About SFL 7

SCI-FI-LONDON, is NOT a convention or collector's fair - we are a strictly non-geeky, serious look at science fiction and fantastic film! (tho' we are all geeks at heart ;)

Festival background:

SCI-FI-LONDON is the UK's only film festival dedicated to the science fiction and fantasy genres.

2002

It began life in 2002 and in our first year we managed to screen 12 UK/European premieres, including the first showing of The Mothman Prophecies and the world premiere of Ken Russell's The Fall of the Louse of Usher.

2003

In 2003 we had the world premiere of Malice Doll, the UK premieres of Cube 2: Hypercube, Ever since the world ended and The Inside Story. We also introduced our documentary strand "stranger than fiction" and had the first ever UK screenings of The Gospel According to Philip K Dick and Life, the Universe and Douglas Adams.

With an average attendance to every screening in excess of 80% and fantastic media coverage, SCI-FI-LONDON is truly established as a serious film festival.

The aim was to attract an audience that was susceptible to science fiction, rather than hardened fans of a specific franchise. In our first year we purposely avoided typical and obvious choices; No Star Wars or Star Trek. Instead, we looked for unique and visually stunning new product for an eager UK audience, balanced against some rarely seen movie classics. Although in our fourth year we gave in and screened Star Trek First Contact and the excellent documentary Trekkies II - so I guess the geek is starting to show through.

In the last few years we have screened some amazing and very rare classic movies. These included Tarkovsky's Stalker, and the original Solaris recently remade with George Clooney, George Lucas' first feature, THX 1138, the ever-relevant, Soylent Green and John Carpenter's scifi/horror crossover, The Thing.

We devised an international sci-fi short film programme, rounding-up the best sci-fi shorts from the UK and around the world. The full programme is screened in our sold-out ‘Shorts @ Six’ slots and each feature we show is preceded by one of these shorts.

SCI-FI-LONDON re-introduced the all-nighter to London. In 2002 we had a sold out all-nighter programme at the Curzon SOHO. With free uce cream, Red Bull and breakfast - the audience got to experience all 4 of the Alien series movies back-to-back and 4 John Carpenter classics, including his first feature Dark Star. In 2003 it was a manga fest hosted by the Other Cinema. Premieres of Spriggan showed alongside classics like Akira and Perfect Blue. Today, our all-nighters are infamous and sell-out ahead of any other screening. Whether ANIME or MST3K, spending the night in the cinema with a load of like-minded individuals is a truly enlightening experience.

In line with our aim of attracting new audiences, 2002 saw us hold events at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts): After being granted permission from his estate, The Douglas Adams Memorial Debate saw our distinguished panel of writers, commentators and filmmakers look at how science fiction transfers from book to screen and Newtype Animé, an encyclopaedic overview of the history of Japanimation and the increasingly popular Manga genre.

2003 also saw us run the SCI-FI-LONDON Trailer Challenge. Make a trailer for a non-existant sci-fi film... in a week! The response was fantastic and we had 37 trailers completed.

2005

Our 2005 festival was a great success, with two World Premieres, a UK tour and new awards added to the line-up.

2006

In 2006 we made a few changes - well it was our fifth birthday after all! We became the official host for the ARTHUR C CLARKE AWARD FOR LITERATURE, the award party and ceremony saw the likes of Kazuo Ishiguro and Harry Harrison visit the festival. We also moved to our new home, the APOLLO WEST END cinema. Oh, and we moved the dates from February to May...

We refuse to charge submission fees and encourage filmmakers of all backgrounds, interests and obsessions to submit their work.