Q. How do I apply for a job at the ICO?
All the vacancies at the ICO are advertised on our website. You may also want to consider applying to be an ICO intern. Interns work for a minimum commitment of 2 days a week for 3 months, with all lunch and travel expenses paid. Intern vacancies are also posted on the jobs page of our website. We do not accept unsolicited CVs.
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Q. How do I book a film?
The two most important factors to take into consideration are whether you want to show the film theatrically or non-theatrically and what format you want to show the film on. Theatrical exhibition consists of screenings that are advertised to members of the public and where money is exchanged specifically for a ticket for the film, such as in cinemas.
Non-theatrical exhibition consists of a range of screenings including those held in film societies, community groups and other closed screenings where the films are shown to members and are not advertised generally to the public.
All films available in the UK will have a distributor. For information on distributors for theatrical exhibition go to the Distributors directory. For information on distributors for non-theatrical exhibition go to the Contacts for booking on DVD page.
Most distributors will expect you to open an account with them which may require the payment of a bond which will be returned once you have satisfied them of your credit rating. If you are starting a new venture you need to register your account with distributors at least 3-4 months in advance in order that they can process your application.
By paying a subsidised fee, you can enlist the services of the ICO to book films for you, see the information about our Programming advice and bookings service.
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Q. How do I book a film on DVD?
If you wish to screen a film on DVD to a public audience (paying or not) you need permission from the film's UK distributor or international rights holder. The two largest distributors of DVDs for public screenings in the UK are Filmbank for more mainstream films or the BFI for independent and world cinema. If the film you are looking for is not represented by either of these then you should contact the ICO by email at enquiries@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk and we will do our best to tell you where to go to obtain rights and a screening copy. It is useful to have a back-up title which you know is available as often older titles which are available to buy or rent on DVD are frustratingly not available for public screenings due to licensing complications.
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Q. If a film is available to buy in the shops can I show it at my cinema?
You must always have a contract with the film's distributor to show a film so you always need to get in touch with them first. Rights for a film are either ‘video’ or ‘theatrical’. Sometimes a film distributor will only have video rights and once released will be available to buy in shops but they are unable to take bookings for the film in cinemas. Sometimes they may have both video and theatrical rights in which case you should be able to book the film with the distributor.
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Q. How do I find out who the distributor is for a film?
Go to the BBFC website www.bbfc.co.uk and search for the title. If it has ever been distributed in the UK it will have a classification and the listing will contain information about the original distributor. Contact details for UK distributors are available from the Distributors directory. There are rare examples of films which have been distributed but are not classified. These are likely to be cultural titles or those which came into temporary distribution. In this case, they are unlikely to still be available. The ICO operates a free email enquiry service for film societies and non-theatrical exhibitors. If you have a query regarding the distributor of a film you can email us at enquiries@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk. If you are a cinema or a festival and have a substantial amount of titles for which you are seeking distribution information, the ICO can offer a research service for a fee. For details, please contact us.
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Q. How do I find out when a film is being released?
The easiest way is to go to the FDA (Film Distributors' Association) website www.launchingfilms.com and go to the distribution calendar for the next few months. If the film is not listed you can find out its distributor by checking on the BBFC website (the British Board of Film Classification) under ‘search’ and contacting them directly.
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Q. I am thinking about opening an independent cinema, how do I get started?
We've put together an indispensable guide to sustainable cinema development visit the How to start a local cinema section. It has information on finding suitable premises, equipment, licenses, how to source films and much more. Once you've had a look through the guide if you have further questions, a member of the ICO team will be happy to help, please telephone 0207 636 7120 or email info@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk
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Q. How do I get funding for capital projects?
At present, there are only a few capital funds in the public sector which can be used towards the building of a cinema, or for the purchase of equipment, furniture or other capital assets.
Since the mid 1990s, capital funding for the arts and film has chiefly originated from three sources - the National Lottery, a variety of European Union funds, and local authorities. Many major cinema projects have been completed with funding from one or a combination of all three sources alongside other partnership monies.
A proportion of the money from each national lottery ticket is designated to good causes, including the arts. Lottery funds for the arts are distributed primarily by the Arts Council. For film projects, responsibility for distributing these funds has been delegated to the BFI, which in turn passes on some funding to Creative England and Film London. The funding is offered through specifically designated and time-limited funding programmes.
European Union funding programmes are made available in 6-year terms. The current programmes were launched in 2007 and run until 2013. The main area of the EU programme is the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). To better understand access to these funds, it's worth visiting the EU programme website to see how these are applied, and at a more advanced stage, it's essential to work with your Regional Development Agency and Local Authority, both of which will have wider strategic plans as part of these EU programmes.
Indeed most funding programmes will require that you position your capital project within a wider strategic context as well as provide a robust development and business plan around your capital project, whatever its scale. This is best demonstrated by working with a wide range of partners and funders, preferably local, regional and national organisations. If you are looking for capital funding for a cinema project, the first ports of call should be your local authority and your Regional Development Agency, both of which will be able to provide advice and information on any funding more widely available.
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Q. How do I get my feature film distributed?
If you wish to have your film distributed in the UK, your first step is to identify which distribution companies active here are distributing a similar sort of film to yours. You can do that easily through interrogating the BBFC website or through magazines such as Sight & Sound which list the UK distributor of every film they review. Ask yourself, are you aiming for a commercial mainstream audience, or a specialist cinephile one? Is your film a genre film or a documentary? Having thought about your audience, find out which companies have recently distributed films aimed at a similar audience to the one you hope to reach. Send them an email or letter containing a brief synopsis of your film and ask them if they will consider watching it. Most will do so. Sending your film to every distributor, regardless of how appropriate they may be, is a waste of everyone's time. We get offered inappropriate titles every week and it simply comes across as amateur. For a comprehensive list of UK distributors see the Distributors directory.
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Q. How do I get the ICO to distribute my film?
The ICO undertakes limited theatrical (i.e. cinema only) distribution of two or three films each year. We look for international work which we believe is unique and innovative both in terms of form and content, and which, without our intervention, would not be screened in UK cinemas. If you wish to see what films the ICO has distributed please visit the ICO Films page. We expect the producer to supply all screening materials (a print or video copy, screeners, images, poster etc.). The producer is responsible for clearing all content such as music and clip rights etc. We return an agreed proportion of any box-office earned to the producer. If you believe the ICO is the right distributor for your film then please email Simon Ward a brief synopsis of your film and who you think your audience is.
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