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
- Today is your last chance to register to join us in-person at Autumn Screening Days! With a programme featuring accomplished new work from seasoned directors and stunning feature debuts, there should be something for every audience. Explore the full programme and register today to join us at Phoenix, Leicester (15 and 16 November) and online (17 to 23 November).
- Applications for Get It Seen – our sales, distribution and exhibition development programme for film producers – close on Monday, 3 November at 11am! Taking place next January, Get It Seen is an intensive programme designed to help emerging and established producers prepare their films for market and distribution, offering support from industry leaders to create clear, strategic release plans. Find out more and apply today.
- Tickets are now on sale for Crip Melodrama: She’s Hysterical, a mini-tour marking 30 years of Todd Haynes’ Safe and exploring the complicated representations of disabled women in melodrama. Presented by the ICO in collaboration with disabled curators Charlie Little, Florence Grieve, and Emily Simmons, screenings and events will take place in London, Edinburgh, Birmingham, and Bristol this November and December. Visit our Linktree to find out more and book tickets, and contact bookings@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk to bring Safe to your venue.
- The ICO is hiring! We’re currently looking for a Film Programmer and a Marketing Coordinator to join our friendly team in London. Find out more about both roles, as well as other exhibition vacancies across the UK, on our Jobs Board.
- Celebrate working class film talent and audiences with Uncommon Voices: Exploring Class in New British Cinema. This new selection of contemporary short films explores working class Britain as it is and imagines itself to be, spanning documentaries, flights of fancy and realism. Please contact bookings@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk to discuss bringing this programme to your venue. A free screening of Uncommon Voices is also taking place at the University of Leicester on Friday, 7 November, and is available to book now.
- The ICO blog is open now for pitches which share insights on a range of topics such as accessibility, audience development, and new exhibition initiatives. If you have an idea for an article that you’d like us to commission, please read our blog guidelines and get in touch.
Resources, Opportunities and Events
- The next BFI FAN: Green Hour will focus on retrofit fundraising for community cinemas, exploring funding strategies, application best practices, and how to frame your cinema as a community-led, environmentally aligned project. Taking place online at 3pm, Friday 7 November, register now via Film Hub North.
- European Arthouse Cinema Day 2025 will take place on 23 November, with screenings and special events taking place in cinemas around the world. See which cinemas are taking part on the European Arthouse Cinema Day map, or register your cinema to get involved.
- European Arthouse Cinema Day are also hosting a free Data Gathering Workshop with Comscore, providing insight into how to get to know your audience quantitatively and explore the value of data for the arthouse cinema sector.
- The inaugural Jali Film Weekender takes place 30 October to 2 November, celebrating Black, African and diaspora stories at Filmhouse, Edinburgh. Alongside a vibrant programme of features and shorts, audiences can also expect filmmaker Q&As, panel discussions, gatherings, an Extended Reality Exhibition, and hands-on workshops.
- Cinema Without Barriers (Kino bez barier) has published part 1 and part 2 of their Accessible Cinema Toolbox, offering best practice tips and case studies to help you create a venue that is open and inclusive to as broad an audience as possible.
- Tickets are selling fast for the London Palestine Film Festival, which arrives at venues across the city from 14 to 28 November.
- Meeting the Moment, a one-day event for the culture sector on speaking up in troubled times, will take place at Watershed, Bristol on Wednesday, 26 November.
- The final Sustainable Screen – Peer Sharing session will take place at 2pm, on Tuesday, 25 November. Hosted by environmental charity Julie’s Bicycle with guests Exeter Phoenix, and Tipping Point UK, the final session will focus on ethical and sustainable sponsorships and banking.
- Queer East’s Up Next: Future Film Curators Lab is now open for applications, offering a well-rounded understanding of film curation and Queer East’s programming process, incorporating discussions of film aesthetics, research, curation, and East & Southeast Asian cinema. Apply by 16 November.
- Screen Shot and Fabrica invite new and established film programmers, including those from film clubs, festivals and community groups, to a sociable networking evening on Tuesday, 4 November.
- Join the Reclaim the Frame Board and play a vital role in shaping the charity’s vision and purpose, and ensuring its work continues to inspire a more equitable film culture. Applications close at 9am on Monday, 17 November.
- Queer East: On the Road continues this November and December, bringing new and rediscovered films, as well as talks, workshops and community gatherings to cinemas across the UK.
- The BIFA 2025 nominees will be announced at midday on Monday, 3 November. Tune into BIFA’s Instagram for all of this year’s nominations, including the five cinemas selected for the inaugural Cinema of the Year Award!
- Too Much: Melodrama on Film continues through November and December, with screenings and events across the UK which invite audiences to leave cynicism at the door and feel something.
Good Reads
- Missed the latest ICO blog? Catch up now with Screening wrongs and screening rights: What to remember on your search for film licenses.
- Happy Halloween! The Guardian writers share their picks for the scariest films of all time, from The Innocents to Midsommar. Alternatively, for those who prefer treats to tricks, they’ve also published a list of the least scary films of all time!
- The Diver-C-Tea podcast from the Arts Marketing Association is available to listen to, featuring warm, candid and often inspiring conversations on the many flavours of leadership.
- New research from the BFI has cautioned the creative industries against swearing off artificial intelligence (AI), suggesting “meaningful interactions” with the technology are possible.
- Read stories and personal accounts from across the UK of the importance of community cinema, published this month by the Guardian to celebrate a century of film societies.
- The German government has launched “Liebling Kino”, a €7m fund for German cinemas that give prominence to German, European and artistically ambitious films.
- Substrakt’s Zosia Poulter writes on how organisations can take a more holistic approach to improving digital sustainability, going beyond website carbon calculators to make far-reaching improvements.
- The UK Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) committee has called for a targeted 25% tax relief for the distribution and exhibition of UK independent films at the autumn budget.
Image credit: Still from Twinless, courtesy of Park Circus. Part of the ICO Autumn Screening Days programme.