Our regular monthly update featuring the latest news and opportunities for your cinema, festival or film society.
ICO News
- Registration for Spring Screening Days 2023 is now open! Taking place at BFI Southbank (11-13 March) and online (14-19 March), we’ve already announced the first five titles in the programme (including One Fine Morning, The Eight Mountains and Cairo Conspiracy), with many more to be announced soon. Register now.
- Programmed by emerging curator ပုလဲ Pearl Fedele, our next Cinema of Ideas event is a season of contemporary Burmese cinema focusing on the search for self and new ways of belonging amongst the fragments of crisis. Titled Fragments: Burmese Identities In Between, the season consists of four films, a poetry reading, and a panel discussion offering different perspectives on the questions raised in the programme. Streaming online from 13-26 February, this event is free to attend with donations to Salween (သံလွင်) encouraged. Book now.
- Earlier this month we were delighted to welcome writer-director and former programmer Jane Giles to the Cinema of Ideas to discuss London’s legendary Scala cinema (1978-1993) and her new documentary Scala Club Cinema — which tells the riotous inside story of the infamous sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll rep house which inspired a generation during Britain’s turbulent Thatcher years. If you missed it, you can now watch a recording on our YouTube channel.
- LUX is currently hosting an exhibition showcasing the newly-commissioned moving image works from our Right of Way touring programme, which explores questions of access to, and representations of, the English countryside. The exhibition is open until 18 March, see more info here.
- Additionally, Londoners have a chance to see the full Right of Way programme at BFI Southbank on Thursday 23 February, alongside a Q&A with featured artists artists Dan Guthrie, Ufuoma Essi and Arjuna Neuman. Get tickets here.
- Plus, have you checked out our new Right of Way website? There you can find full details of the tour, plus exclusive writing about the topics explored in the programme.
- Earlier this month we were thrilled to be joined by representatives from some of the world’s best film festivals for the inaugural edition of our Sponsorship Success for Film Festivals training course. Thank you to all our fantastic speakers and attendees who joined us in London for these three insightful days of training.
- This month on our blog we heard from Rachel Brook about the ways in which cinemas are encouraging people to work from their cafe-bars, and Jim Morton discussed his five tips for making an unmissable film event.
Opportunities
- Join Cinema for All for a weekend of exclusive screenings, inspiring workshops and hands-on seminars from the world of volunteer-led cinema, 25-26 February at the Community Cinema Conference in Sheffield!
- Join the UKCA for their annual conference at Picturehouse Central, London from 21-22 March. This year’s conference is focused on ‘Greening The Big Screen Experience’ and you can express your interest in attending by emailing: ukcaconference@cinemauk.org.uk
- There are currently roles available at Encounters Film Festival, The Castle Cinema, The Living Room Cinema, Glasgow Film and more.
- Film Hub Wales are working on a podcast resource with a focus on welcoming working-class audiences into cinemas, and they’d like to hear from you. If you have an experience or perspective you’d like to share, be it positive or negative, you can email FHW directly. £50 is on offer for each statement used (maximum 100 words).
- Sign this petition to support the Curzon Mayfair in reaching a new lease agreement. The petition has already been signed by filmmakers such as Paweł Pawlikowski, Joanna Hogg and Peter Strickland.
- Located in Wolverhampton’s historic Chubb Buildings, the Light House has been the creative heartbeat of the city and has sadly remained shut since closing its doors during the pandemic. Sign this petition to help the cinema reopen its doors.
Upcoming film screenings & seasons
- As part of the film season The Lay of the Land, curated by one of our current FEDS Trainees, Broadway in Nottingham is screening A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night on Sunday 29 January. Book here.
- The Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2023, the largest Japanese Film Season in the UK, will kick start from 3 February 2023. Celebrating the 20th anniversary, this nationwide film programme will be touring to 24 cities. More info here.
- Inclinations Film Club, a new volunteer-run film club at Glasgow’s CCA, are showing the Scottish premiere of Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream on 8 February. Tickets available here.
- The Garden Cinema are Celebrating Jack Nicholson, with upcoming screenings of Five Easy Pieces, Chinatown, The Shining, and The Passenger. Tickets available here.
- Beginning on 11 February, The Film Foundation is streaming a restoration of Jean Renoir’s The River (1951) for 72 hours. You can register to view the film for free now.
- The full programme for Glasgow Film Festival 2023, taking place 1 – 12 March, has been announced. The festival opens with the UK premiere of Adura Onashile’s Glasgow-shot feature debut Girl and closes with the UK premiere of Nida Manzoor’s riotous action comedy Polite Society. More info here.
- Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival has announced the full programme for its 18th edition, taking place 3 – 5 March. Festival passes are now available to purchase, with individual tickets going on sale 2 February. Book here.
- Borderlines Film Festival runs froms 3-19 March in 22 venues across Herefordshire, Shropshire, Malvern and the Marches. Check out the programme here!
Good reads/watches/listens
- Q&A with Jemma Desai on Latifah and Himli’s Nomadic Uncle
- Kristin Thompson’s ten best films of … 1932
- Why Do Some Films Get Restored and Others Languish? A MoMA Series Holds Clues.
- Aftersun Director Charlotte Wells’s Picks from the Criterion Closet
- The Swimmers Director Sally El Hosaini in conversation at 2023’s Woman With a Movie Camera Summit
- Six talking points from the 2023 Oscar nominations
- The Lesbian Allure And Colonial Unconscious Of Todd Field’s Tár [Essay]
- Enys Men Director Mark Jenkin takes us through his most-treasured tools
- Baftas 2023: the full list of nominations
- The Current Debate: The Best Films of 2022
- Why is a whole new generation obsessed with DVD menus?
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
Header image: from Where The River Ends (2023), part of Fragments: Burmese Identities In Between streaming 13 – 26 February on the Cinema of Ideas