News & Opportunities:
May 2023 Round-Up

Posted on May 25, 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’ve confirmed our first film and session for Young Audiences Screening Days this July, taking place at Depot cinema in Lewes. Scrapper, Charlotte Regan’s funny, touching and daring feature debut, joins the programme, and Charlotte Ashcroft, Festival Co-Director of London Short Film Festival, will lead a session on how taking an “aesthetics-led” approach to programming can help bring young audiences to your venue.
  • We’re currently looking for members to join a paid advisory group to support us in delivering the BFI FAN UK-wide training and skills programme over the next three years. The deadline to apply is 8 June.
  • As Film Hub South East, we are now inviting cinemas, festivals and multi-arts and media organisations to present seasons, events and screenings that celebrate the work of Powell & Pressburger as part of Cinema Unbound: a UK-wide celebration of the work and influence of this extraordinary duo of filmmakers.
  • Our BFI NETWORK South East Talent Execs have put together a reading list to aid film producers.

Opportunities & Resources

  • The AMA Conference (Arts Marketing Association) takes place 13-14 July in Leeds. This year’s theme is all about making your audiences the centre of your world.
  • As part of the Great Get Together, the Great Watch Together is about celebrating the power of cinema to bridge divides, unite communities and bring people together. If you run a community cinema or group, you can get involved – for example by hosting a film screening for your community or an event to celebrate your volunteers.
  • The Michael O’Pray Prize 2023 is now open for submissions from early-career art writers based in the UK. Aiming to champion new writing on innovation and experimentation in the moving image, the prize is named in memory of the critic, historian and film programmer, Michael O’Pray.
  • Film and video art festival feminist elsewheres is seeking contributions of film programmes, exhibitions and workshops for the festival, which takes place from 7-12 November. The deadline for submissions is 31 May.
  • Applications are open for the 2023 Emerging Leaders and Leadership Pulse Courses. The closing date for all applications is 12 noon, 15 June.
  • Jerwood New Work Fund offers targeted project funding for early-career artists, makers, curators and producers who have recently completed a Jerwood Arts supported development programme. Application is by invitation only on completion of a Jerwood Arts supported programme.
  • Film London’s Breaking the Glass Ceiling 2023 scheme now open for applications. Now in its third year, the programme has already helped 20 mid-career ethnically diverse film and TV professionals to enhance their personal and professional development and to expedite their trajectory into senior leadership roles. This year, they are looking for 12 outstanding and diverse individuals with an ambition to become an industry leader.
  • Film Hub members from across the UK are invited to Watershed on 1 June to join BFI curators and experts to explore how they might develop bespoke activity for Cinema Unbound, a UK-wide celebration of the films and legacy of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger. To sign up fill out this form.
  • Applications for the 2023 BFI Film Academy Specialist Programming Residential are now open. Taking place at Showroom Cinema in Sheffield across the week commencing 31 July, and open to 16 to 19-year-olds from across the UK, the course provides the chance to learn about film programming, marketing and distribution and eventually put on a film festival at the Showroom.
  • Applications are now open for Cinema Rediscovered’s Film Critics Workshop. Open to aspiring and early career video essay makers and film critics, the workshop will give participants practice-based insights, as well as a space to develop their voice amongst the 7th edition of Cinema Rediscovered.

Upcoming festivals & seasons

  • UCL Film Society’s Festival of the Moving Image (FOMI) takes place over 25-27 May. The festival celebrates creative and innovative student films, whilst also sharing a full programme of events for UCL students and the wider London film community.
  • Celebrating its 30th year, Sheffield DocFest takes place 14-19 June in Sheffield and online. The line up features packed programme of documentary films from around the world, innovative virtual reality works, live podcast events, exclusive premieres of upcoming TV series, headline talks and more.
  • Sundance Film Festival: London is taking place at Picturehouse Central over 6-9 July.
  • Taking place at Broadway in Nottingham, Queer 90s is a season of films celebrating a watershed decade for queer representation on the big screen, taking place over 8-20 June.
  • Across June and July, Showroom Cinema will host Westival: A Wes Anderson Retrospective, screening all ten of the director’s previous films in anticipation of the release of Asteroid City.
  • Early Bird Passes for the 7th edition of Cinema Rediscovered, taking place 26-30 July, are now on sale and give you access to priority booking. The full line-up will be revealed in June.

Good reads/watches/listens


Header: From I Know Where I’m Going (Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, 1945), one of four key titles included in Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell & Pressburger

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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