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
- We’re delighted to present the 16 talented producers selected for Get It Seen 2026. Bringing together a broad range of exciting projects in development, they’ll be participating in a sales, exhibition, and distribution labs in the New Year.
- Spring Screening Days passes are now on sale! Book now to watch the best upcoming indie and world cinema films at BFI Southbank, London and online, 14 to 22 March.
- Gain new skills for the new year and save 25% on all our online learning courses from 2 January! Sign up for our training newsletter for a reminder, and check out the courses on offer now.
- 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. Contact bookings@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk to discuss bringing this programme to your venue.
- The ICO has a large number of free-to-download expert guides on key areas for exhibitors, such as programming, licensing, marketing, sustainability and more.
- 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
- Revitalise your audience development approach with REACH open webinars. Part of the REACH: Strategic Audience Development training course, these sessions will explore membership (19 January), audience retention (26 January), and choosing the right social media for your organisation (2 February). Open to all members of BFI FAN across the UK.
- BFI and BFI FAN are partnering with Historic England to deliver online Carbon Literacy courses for FAN members UK-wide. The interactive online course takes place next February, is entry-level and action-focused, and on completion, you will be certified as Carbon Literate.
- Want to know more about your audience and what they value? Indigo’s newest Hot Topic survey will explore membership models at cultural venues and why audiences are drawn to them, ranging from increased visit frequency to building loyalty. Register now to be part of the collaborative research project.
- Arts Professional have shared the results of Arts Pay 2025, the third iteration (in the UK) of their survey examining policy and practice in relation to pay and conditions across the sector.
- The BFI is seeking organisations with proven expertise in environmental sustainability and experience working with the screen or wider cultural sectors to partner with to deliver direct support to BFI National Lottery award recipients from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2029. Applications close 21 January.
- Catch up on the latest Film Hub Scotland Accessible Cinema Bulletin, compiled by Access Consultant Charlie Little.
- The Wolfson Foundation have funding available to support charities working with older people, which can be used for specific events or day-to-day operations.
- Make your email campaigns more effective and sustainable with help from the Digital Culture Network. The free, hour-long webinar will take place at 2pm on Wednesday, 21 January.
- Congratulations to this year’s BIFA winners, nominees and participating cinemas, including the Magic Lantern Cinema in Tywyn, who took home the inaugural Cinema of the Year award!
- BFI FAN members can also now register special offers for National Lottery Open Week 2026, which is a great opportunity to thank Lottery players for supporting arts and culture across the UK.
- A Biodiverse Big Screen: Programming for our Planet is an environmentally-themed programme pack containing more than 390 suggested titles, with rights information included. Use this resource to plan your climate-themed screenings and events.
- WorkTakes has partnered with the BFI to gather views on what ‘good’ work in UK film and TV production looks like. They’re asking people across the screen industries to complete their latest poll to contribute perspectives on how UK production can become a better, fairer place to work, with the aim of improving working practices across the sector.
- Keep an eye out in the new year for an announcement about the dates and location for BFI FAN CON 2026!
Good Reads
- Aminah Alhamdu, a young writer and one of the Young Film Network’s Short Cut Film Fund filmmakers, recently attended a Q&A at BFI Southbank with Sinners director Ryan Coogler, and wrote a fantastic piece on her experience.
- Variety has shared thoughts on the recent news that Netflix plan to buy Warner Bros. Discovery, and the potentially devastating impact this could have on global film exhibition.
- MUBI have rounded up the top movie posters of 2025, featuring some of the year’s biggest blockbusters, indie delights and film festival favourites.
- The filmmakers behind The Ballad of Wallis Island share the long journey from short film to feature, and how the labour of love has connected with audiences more than the team ever thought it might.
- Little White Lies celebrates 10 years of Todd Haynes’ iconic Carol, a new classic of the Christmas film canon that invites audiences to reimagine what a holiday film can be.
- Arts Professional have published an interview with three cultural leaders working at the intersection of research and the cultural sector about disability history, genuinely inclusive arts, and the speed of progress.
- Screen reports on how distributors of Sirât took an unconventional approach that led to the creation of an arthouse hit in Spain and France.
- The Hollywood Reporter remembers the late director and actor Rob Reiner, praising his broad and character-forward approach to filmmaking.
Header image: NFT1 at BFI Southbank, where Spring Screening Days will be taking place in March