SCI-FI-LONDON <sci-fi-london>

"The London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film"

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Submissions Now Open for SFL9, 2010.11 days ago
 

We want your films!

Made a movie, short or documentary you think we'd like, in the last 15 months? Send us a DVD via Withoutabox and if we like it, it's in! - Simple!

And, there's no submission fees, ever! (- we don't believe in them!).


Visit the website for details, at: www.sci-fi-london.com

We look forward to watching your work!

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Presenting: 'Re:Play – The Best of SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival'.45 days ago
 
@ Play.com: http://bit.ly/y597P .
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'Blood' Premiere Cancellation: Press Release180 days ago
 
Hi,

On behalf of both the Apollo Cinema Piccadilly Circus and Sci-Fi-London we regret to have to inform you of the cancellation of the UK Premiere of 'Blood: The Last Vampire', scheduled for Thursday 18th June 2009.

Sci-Fi-London had made an agreement with Pathe Films to host the UK Premiere of the film at the Apollo Cinema Piccadilly Circus but due to production issues the theatrical release date has been postponed and the film may not be ready in time for the original date scheduled.

We are currently working with Manga Entertainment to secure a replacement film and at present plan for the night to go ahead as planned with a screening of the original Anime Blood, followed by an as yet to be confirmed UK Premiere of a new Manga release.

We hope to still welcome you at the Apollo Cinema Piccadilly Circus for this revised event and would like to thank you for your understanding, but appreciate that you now may not wish to attend.

Once again I would like to sincerely apologise for this and assure you that every effort was made to ensure this screening would go ahead before this decision was made.



Kindest regards,

Ian Powell
General Manager
Apollo Cinema Piccadilly Circus

Louis Savy
Festival Director
Sci-Fi-London

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SCI-FI-LONDON NEWS - 19 May 09188 days ago
 
THANK YOU THANK YOU!
Well, the festival is over for another year, (- or six months if you count in Oktoberfest!), and although we're sad it's all over, we're feeling pretty good now we've recovered! Why? Because we reckon this was our best festival yet. And we're not just blowing our own trumpet (well a little bit), because we had plenty of people tell us the same thing.

And the praise wasn't just coming from all you lovely people that came and enjoyed our eclectic selection of films from around the world either. But also from the visiting filmmakers (- including Marc Caro, Cory McAbee, Richard Jobson, Gerald McMorrow, Adrian Paul and the cast and crew of Eyeborgs, Devi Snively, Vincent Dooley, Christian Viel, Danny Kuchuck, Turkish superstar Cem Yilmaz, and a surprise appearance from acting legend William Hurt), plus the literary and science panelists of our initial SCI-FI-LONDON: LAB programme.

We know how really important it is that you like what we do at the festival, because without you, it just couldn't exist, but it's equally heartening to get positive feedback from the filmmakers, because they get to experience a lot of festivals and know a good one when they see it. One of the reasons they like us is because of you, the punters: you "get" their films and ask intelligent, and sometimes challenging, questions at the Q&A sessions, which makes them feel their efforts have all been worthwhile. So we just want to say a big thank you to everyone who came to the festival to show films, watch films, partake in the different workshops and panels, and of course to all the volunteers who kept it running smoothly.

For all of you who didn't come, and I'm sure you all had very valid reasons for not coming (although we will need to see a note from your mum!), you can read about each day's events on our website, plus see pics and video at dailymotion and Flickr. There were so many good things happening that to recount them all now would take up just too much time.

THANKS TO THE CORPORATES
There was one other factor that contributed to the festival's success, and that was the overwhelming generosity of our sponsors, which meant that almost no one went away empty handed. Not everyone got an Xbox 360 courtesy of Electronic Arts, but there was a seemingly endless supply of DVDs and books for all comers (Free? Yes, free!).

One lucky person, Lynn Fordham from Kent to be exact, won the fabulous Kymco SUPER 8 motor scooter, so congratulations to her. Also congrats to those who won the 3M Pocket Projector, Sony Reader and all those Star Trek toys and goodies

We also gave out prizes to filmmakers at our awards ceremony. OK they weren't on the same scale as the Oscars, but our ceremony's budget equaled that of the winning films. The winner of the 48 Hour Challenge was Tracker by Lost Souls, a dystopian film set in a near future Croydon. They received a HV40 HDV camera from Canon, an Adobe CS4 Production Suite and other goodies. The equal runners-up were Glimpse (Lightbox) and Mark Up (DHP) who both received Premiere Pro from Adobe. The ten shortlisted films are showing on www.scifi.co.uk, and soon we will have all 55 films on our .tv site. The winner of the Dante's Inferno trailer comp was Karl Maddix, who won a trip to California (not bad), courtesy of EA. Finally, The Audience Award for best short went to The Day the Robots Woke Up, which can be seen soon on the SFL channel on Daily Motion.

NOW WHAT?
So what's next? The live-action version of BLOOD:THE LAST VAMPIRE was supposed to be our opening night film this year. Unfortunately the film wasn't ready in time, as they were still putting the finishing touches to it. However, we have got together with Pathe to present the UK Premiere on June 18 at our favourite cinema, the Apollo Piccadilly Circus. It will be screening with the original anime version. Tickets are on sale now for £13 from the Apollo box office 020 7451 9944.

And after the success of last year's Oktoberfest we have decided to do it all over again this year. We have already been promised Chapter 3 of 20th Century Boys, and we'll be showing Chapters 1 and 2 as well. The rest of the programme is yet to be decided, but you know it's going to be good so mark the weekend of October 23-25 in your diary or PDA now.

EXCLUSIVE OFFERS
If you didn't get a chance to buy any of the great T-shirts by Last Exit to Nowhere at the festival, you can now get them for 15% off from their website using the code SCIFILON09.

AND FINALLY...
remember that the website is not just for the festival, but is updated regularly with reviews of the latest films in cinemas and on DVD/Blu-ray, along with book reviews, interviews and plenty of competitions, because, as you know, we just like giving stuff away!

Thanks again. See you soon!

The SFL team
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... SFL8 Ends202 days ago
 
Another festival is now over (boo!). Thanks once again to all the Film-makers, Cast, Crew, Authors, Scientists, Panellists, Sponsors, Staff, Volunteers and - of-course - our wonderful Audience!

SCI-FI-LONDON will return again next year, but before that, remember we have a very special screening of 'BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE' to look forward to; on Thursday 18th June (tickets already on sale from the Apollo: http://secure.cinemas-online.co.uk/r... ), plus the return of OKTOBERFEST in (yup, you've guessed it!) October!

As always, keep an eye on the website (http://www.sci-fi-london.com/ ) for all the latest festival highlights, shorts, reviews, interviews, podcasts, competitions and more, and we'll see you all again real soon! :)


The SFL Team.

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SFL Begins...209 days ago
 

For the latest news: follow the Festival as it happens, with us over on Twitter: http://twitter.com/scifilondon

And check out the latest Reports, updated daily, on the SFL website: http://www.sci-fi-london.com/

See you there! :)
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SCI-FI-LONDON NEWS - 28 April 09209 days ago
 

EXCITED??
...we are, just one day until the festival kicks off proper, but don't forget that Tuesday night (Tonight!) we have a preview screening of X-MEN Origins: WOLVERINE at 10pm at the Apollo, and, everyone who attends will get a copy of the official teaser poster that you cannot buy! We also have some other goodies to give out - and anyone buying a Wolverine ticket can get 10% off any festival show.

Next up, the people at Play.com have done us proud again - another 5% off everything code that lasts until Thursday night - spread the word, if we use them a lot we might just get some more! Also, look out for offers at the festival - we have some £25 and £50 vouchers to give away too! To use the code, buy your stuff and use SCIPLAY when checking out.

PANMACMILLAN OFFER
Last news letter we mentioned the 3 for 2 book offer from those lovely folk at TOR/Pan MacMillan - we put the wrong web address, so here it is again
www.panmacmillan.com/scifilondon - go buy books!

SELL OUTS
It looks like some things are close to selling out and a few have gone already. MST3K is sold out, Anime All-nighter has a few tickets, as does the Dante Horror all-nighter. We are also nearly full for the World Premiere of EYEBORGS. Our advice - book early. Remember we have ticket offers in many mags and via our Twitter and Facebook channels - last week we even did some buy 1 get 1 free offers. Check out the forums too.

GUEST UPDATE
The Director's Guild of Great Britain Film Making Panel is on the subject of Genre Filmmaking Problems, and has a fab line-up already which includes Marc Caro (Delicatessen) and Cory McAbee (American Astronaut) - but we are delighted to also add STUART HAZELDINE, who co-wrote KNOWING (he did the good bits :) ) and DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL.

We are also delighted to welcome from the USA, DEKKER DREYER. Dekker is an award-winning filmmaker and television producer. He is founder of the US Video on Demand television network "Illusion", which showcases new and classic science fiction. Dekker has also served as segment producer for the AMC series "Sci-Fi Department", director of the Sprint mobile series "Potter's Field" and hosts the traveling film festival "Anime After Dark". His latest project is the upcoming series "Emissary" starring Philip Morris (Smallville), Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica), Brian Thompson (X-Files) and others. - He has some exclusive clips for us and joins the MAKING MOVIES FOR SMALL SCREENS PANEL on Saturday morning.

CUP OF COFFEE AND A CHAT?
As part of the SCI-FI-LONDON Labs, we are hosting some 'coffee klatches' (german word meaning gossip!) with a few of the filmmakers and authors that are attending the festival.

These are small, informal gatherings, no more than a dozen people, where fans, admirers, budding writers and directors, or anyone else for that matter, get to spend an hour or so chatting with like minded others in the company of someone who can give them really informed insight into the work they do. Klatchees include: Robert Rankin, Pat Cadigan, Charlie Stross and Richard Jobson

These small gatherings are FREE OF CHARGE and first-come, first-served. Check the website for details.

SCIENCE PANELS
Well, we've read the book, graphic novel and seen the movie - but how much do we know about the actual science behind some of the fiction we love? Check out the LAB pages on the site and come to a panel with some real scientists who can give us the low-down on the latest developments - panelists include Prof. Noel Sharkey (of robot wars fame) and Jerry Stone (president of the Space Education Council)
And if you quote 'UCL' when booking tickets you can buy 1 get 1 free - offer ends Thursday.

LIVE COMEDY
Ok, so those of you who either, didn't get a ticket before it sold out or cannot make it to the MST3K all-nighter. Do not despair. We have more live comedy at the festival. On Sunday 3rd May at 12.30pm we have an esteemed panel talking about COMEDY in SCIENCE FICTION - but better still, we have a LIVE reading of an episode from the new BRIGHTONOMICON by Robert Rankin, performed by members of the cast! Tickets are on sale now, check the LABS for more details.

BLOOD THE LAST VAMPIRE
We had hoped to have this new live action version of the Animé classic BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE as our opening night movie - but things didn't work out. However, the wonderful people at Pathé have confirmed that the movie will open nationwide on Fri 19th June. Ok, so that is good news, but better than that: SCI-FI-LONDON will host the UK premiere of the movie at the Apollo on THURS 18TH JUNE! - We will screen the original Animé and the new movie together. Tickets go on sale next week for this exclusive night - so check the site.

AND FINALLY...
As always with newsletter competitions, this is just for you. To celebrate the International Year of Astronomy, the Royal Observatory Greenwich have given us 10 pairs of free tickets to the Planetarium - it is a cool show and a brilliant place to visit (we went just before Xmas and were blown away by the effects etc) To enter the draw, simply email your name to rog@sci-fi-london.com

And congratulations to: Adrian Lee, Louise Wilder, Roger Nicholl, Anastasia Wyn Rae and Peter Bäck who won the LAST EXIT TO NOWHERE T-shirt comp, and to Karen Wong who got the tickets to the party on Wednesday.

See you later this week
Thanks again

The SFL team
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SCI-FI-LONDON NEWS - April 09219 days ago
 
STOP PRESS :

As we all know, X MEN ORIGINS: WOLVERINE opens on Wed 29th April (and will be at the Apollo so you can combine it with the festival!) - but more importantly, there are a number of late-night preview screenings happening around the UK. Ok, so you could go see it somewhere else but Fox have been brilliant and exclusively given us a poster for everyone who sees it at the Apollo!.

This is not any old poster either, this is the original teaser poster that cannot be bought anywhere! Check out the Apollo website for full details, but know that the screening is 10pm Tuesday 28th April. More goodies on the night!


FESTIVAL NEWS :

Once again those lovely people at PLAY.COM have given us an exclusive code to get 5% off everything they sell. But hurry the code SCI09 must be used by midnight on Monday. Spread the word!

Now, with just days to go until SCI-FI-LONDON 8 kicks off with the Arthur C. Clarke Awards and our opening night film, the world premiere of EYEBORGS, starring Adrian (Highlander) Paul and Danny "Machete" Trejo. If you think CCTV and speed cameras are a nuisance, you ain 't seen nothing yet. Adrian Paul and other members of the cast and crew will be at the screening so book your tickets now.

We are really excited about this year's festival, not only because we have fantastic films but also because we have some great guests who will actually be sharing their knowledge an experience with us during Q&As after the screenings or at the LAB events that we are initiating this year.


48 HOUR NEWS

We had 55 films made this time around and they will all be online just after the festival, along with our official short film selection. Canon and Adobe both stepped up with some amazing prizes, including a Canon HV40 HD camcorder, and we give the awards out at the festival. check the site for full details.

For anyone who didn't enter our 48 Hour Film Challenge because they thought it would be too hard to make a sci-fi film without lots of special effects, then the SFL: LABs could be just the thing for you.

We have a huge roster of renowned filmmakers, writers, artists and scientists who will be able to inform and inspire you on how to create great (and believable) sci-fi with little money and lots of imagination. Visit http://www.sci-fi-london.com/festiva... for a full list of workshops and guests. At only £4 a ticket these are bargains as filmmaking workshops like these can usually set you back hundreds of pounds per day. And as an incentive you get 10% off festival movie tickets with your LAB pass and if you buy 5 tickets to anything, you get a 6th free! (not including All-nighters) -

Speaking of the All-nighters, don't procrastinate in booking your tickets. The anime and MST3K shows are almost sold out.

Outside of the LAB programme Thursday night of the festival will feature a talk with comic artist Kevin O'Neill, best known for his artwork on Alan Moore's The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Kevin will be talking with SFL's podcaster extraordinaire Alex Fitch. The talk will be followed by a rare screening of the British cyberpunk classic, HARDWARE, which is based on one of O'Neill's strips in 2000AD, and features appearances by rock music legends Lemmy and Iggy Pop (in the days before he sold car insurance). HARDWARE will be out on DVD in June, but you can't beat seeing it on the big screen.

For fans of the weird and wonderful, don't miss the chance to catch the classic Turkish sci-fi pastiche G.O.R.A and its sequel A.R.O.G. in a special double bill. We are pleased to have star/writer/director Cem Yilmaz as our guest. Cem is Turkey's most popular stand-up comedian so it will be a great evening. The other big news is our closing night film – Chapter Two of 20th Century Boys. Anyone who missed Chapter One on its limited theatrical release, we will be showing that in the afternoon so you can make a day of it. Just book early.

The best thing to do is go to www.sci-fi-london.com and check out the entire packed programme then get on the phone to the Apollo Piccadilly Circus (020 7451 9944) and book those tickets before they are all gone, and remember our special offer: buy 5 tickets get 1 free (excluding all-nighters).

Also, check out the new competitions on the main website, we have lots of goodies to give away as usual.

And you still have a chance to enter the competition to win a fabulous Super8 motor scooter from our sponsors Kymco.


Finally...

To stay in touch with what is happening, sign up to our RSS feed or join us on Facebook, Twitter etc., and remember to tell your friends.

Tickets are on sale now!!!

and for those newsletter readers who made it all the way down here... here is your chance to come to the invitation only opening night party. simply email rsvp2009@sci-fi-london.com - we will do a draw next week and first one out of the virtual hat will be invited, with a guest, to hang our with us on opening night.

Thanks again

The SFL team
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2009 Full Festival Programme Now Online238 days ago
 
The Full Festival Programme is now up online, including details of all of our Premieres, Shorts and Talks. See it here: http://bit.ly/UW9YV.

Or, if you fancy flicking through the actual physical programme itself, but online, then why not try out our fancy Flash version here: http://bit.ly/tkzME.

Tickets on sale now! See link for details: http://bit.ly/IKNyK.


The SFL Team.
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SCI-FI-LONDON NEWS - March257 days ago
 
Newsletter Mar 09

First off we have an exclusive competition for newsletter readers, to give away 5 T-shirts from one of the coolest T-shirt companies in the world! www.lastexittonowhere.com is supporting the festival this year and we have the pick of their website! So, if you want to win a T-shirt of your choice simply answer this question: Which company’s catchphrase is “more human than human”? - email your answer to louis@sci-fi-london.com, first five entries out of the hat will get to choose a shirt!

Now, with less than two months to go things are very exciting over here at SFL HQ. For our eighth year we have planned more events that will bring the different facets of sci-fi together: film (of course!), literature, comics (or graphic novels if you prefer) and real science - because you need the science to make the fiction believable! Guests include Dr Rachel Armstrong, China Mieville, Robert Rankin , Kevin O’Neill and filmmaker Marc Caro. Many more have confirmed but we don’t want to tell you everything in one email!

We are still based at our favourite luxury cinema, the Apollo Piccadilly Circus, and EA Games are on board again as our main sponsors – so expect lots of gaming goodies. If you haven't already put it in your diary this year's festival runs from April 29 until May 4 (no Star Wars jokes please).

However, for our newsletter subscribers, we can reveal a couple of exclusives, more will follow in the next newsletter or on the site!

Our opening night film is the live action version of BLOOD: THE LAST VAMPIRE. This is the UK premiere, and won't be showing elsewhere in the UK until June 12. (- We also had the UK premiere of the animated version at SFL in 2003).

Remember the fantastic AMERICAN ASTRONAUT - well we are delighted to hear that Cory McAbee and his band who made this fantastic movie have a new feature finished and coming to us fresh from Sundance. STINGRAY SAM is
the movie and better yet, Cory will be with us to introduce the film and talk about the production process - cowboy hats are not obligatory! (- but they are cool!).

We also have the world premiere of THE HUNT FOR GOLLUM, a stunning fan film based on Tolkien's notes, with production values that are a match for Peter Jackson's award-winning trilogy. This is an exclusive screening being simultaneously released onto the web at www.dailymotion.com. Screening as part of a ‘fan films’ strand we are holding for the very first time.

Another film we can tell you about is MOTHER OF INVENTION. Nothing to do with Frank Zappa, but it is a comic tale of two young inventors vying for their last chance to win the Young Inventor Award. One of them has won the Award for the last six years and is overly confident he will win again. Our hero is a perennial loser, in every sense, but he believes he has finally discovered the Holy Grail of invention and will beat his arrogant nemesis. One critic said “move over Christopher Guest, your mockmentary throne is at risk” – this is a wonderfully funny film and we will have the Director and Star in attendance!

Of course our infamous All-Nighters are back again this year. The massively popular staples of ANIMÉ and MST3K (this time with some CINEMATIC TITANIC too!) will be there, and with the new STAR TREK movie coming out the week after the festival, we'll be holding a free STAR TREK All-nighter for the fanboys. There'll be a limited number of tickets that can only be obtained through a number of special competitions we're lining up. Stand by for further
details.

Filmmaking competitions
Following on from the success of last year's 48 HOUR CHALLENGE, we'll be running it again this year on the weekend of April 4. Our jury already includes directors Marc Caro (DANTE 01, THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN – which we will be showing with a Q&A with the director at the fest) and Gerald McMorrow (FRANKLYN, - in cinemas now).

The rules are similar to last year: 48 hours to make a five-minute film incorporating three unknown criteria that have to be picked at the start of contest - full details on the website. You can see last year's winners and other entries on www.sci-fi-london.tv, www.youtube.com/SFLTV or on www.dailymotion.com/sfltv

Straight 8…
We have teamed up with the Straight 8 festival to give all you filmmaking masochists something else to get your creative juices flowing. Forgetting the time constraints of the 48 Hour Challenge, working with digital is a breeze. You can shoot as much as you want, edit to your heart's content and when it all goes a bit wrong – "fix it in post". Straight 8 is a completely different proposition.

You are shooting on Super8 film (which is the easy part), but you are sent a numbered cartridge (colour or B&W), that's three minutes and twenty seconds for you to tell your story. The challenge is you have to shoot
everything on that cartridge, without retakes or editing or fancy
digital effects, then send the undeveloped film back to Straight 8 who
process it.

If you want to add a soundtrack (music or voiceover) you upload that to their website – bearing in mind you haven't seen the finished film, so lip-sync dialogue is pretty much out. Now you just wait for Straight 8 to call you and tell you when you can see your masterpiece, such as the special screening at Cannes. Time is running out, so go to the website www.straight8.net/2008/enter_event.php, register and get your film back to them by March 30.

Super 8…
Finally, as anyone who has attended the festival will know, we love to give stuff away. Last year we gave away a stack of Xbox 360s and EA games, Archos media players, DVDs and, of course, the stuffed goodie bags at our legendary All-Nighters. As it is our super eighth year, we have a KYMCO SUPER 8 SCOOTER to give away! (- no, really!).

This is just the thing for getting around London without having to pay the
Congestion Charge or getting snarled up in traffic. If that isn't incentive enough to attend the festival and get to see our usual eclectic range of films and events, we don't know what is.

Finally...
To stay in touch with what is happening, be sure to sign up to our RSS feed or join us on Bebo, Facebook, Myspace, Twitter etc. and remember to tell your friends too. Tickets will be up early April.

Thanks again


The SFL team
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