Film programming advice and film bookings

Every cinema has different ambitions, different expectations and different audiences. The ICO works in partnership with film exhibitors, helping them to create unique, commercially viable programmes that appeal to the most diverse possible range of local audiences. In 2008-9, ICO cinemas had a total of 616,890 admissions which was an increase of 3.6‰ on 2007-8 and total box office of £2.8 million.

Our clients range from the internationally acclaimed Watershed Media Centre in Bristol to local authority-run cinemas such as Hull Screen, to arts centres such as Street’s hugely successful Strode Theatre (which boasts one of the highest screen averages in the UK). Click here for a full list of ICO client cinemas.

The programmes at ICO client cinemas vary enormously and range from cinemas that focus on the latest blockbusters to those whose programmes feature arthouse cinema, archival work and artists’ film and video. But all of our clients aim to make a difference by developing programming strategies to attract the widest possible range of audiences.

The ICO’s programming team has over 30 years' collective programming and film-booking experience, offering an extraordinarily wide knowledge of contemporary and historic cinema and a strong relationship with all UK film distributors. In addition to watching previews of new releases, our programmers attend key international and specialist film festivals to ensure that the ICO is among the first to know what’s hot (and what’s not) for the year ahead.

The programming team can also curate special one-off programmes, even for cinemas and festivals that are not regular clients. Among the team’s particular areas of expertise are children’s cinema, archival film, animation, short films, artists’ film and video, lesbian and gay cinema, cult cinema, horror films and South East Asian cinema.

We charge each of our clients an annual fee based on the anticipated size and complexity of the programme. The ICO subsidizes this fee, keeping it as low as possible to ensure that our services are available to the widest possible range of exhibitors.If you would like to discuss the ICO's film programming and bookings service further, please contact:

Catharine Des Forges | 020 7079 0471