the sector to engage new audiences, and we want to invest meaningfully in this work.

We highly value what film societies and community cinemas do and the audiences they reach. However, our funding is specifically to support the work of theatrical cinemas and their audience development goals.

In addition, while we don’t think there’s any replacement for watching films on the big screen, our online platform has made it possible for people to catch up on titles they missed over the weekend at home. Monday attendance at our events dropped heavily, as many of you took advantage of this opportunity.

Subsequently, alongside reducing all day in-person screenings to Saturday and Sunday, we now host a smaller, one-day event on the preceding Friday specifically for theatrical venues (i.e. cinemas and mixed art venues that screen primarily on DCP) and themed around developing new audiences for independent cinema. Find out more.

We were unable to book BFI screens on Monday for this event. More broadly though, we plan not to continue screening selected repeats on Monday due to low attendance at recent events.

On Friday 28 March we’re running a smaller in-person training day at BFI Southbank for theatrical exhibitors aimed at developing new audiences for independent cinema. Read more.

This day is solely open to theatrical exhibitors (i.e. staff of cinemas and mixed art venues that screen primarily on DCP). We welcome programmers, marketers and anyone involved in any aspect of audience development. We also welcome freelancers and young programmers operating in theatrical exhibition. If you’re unsure of your eligibility, email us.

Due to the nature of the event, we can only confirm the in-person film screenings schedule once all films are confirmed and timings agreed with BFI Southbank. We will circulate the final schedule as soon as possible before the event.

However, approx. timings are registration from 8.30am each day, with films screening from 9.00am to approx. 5.30pm on Saturday 1 and Sunday 2 March in NFT 1, 2 and 3 at BFI Southbank.

We’ll hold a drinks reception after the final films on Saturday 1 March at BFI IMAX, a short walk from BFI Southbank (map).

We will circulate the schedule for our Audience Development Day on Friday 28 February once all speakers and sessions are confirmed. However, likely timings are registration from 9.30am, with sessions from 10am to 5.00pm at BFI Southbank, followed by networking drinks.

The online film programme will be available from Monday 3 to Sunday 9 March inclusive. You can watch available films during this period at any time that suits you.

We aim to provide Audio Description (AD) and Descriptive Subtitles (DS) on as many films as possible.

For films shown online, where distributors can’t supply DS, we create them if we receive film materials in enough time to do so. For films shown in-person, we are limited by whether distributors can supply DS on DCP at the time of their screening. Unfortunately we do not have budget to create AD files so can only provide these where distributors can make them available. We will confirm all details as early as we can before the event.

We will have a quiet room available throughout the event at BFI Southbank.

See BFI Southbank’s access information page for details of physical venue accessibility.

Please let us know if you have any accessibility requirements in your online registration so we can try to support you in any way we can.

If you have any other needs or queries about access not answered here, email us at: info@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk

We’ll send you the in-person schedule as soon as possible before the event. Shortly beforehand, you’ll receive a PDF event pack with all details including film descriptions, instructions on how to join at BFI Southbank and/or online, a full schedule, and a participant list.

We no longer print packs for everyone to avoid waste, but if you are attending in-person and would like a colour printed pack, you can purchase one in our online ticketing to collect on your arrival (scroll down to the bottom ticket option). 

Generally, we ask people to purchase an organisational pass if they’re representing an organisation at the event; with discounted passes for freelance workers (freelance pass), those aged between 18-30 (young person’s pass) and those who are of working age but currently unwaged and/or who would not otherwise be able to attend (supported pass).

If you don’t qualify for the supported pass, but need financial support to attend, the ICO has some limited bursary support available and/or you may be able to apply to your regional Film Hub for help. See details.

Please note that: Screening Days pass costs are already highly subsidised, and we need to bring in a certain amount of income from pass fees to unlock the higher level of public funding needed to run the events. So, while we want to support people to attend in any way we can – especially at the current moment – our fees are crucial to our ability to continue holding Screening Days events.

Email: info@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk with any other queries about your pass.

Yes, you can switch your pass type from in-person and online to online only, or vice versa (while capacity allows). Email info@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk to do so.

However, the in-person Spring event always sells out, so if you book to attend in-person but change your mind, please let us know as soon as possible before the event so we can offer your space to someone else.

There are usually 24 films in the overall programme.

All films will screen at BFI Southbank (12 on Saturday, 12 on Sunday) and we aim to make at least 12 titles from the programme available to watch online too from Mon 3 to Sun 9 March. We put as many titles online as possible (and would put them all online if we could) but are inevitably restricted by materials availability and distributor permissions on some titles, especially on higher profile / studio releases.

We confirm if films will be available online as well as in-venue as they are announced. However, please note that we reserve the right to pull any titles from online and/or in-person if we have problems around the delivery of materials closer to date.

We work with Eventive to deliver our online events. You can view films on Eventive on a laptop, tablet (e.g. iPad), phone, Chromecast and Airplay from your device, and via HDMI connector to your laptop. However, please note that you can’t currently watch on devices with a Linux or Chrome based operating system (e.g., Chromebooks). In general, it’s a good idea to test your set up before streaming the films – you can do that on Eventive’s compatibility page. We offer a support email service throughout the event.

BFI Southbank is located under Waterloo Bridge on London’s South Bank, a short walk from Waterloo Station. For a map and local travel information, see BFI Southbank’s Getting here page.

At BFI Southbank you can purchase food and drinks from BFI Riverfront, BFI Cafe and BFI Bar. For more details and opening times, see BFI Southbank’s Food and drink page. You can also purchase food and drinks from cafes and restaurants nearby on the South Bank.

We will hold a drinks reception after the final films of the day on Saturday 1 March at BFI IMAX, a short walk from BFI Southbank (map).

Our goal for Screening Days is to provide you with the opportunity to see the widest possible range of high quality films to help you broaden and diversify the programmes in your venues.

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 so delegates can assess their suitability for programming.

Please note that our programme choices are necessarily dependent on the titles slated for release in upcoming months, and for which materials and permissions are available from distributors. It’s also the case that for higher-profile titles, security concerns are heightened, therefore we may only be able to secure them for in-person screenings. We make as many titles available online as we can.

Films will be announced on this page as they are confirmed. Full film descriptions and booking details will be circulated to registered delegates before the event in our PDF delegate pack.

Good question! We run Screening Days for a few key reasons, best summarised as: ‘To help UK cinemas better serve all their possible audiences’. We focus the events on screenings and discussion because:

• We want cinemas across the UK to be able to make informed decisions about the films they programme, so audiences can see the best titles from around the world. That’s hard if you haven’t actually been able to watch the films and can’t afford to rely on expensive festival trips or distributor marketing materials.
• We think independent cinemas are best when their programming stands out. Screening Days aims to support ambition in cinema programming .
• We want to have useful conversations about what it’ll take to build a stronger independent cinema sector. Gathering people in the sector together helps us identify common problems and find shared solutions.
• We want to support independent distributors by helping their films find an audience in independent cinemas.

What we hope to achieve:

• Cinemas more regularly choosing films in our programme of independent British and world cinema titles and expanding the types of films they show.
• Cinemas attracting a wider range of people to those films.
• Attendees gaining a wider professional network and feeling part of a community.
• A wider group of people feeling that they can participate in film exhibition.
• Independent distributors feeling they’re able to play their films more widely from having been included in the programme.

You’ll be able to discuss films with other attendees during the event. However, due to our agreements with distributors, it’s important not to discuss the films in online spaces (e.g. social media, blogs), even if your comments are positive and even if the film has already screened elsewhere. If you’d like to talk about the event in general on social media, though, please do! You can find us on X, Instagram or Facebook with hashtag #ScreeningDays.

We take piracy very seriously. Please do not record, copy, share or stream films from our online platform, which are provided only for film exhibition professionals that meet the entry criteria. We have advanced security measures in place including forensic watermarking that will allow us to prevent and track piracy. If you are found to be in breach of these terms, we will take any and all legal measures available.