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News & Opportunities:
April 2023 Round-Up

Home Blog News & Opportunities: April 2023 Round-Up

Posted on April 27, 2023 by Jake Abatan

Categories: News Round-Up

Our regular monthly update featuring the latest news and opportunities for your cinema, festival or film society.

ICO News

  • We’re delighted to have been awarded funding through the BFI National Lottery Audience Projects Fund! We will receive £1.3m over three years to deliver numerous initiatives focussed on supporting venues to identify gaps in audience engagement and devise new ways to address these through our Screening Days events, Programming service, our advice services & resources, and industry intelligence.
  • Registration is now open for Young Audiences Screening Days, our essential event for cinemas looking to attract and inspire young audiences. You can attend online on Tuesday 4 July and in-person at Depot, Lewes on Thursday 6 July. Make sure to book your place by Friday 23 June.
  • If you’ve got ideas for how independent cinemas can best reach young audiences, then consider applying to our Open Call for Guest Curation. We’re looking for ideas for presentations, film programmes, panels, case studies, provocations, discussions, workshops, debates, Q&As and more. The closing date for submissions is Wednesday 24 May.
  • This month we launched our new Guide to Film Tours, a free resource to help you build lasting connections with your community through compelling events and under-the-rader titles. The guide was written by the ICO’s Projects and Business Manager Duncan Carson, and features inspiring case studies from Isra Al Kassi (TAPE) and Charlie Shackleton (dir. The Afterlight).
  • Right of Way has screenings coming up at Ilford SPACE, Exeter Phoenix, The Forum Cinema Hexham and the Od Arts Festival over the next month. For more info on the tour, including details of upcoming screenings and how to book it for your venue, see the Right of Way website.
  • You can now watch a recording of our Cinema of Ideas conversation Sundance Film Festival’s Director of Programming, Kim Yutani, as well as our discussion with Dr Aboubakar Sanogo from our recent Restitution in Motion programme.

Opportunities & Resources

  • The Film Exhibition Fund has opened for 2024. Delivered by the UK’s Film Hubs, the fund helps strengthen the independent film exhibition sector, supporting organisations that screen film to a public audience (from cinemas, mixed arts venues, film festivals, film societies and community groups) to connect with new and diverse audiences.
  • Film Camp, Flatpack Film Festival’s one-day training event exploring some of the latest innovations in cinema exhibition, is back again this year. Taking place on Thursday 18 May, the day is open to anyone interested in showing films, including community cinema organisers and student film groups.
  • BFI Film Academy is looking for partners across the UK to run BFI Film Academy Short Courses and Specialist Courses 2023-2024. The deadline to apply is Friday 26 May.
  • Film London has published a brand new guide on Family Programming to help exhibitors source independent film content to screen to families.
  • Findings from the Spring 2023 Cultural Participation Monitor look at the compounding pressures facing cultural organisations right now, as audiences’ already slow return post-pandemic is stalled by cost-of-living concerns.
  • BFI Replay is a free-to-access digital archive exclusively available in UK public lending libraries. Thousands of digitised videos and television programmes from the BFI National Archive and partner UK film archives are available to browse and enjoy, research or study – with some familiar and memorable, others rare and unseen for decades.
  • Cinema For All is currently working on a new heritage project to build an archive of the history of the film society movement, ahead of the 100-year anniversary of the first film society in 2025. Want to get involved? Email heritage@cinemaforall.org.uk.
  • Film Hub North is looking for film fans aged 16-25 to join Northern Exposure Young Film Programmers, a new training scheme for young people who are passionate about film and looking to get into the film industry.
  • Film London and Arts Council England present FLAMIN Animations, a commissioning programme for four early-career black-identifying artist animators living in the UK.
  • Also from Film London and ACE, The FLAMIN Fellowship is a major scheme for early-career artist filmmakers living in England. It aims to support the most exciting, innovative and challenging moving image practices from filmmakers at the early stages of their careers, with development and funding for new work.
  • Film Hub Scotland has teamed up with The Skinny to create a brand-new free magazine to encourage people to visit their local independent cinema. The Indie Cinema Guide highlights some of the best new films coming soon to Scotland’s independent cinemas, as well as the teams behind some of the country’s best cinemas.
  • Bristol + Bath Creative R+D has released an Inclusion Framework For Change to guide projects in increasing equity, asking where change can come from, whatever stage they’re in.
  • There are currently roles available at Open City Documentary Festival, Reclaim The Frame, Dundee Contemporary Arts, and more, on our jobs board.

Upcoming festivals & seasons

  • As part of the ICA’s new Screen Practices series, Shasha Movies presents a weekend of recently restored works from across the globe in order to spark discussion about the politics of film restoration. Taking place from Friday 28 to Sunday 30 April.
  • PerAnkh, the June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive is open at Raven Row until 4 June. The exhibition explores Pan-African cinema and its relationship with Black British cinema and culture, with a weekly programme of screenings and panel discussions.
  • The Kiln presents a duo of Sidney Poitier’s films next month. Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner is screening on Tuesday 9 May, with Buck and The Preacher screening on Tuesday 23 May.
  • I want to tell you what I can’t is the first UK exhibition by Iranian artist and filmmaker Maryam Tafakory, presented by LUX. The exhibition presents the artist’s works Nazarbazi (the play of glances) نظربازی and Irani Bag ایرانی کیف, alongside fragments of more recent work, and closes on Saturday 17 June.
  • Snapshots: Caribbean Cinema Up Close, a collection of films at the Barbican that give insight into the evolving identity of contemporary Caribbean cinema, takes place 17 – 31 May.
  • TGirlsOnFilm (Jaye Hudson) and Funeral Parade (Sarah Cleary) have curated Trans-X-Ploitation, a series of screenings re-examining trans-themed exploitation cinema of yesteryear. The season kicks off with Ed Wood’s ground-breaking psychodrama Glen or Glenda at the Prince Charles Cinema in London on Tuesday 9 May.
  • On Tuesday 6 June the Barbican are hosting the UK premiere of the restoration of Flaming Ears, followed by a discussion with Ursula Puerrer.
  • The BFI have announced the programme for their Film on Film festival, taking place 8 – 11 June.

Good reads/watches/listens

We post our news & opportunities round-up on the final Thursday of each month. Have something you want included? Email Jake at: jake.abatan@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk

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