ICO Spring Screening
Days 2026

We will circulate the in-person screenings schedule for Saturday 14 & Sunday 15 March as soon as possible before the event, once all films have been confirmed.

We will circulate the agenda for the Audience Development Day on Friday 13 March to all participants once all speakers and sessions have been confirmed.

The online film programme will be available from Monday 16 to Sunday 22 March inclusive. Unless there are additional restrictions on specific films, you will be able to watch all films during this period at any time that suits you.

On Friday 13 March we’re running a smaller in-person training day at Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre for theatrical exhibitors aimed at developing new audiences for independent cinema. Read more.

This day is solely open to theatrical exhibitors (i.e. staff of cinemas and mixed art venues that screen primarily on DCP). We welcome programmers, marketers and anyone involved in any aspect of audience development. We also welcome freelancers and young programmers operating in theatrical exhibition. If you’re unsure of your eligibility, email us.

ICO Screening Days rely on BFI funding to keep costs low and include as wide a range of attendees as possible.

To secure this funding on an ongoing basis, we need ALL attendees to give us some basic information about themselves, as well as feedback on the event.

On this event, we’re working with audience consultancy Indigo to send you one very short survey before the event and one after the event. Completing these is optional, but even if you don’t normally complete our surveys, we’d strongly urge you to do so this time. It’s crucial to ensure we can continue to deliver Screening Days and to benchmark who comes to the events, who doesn’t and where we can improve. You can always tick “prefer not to say” or skip questions you don’t want to answer – this is just as useful for us!

As a thank you for completing these surveys, everyone who does so can enter a prize draw to win one of three £50 vouchers of your choice.

See the Accessibility section.

We’ll send you the in-person schedule as soon as possible before the event. Shortly beforehand, you’ll receive a PDF event pack with all details including film information, instructions on how to join at BFI Southbank and/or online, a full schedule, and a participant list.

For the Audience Development Day on Friday 13 March, we’ll send a PDF agenda and speaker/participant list plus info on how to join at Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre to attendees before the day.

We no longer print delegate packs for everyone to avoid waste, but if you are attending in-person and would like a colour printed pack, you can purchase one in our online ticketing to collect on your arrival (scroll down to the bottom ticket option). 

Generally, we ask people to purchase an organisational pass if they’re representing an organisation at the event; with discounted passes for freelance workers (freelance pass), those aged between 18-30 (young person’s pass) and those who are of working age but currently unwaged and/or who would not otherwise be able to attend (supported pass).

You may be able to apply to your regional Film Hub for support to attend Screening Days. See details.

Please note that: Screening Days pass costs are already highly subsidised, and we need to bring in a certain amount of income from pass fees to unlock the higher level of public funding needed to run the events. So, while we want to support people to attend in any way we can – especially at the current moment – our fees are crucial to our ability to continue holding Screening Days events.

Email: info@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk with any other queries about your pass.

Yes, you can switch your pass type from in-person and online to online only, or vice versa (while capacity allows). Email info@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk to do so.

However, the in-person Spring event always sells out, so if you book to attend in-person but change your mind, please let us know as soon as possible before the event so we can offer your space to someone else.

There are usually 24 films in the overall programme.

All films will screen at BFI Southbank (12 on Saturday, 12 on Sunday) and we aim to make at least 12 titles from the programme available to watch online too from Monday 16 to Sunday 22 March. We put as many titles online as possible (and would put them all online if we could) but are restricted by materials availability and distributor permissions on some titles, especially on higher profile / studio releases.

We confirm if films will be available online as well as in-venue as they are announced. However, please note that we reserve the right to pull any titles from online and/or in-person if we have problems around the delivery of materials closer to date.

We work with Eventive to deliver our online events. You can view films on Eventive on a laptop, tablet (e.g. iPad), phone, Chromecast and Airplay from your device, and via HDMI connector to your laptop. However, please note that you can’t currently watch on devices with a Linux or Chrome based operating system (e.g., Chromebooks). In general, it’s a good idea to test your set up before streaming the films – you can do that on Eventive’s compatibility page. We offer a support email service throughout the event.

BFI Southbank is located under Waterloo Bridge on London’s South Bank, a short walk from Waterloo Station. For a map and local travel information, see BFI Southbank’s Getting here page.

For those attending the Audience Development Day on Friday 13 March, Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre is at 108 Stamford Street, a short walk from Waterloo Station. See a Google Map.

At BFI Southbank you can purchase food and drinks from BFI Riverfront, BFI Cafe and BFI Bar. For more details and opening times, see BFI Southbank’s Food and drink page. You can also purchase food and drinks from cafes and restaurants nearby on the South Bank.

We will hold a drinks reception after the final films of the day on Saturday 14 March at BFI IMAX, a short walk from BFI Southbank (map).

Food and drinks are provided for those attending the Audience Development Day at Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre on Friday 13 March.

Our goal for Screening Days is to provide you with the opportunity to see the widest possible range of high quality films to help you broaden and diversify the programmes in your venues.

We work closely with distributors to select independent, world and art house cinema that will be released in the following quarter. We focus on titles that are unlikely to have a vast marketing budget so need the keen curatorial eye and advance notice that a viewing at Screening Days can provide for your programme. We also occasionally include higher profile titles so delegates can assess their suitability for programming.

Please note that our programme choices are necessarily dependent on the titles slated for release in upcoming months, and for which materials and permissions are available from distributors. It’s also the case that for higher-profile titles, security concerns are heightened, therefore we may only be able to secure them for in-person screenings. We make as many titles available online as we can.

Films will be announced on this page as they are confirmed. Full film descriptions and booking details will be circulated to registered delegates before the event in our PDF delegate pack.

Good question! We run Screening Days for a few key reasons, best summarised as: ‘To help UK cinemas better serve all their possible audiences’. We focus the events on screenings and discussion because:

• We want cinemas across the UK to be able to make informed decisions about the films they programme, so audiences can see the best titles from around the world. That’s hard if you haven’t actually been able to watch the films and can’t afford to rely on expensive festival trips or distributor marketing materials.
• We think independent cinemas are best when their programming stands out. Screening Days aims to support ambition in cinema programming .
• We want to have useful conversations about what it’ll take to build a stronger independent cinema sector. Gathering people in the sector together helps us identify common problems and find shared solutions.
• We want to support independent distributors by helping their films find an audience in independent cinemas.

What we hope to achieve:

• Cinemas more regularly choosing films in our programme of independent British and world cinema titles and expanding the types of films they show.
• Cinemas attracting a wider range of people to those films.
• Attendees gaining a wider professional network and feeling part of a community.
• A wider group of people feeling that they can participate in film exhibition.
• Independent distributors feeling they’re able to play their films more widely from having been included in the programme.

You’ll be able to discuss films with other attendees during the event. However, due to our agreements with distributors, it’s important not to discuss the films in online spaces (e.g. social media, blogs), even if your comments are positive and even if the film has already screened elsewhere. If you’d like to talk about the event in general on social media, though, please do! You can find us on X, Instagram or Facebook with hashtag #ScreeningDays.

We take piracy very seriously. Please do not record, copy, share or stream films from our online platform, which are provided only for film exhibition professionals that meet the entry criteria. We have advanced security measures in place including forensic watermarking that will allow us to prevent and track piracy. If you are found to be in breach of these terms, we will take any and all legal measures available.