ICO news
- We hope you’re as excited as we are about our upcoming Spring Screening Days! We’ll be taking over BFI Southbank this 2-4 March for three days of great previews (such as Brady Corbet’s Vox Lux) and networking. The event sold out in record-time, but we’ll be announcing dates for future Screening Days in no time so watch this space.
- Save the date! Our next Developing Your Film Festival (DYFF) training course will take place at Poland’s New Horizons Film Festival this 22-28 July and we’ll open applications at the beginning of April. To find out more about DYFF, we recommend reading the blog post that Cinecity’s Kate Wood wrote on her experience from last year.
- Our new archive film project New Towns, Our Town – Stories on Screen is currently bringing a touch of archive film magic to the South East of England. If you live in Hemel Hempstead, Stevenage, Harlow or Crawley and know a community organisation or group that would like to organise a FREE screening of local archive films, drop us a line at info@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk.
- To accompany our The Personal is Political: The Films of Margarethe von Trotta tour we’ve commissioned some exciting new writing on the influence and importance of von Trotta’s films from a range of academics, curators and writers across different generations. Explore the current selection and bookmark the site for upcoming pieces! The films are available for both theatrical and non-theatrical bookings until October 2019.
- Want to get a snap shot of UK independent exhibition and what it’s future could be like? Our Annual Report 2017-2018 is the best place for this.
- In search of a new brilliant film slogan for our new tote bag, we ran a competition on Twitter and many thanks to everyone for your absolutely brilliant suggestions! We’ll be launching our new CINEMA FOR LIFE bags at Spring Screening Days in early March.
Opportunities
- The second edition of the Europa Cinemas Innovation Prize is now open! Let them know of any outstanding, innovative actions that your cinema implemented last year and your venue could win 10.000 euros. Find out more here.
- Do you need advice on attracting new audiences or does your venue have a technical issue that needs fixing? The FAN Advice and Experience Scheme has relaunched and their expert advisors offer FREE 1-2-1 advice on any aspect of the film sector.
- Film societies & community cinemas! From music mogul to film director, Simon Napier-Bell (previously manager of The Yardbirds, T Rex, WHAM! and George Michael) has been pivotal to our popular culture over the past 50 years – and has recently directed a fascinating documentary about the landscape of LGBT culture in the UK. Got a question about 50 Years Legal you’d like to ask Simon? Our friends at Filmbankmedia will be filming an intro with him and would like to hear from you – just drop us a line at info@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk if you have any questions for Simon and we’ll make sure they get them.
- The Uncertain Kingdom, an exciting new project will be giving up to £10,000 each to twenty opinionated, visionary filmmakers with something to say about the UK in 2019. Applications close 3 February!
- Calling all aspiring film critics! Applications are now open for Cinema Rediscovered’s 2019 Film Critics’ Workshop: participants will receive a full festival pass and year’s free subscription to online streaming platform MUBI. Apply by 15 March.
- Submissions are now open for Underwire Festival 2019, the UK’s only film festival celebrating female filmmaking talent across the crafts . They’ll accept all films so long as there is a female head of department in any of the Awards categories and/or there is a female protagonist onscreen.
- Are you organising any themed or inclusive cinema screenings this winter? Let Inclusive Cinema know and they can help you promote your event on their channels.
- Filmmakers! Submissions for the 15th Berwick Film and Media Arts Festival are now open until 5 April 2019.
- The Women’s Histories Film Menu is your latest opportunity to get involved with the Film Audience Network’s nationwide season of screen heritage events, running from January to May 2019. Explore which five titles are available to book at reduced rates and you can access up to £500 to enhance your screenings with guest speakers, bespoke marketing materials or accompanying shorts.
- Are you a LGBTQ+ identified filmmaker who wants to keep developing your career in film? Applications are now open until 18 February for BFI NETWORK’s @Flare mentorship programme in partnership with BAFTA.
- Exhibitors! The winning Depict ’18 short films are available to screen FREE of charge this year. Click here for more info on booking.
- If you’re an exhibitor in the South East, don’t forget to become a member of Film Hub South East and gain access to fantastic opportunities and schemes across the region.
- After a 10-year hiatus, the ¡Viva! Tour of UK cinemas is back! ¡Viva! Spanish & Latin American Film Festival brings the best new cinema from Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin America to Manchester every year; this 22 March – 23 June, seven films from the main festival are available to book via a financially subsidised touring programme. The touring films all foreground female creative talent in the roles of director, writer, producer or star. Click here for further details.
Good reads
- Now this is good news: lured by local and Hollywood hits, Britons went to the movies 177 million times in 2018 – the best year for British box office since the 1970s.
- “The importance to children of activities such as being read to and reading, listening to and learning music, going to the cinema, theatre, libraries and museums, has been mostly taken as a given.” Talent25, a new UK research project aims to provide the first rigorous academic evidence of this.
- Arts Professional reports how across the UK, but especially in London, arts workers are considering their futures in the sector as salaries have fallen out of step with the cost of living.
- A good watch: BFI Player has launched their new free online collection Disabled Britain on Film that looks at representations of disabled people on screen and offers a glimpse into the lives and experiences of people often hidden from screen history. The must-see collection showcases over 170 films, spanning over 100 years.
- “Is any film worth a £40 cinema ticket?” asks The Guardian after the top prices for Mary Poppins Returns at Odeon Leicester Square left many wondering whether the luxury cinema movement has gone too far.
- In 2018, two of Netflix’s biggest hits (Bird Box and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before) were directed by women and had women in lead roles, but the company has been historically guarded about its data. Would Netflix being more transparent about their metrics help more films like this to be financed?
- “I’m ten years behind my non-disabled colleagues due to such minimal training and practical opportunities.” Arts Professional writes how limited opportunities are preventing the authentic voices of disabled directors and writers from being heard.
- Becoming a film programmer is often seen as a dream job, but how do you get these kinds of roles? Our most-read blog post from 2018 had some of the brightest voices in film programming sharing their secrets on what they think should be in a programmer’s arsenal.