SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival: April 24th – May 4th 2014

Posted on 22/04/2014 by Cristian Tamas in News // 0 Comments

SCI-FI-LONDON (The London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film), is a major European UK-based film festival, dedicated to the science fiction and fantasy genres, which began in 2002.

In 2006 the festival became the official home of The Arthur C. Clarke Award, a major European SF Prize, a prestigious award for science fiction literature in Britain, and recognised as one of the most prestigious science fiction awards in the world.

The Arthur C. Clarke Award is awarded every year to the best science fiction novel which received its first British publication during the previous calendar year. The Award was set up in 1986 and the first winner was announced in 1987. In 2006 Sci-Fi-London hosted the Awards ceremony for the first time.

This year the Arthur C. Clarke Award’s winner will be announced on Thursday 1st May at an exclusive award ceremony held at the Royal Society, London, and taking place as part of the SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival. The winner will be presented with a cheque for £2014.00 and the award itself, a commemorative engraved bookend.

The six shortlisted books for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for best science fiction novel of the year 2014 are:

“The Adjacent” by Christopher Priest (UK)

“The Machine” by James Smythe (UK)

“The Disestablishment of Paradise” by Phillip Mann (UK/NZ)

“God’s War” by Kameron Hurley (US)

“Ancillary Justice” by Ann Leckie (US)

“Nexus” by Ramez Naam (US)

The 6 shortlisted titles were selected from a record-breaking 121 individual eligible submissions, put forward by 42 different publishing houses and imprints:

http://www.sci-fi-london.com/festival/2014/programme/event/2014-arthur-c-clarke-award-literature

Designed to be a festival that “takes a serious look at sci-fi and fantasy, bringing new, classic and rare movies from around the world to the UK”, Sci-Fi-London (SFL) annually screens world and UK Premieres, seminal cult classics, as well as documentaries, debates and talks : http://www.sci-fi-london.com/festival/2014/programme

The Sci-Fi-London Film Festival is one of the few locations in the United Kingdom to consistently screen All-Nighters – movie marathons, which run throughout the night (with the aid of ice-cream and caffeine drinks).

Short films are also an important part of the festival programme, screening in front of every movie shown, as well as together in the Blink Of An Eye short film programme. Over its history Sci-Fi-London has also held a number of Short Film competitions, and in 2008 launched the Sci-Fi-London 48hr Film Challenge, in order to encourage filmmakers to create sci-fi short films over a very short space of time.

Since its inception, the Sci-Fi-London Film Festival has also been one of the few places in the UK to consistently screen “All-Nighters” — film marathons which run throughout the night. These have focused on anime, horror, Alien, and Matrix films as well as episodes of the cult American TV series: Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

The Festival is reliant mostly on a large and varied team of Volunteers, who give up their time and expertise for free, in aid of the various aspects of the running of the Festival. These are mostly recruited in the months leading up to the Festival, through the Festival’s website.

In its first four years (2002–2005), the Festival resided mainly at the Curzon Soho Cinema on Shaftesbury Avenue (Central London).

The Festival then resided primarily at the Apollo Piccadilly Circus on Lower Regent Street (also Central London), from its fifth year through to its eleventh (2006–2012).

At the same time the festival also moved from screenings in late January/early February, to a slot in late April/early May (usually the May Bank Holiday Weekend), running over a longer, 5-day period.

Since October 2012, the festival has moved to its current location, at the Stratford Picturehouse, running a full 7-day programme.

Since 2008 Sci-Fi-London has also held a second festival in October, called Oktoberfest. This normally takes the form of a shorter festival, held at venues including the Apollo Piccadilly Circus, the Stratford Picturehouse, the Royal Observatory, Greenwich and the Royal Society.

Not only acting as a first point of reference for the Film Festival itself, the Sci-Fi-London website also provides year round News, Interviews, Reviews, Podcasts, Listings and Competitions, on a similar range of topics to that of the festival.

Sci-Fi-London website also features information on past festivals, how to volunteer at the festival, as well as a Mailing List and Message Board/Forum.

SCI-FI-LONDON.COM also operates a free ‘webTV’ service at SCI-FI-LONDON.TV, featuring films and shorts previously submitted or screened at past festivals.