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
- There’s a great chance to brush up your business and fundraising skills with three BFI FAN Revisiting Your Cinema Business Model open webinars, delivered by the ICO. Every two weeks from 4 June, these expert-led sessions will cover financial reporting and planning, finding public and private funding, and funding sustainable capital developments.
- ICO Director, Catharine Des Forges, has been elected to the board of directors of CICAE (The International Confederation of Arthouse Cinemas). Visit CICAE to read more about the 70th anniversary of the Arthouse Cinema Movement and how the new board will continue to support diversity, democracy, and artistic freedom.
- The ICO is delighted to welcome Dr Sita Thomas, Anthony Lee and Richard McDonald to our Board of Trustees. Each of our three new trustees brings important skills and experience that will help us further our mission. Read our blog to find out more.
- Discover exciting new films for young audiences and participate in sessions to support audience development work at Young Audiences Screening Days! Four of the film titles and sessions have now been announced, and passes are selling fast. Pick up yours today to join us online on 9 July and at HOME, Manchester, on 11 July.
- We have published a new update on our progress implementing the ICO Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan 2024-26.
- The ICO blog shares 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
- The latest BFI FAN: Green Hour webinar takes place on 17 June, focusing on igniting community action. Open to all BFI FAN members across the UK, the session will explore how film can spark real-world collaboration and embed action in your community.
- Park Circus is looking for repertory film season ideas curated from its catalogue to be featured in Cinema Rediscovered 2026. Submit your programme idea before midnight on 2 June.
- Community Cashback funding from SPAR is now open for applications. Multiple grants are available for local voluntary or community organisations and charities. Find out more and apply by 4 June.
- Raindance Film Festival returns for the 33rd edition from 18 to 27 June, bringing a bold, diverse programme of independent films to venues across central London.
- Reframing Film Sessions at Cinema Rediscovered at Watershed on 23 July is fast approaching. The day-long symposium allows exhibitors to share experiences, reflect on and reimagine how we present cinema of the past. Booking is open and the full programme will be announced next week.
- The British Arts Festivals Association, the national network and development agency for arts festivals, is offering film festivals a 10% discount on membership with code BAFAfilmfest2025. Visit BAFA’s website to learn more, or contact Memberships & Communications Coordinator Rachel Brook (via rachel@artsfestivals.co.uk) with any queries.
- The SAFAR Film Festival, from the Arab British Centre, returns in June. Celebrate the diversity of Arab cinema past, present, and future with screenings in London, Birmingham, Cardiff, Clevedon, Glasgow, Hull, Leeds, Manchester, Oxford, and Plymouth.
- Cinema managers and operators are invited to join a one-day course on Cinema Projection and Presentation Fundamentals with Cinema Technology Community CIC. The course will take place on 24 June at The Cinema in the Power Station (London) and offers expert guidance to ensure that audiences see the best possible presentation of films.
- Too Much: A Season of Melodrama, the upcoming BFI FAN season, is fast approaching. Catch up on all the details so far with a recording from Film Hub South West’s sprint event, and look out for more information on the creative brief and application details coming shortly!
- Julie’s Bicycle has published guidance outlining what cinemas and film festivals can do to understand audience travel impacts and how to help them make more sustainable travel choices.
Good Reads
- Missed the latest ICO blog? Catch up with our latest contribution from the team behind Creative Non-Fiction Weekend on their reflections following a recent tour with controversial filmmaker Caveh Zahedi.
- Read an interview with Jayne Hudson, the curator behind TGirlsOnFilm, discussing her work to bring archival queer films to light and provide a space for Trans femmes on screen.
- FIAPF (International Federation of Film Producers’ Association) have released a statement to defend film festivals from ‘unprecedented attacks’, responding to the increasing number of festivals facing ‘unprecedented pressure’ over their selections.
- Film Comment interviewed Jafar Panahi in Cannes just days before his film It Was Just an Accident won the Palme d’Or.
- Producer Ti Singh reflects on the stunts, samurai and big screen spectaculars of 2024’s BFI FAN Art of Action season.
- For Arts Professional, David Reece and Sarah Chambers discuss how segmentation can be a powerful tool for reflecting an organisation’s practice when it’s aligned with values, purpose, and future direction.
- Sid Boyer of Rising Arts Agency wrote about bringing younger voices into the boardroom and argues for the positive benefits that greater diversity would bring to governance discussions.
- Cinema for All sat down with Lee Pearse from Heeley City Farm to discuss his community work as a cinema exhibitor and filmmaker and his role in running the farm’s dementia support department.
Image credit: Still from Savages, part of Young Audiences Screening Days 2025. Courtesy of MetFilm.