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

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

	SCI-FI-LONDON NEWS - 19 May 09	191 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
	posted by SCI-FI-LONDON