BFI Film Audience Network announces Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder across the UK

We’ve announced the full line-up of events across the UK as part of Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder to be delivered by the BFI Film Audience Network (BFI FAN). Events will run until the end of 2014. There will be at least 576 screenings and events, showing 419 film and television titles across 124 locations, all curated by cinema experts with unsurpassed knowledge of their local audiences. Audiences across the UK can search for their nearest event using their postcode on a new search function available on the BFI website.

BFI FAN spans the length and breadth of the UK and connects cinemas, film archives, education organisations, community groups and others, to bring a wide range of films to audiences and help build interest in British independent and specialised film. BFI FAN members have boldly taken the Sci-Fi brief and created mind-blowing programmes of screenings, guests and events to bring classics of the genre to audiences in new and exciting ways. The events on offer across the country highlight Britain’s star-role in the history of Sci-Fi film, television and literature and will feature locations of great Sci-Fi significance across the UK. 

Heather Stewart, Creative Director, BFI said:

Thanks to our partners across the BFI Film Audience Network, great sci-fi film and television can be enjoyed by audiences right across the UK this autumn, from Cornwall to Orkney, Aberystwyth to Belfast. They have created exciting programmes of sci-fi screenings, special guests and eye-catching events that are truly out of this world. Our partners know their audiences, and their films, and their innovative ideas and creative thinking will help make Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder the biggest and most spectacular BFI project yet.

Sci-Fi highlights in every part of the UK

• Bear-Barella – San Francisco drag superstar, filmmaker, and cult (movie) leader Peaches Christ will return to the UK with an out-of-this-world event celebrating the 1968 masterpiece Barbarella, taking place in Manchester, Belfast and Glasgow.
• Mayhem Presents: The Created Woman – A three day season of film screenings, events and discussion forums on the theme of ‘The Created Woman’, a popular and enduring idea within science fiction. Presented by Mayhem Film Festival in Nottingham.
• Afrofuturism and Black Culture in Sci-Fi – There will be a series of events, guests and screenings in Bristol, Glasgow, London and Sheffield celebrating black visions of Sci-Fi as seen in Afrofuturist work including the seminal Space Is The Place starring Sun Ra.
• Time Travel with Woody Allen at JW3 – LOCO London Comedy Film Festival will present a double-bill of Sleeper and Midnight in Paris, followed by live stand-up from top comedy talent on the theme of society’s notions of time travel and the future.
• Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior in Belfast – Belfast Film Festival will host a site-specific screening of this cult classic; for one night only, T13, a former shipbuilding warehouse turned skate park, will be transformed into a post-apocalyptic wasteland for Miller’s futuristic science fiction fantasy.
• Escape from New York in Glasgow – Audiences will navigate the streets of Glasgow’s grid system, following a series of thematic clues to uncover a special Glasgow Film Festival screening of this action masterpiece.
• Cinema under the Stars – For one weekend only the Herstmonceux Observatory and Science Museum will transform into an open air drive-in cinema to screen classic Sci-Fi titles.
• Silent Running at the Eden Project – Watershed presents sci-fi visionary Douglas Trumbull’s 1972 eco-themed Silent Running introduced by renowned film critic Mark Kermode at the Eden Project on Sunday 26 October. The sounds of fear and wonder will be performed live by Portishead’s Adrian Utley and Goldfrapp’s Will Gregory in Eden’s magnificent Mediterranean Biome before the screening.
• Doctor Who across Wales – From November 2014, BBC Cymru Wales, BAFTA Cymru and Film Hub Wales will showcase a series of six Monsters and Villains-themed Doctor Who events drawing from episodes that have been filmed in Wales throughout its 50 year history.
• Threads, Outdoors in Sheffield – The Sensoria Festival of Film and Music will present an outdoor screening of the BAFTA award-winning BBC drama Threads, against the back-drop of Sheffield’s skyline.

Sci-Fi’s phenomenal geographic reach across the UK

Derbyshire and the North West

Macclesfield

On 3-4 October Abandon Normal Devices will present the first ever large-scale outdoor cinematic event at The University of Manchester’s Jodrell Bank Observatory, home to one of the largest radio telescopes in the world and a world-leading centre for research in astrophysics. Watch the Skies! will be a weekend of interstellar cinema capturing mankind’s drive to explore and exploit new frontiers, featuring classic science fiction films 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien against the spectacular, iconic backdrop of the Lovell Telescope, alongside talks from specialists at Jodrell Bank on space probes, extra-terrestrial life and exploration of the invisible universe. The weekend also features two exclusive world premieres and commissions from Manchester-based Soup Collective, and US acclaimed electronic musician Oneohtrix Point Never.

All other events in the region are presented by Film Hub North West Central, led by Cornerhouse Manchester. 

Manchester

Sci-Fi will take over Manchester from October, starting with Grimm up North, who, along with the Manchester Science Festival, will present classic double-bills at the Museum of Science and Industry. These double-headers will include Terry Gilliam’s Brazil and 12 Monkeys, Paul Verhoeven’s Total Recall and Starship Troopers and Ridley Scott’s Alien and Prometheus. Grimm up North will also pay homage to Sci-Fi on television with a special event at Gorilla in Manchester in November. San Francisco drag superstar, filmmaker, and cult (movie) leader Peaches Christ will return to the UK with an out-of-this world event celebrating the 1968 Sci-Fi masterpiece Barbarella, directed by Roger Vadim. Peaches will invite audiences to join her and her cast of drag aliens for a fully immersive and interactive experience when she presents her stage-show parody “Bear-barella”. The event will also take place in Belfast and Glasgow. Manchester Cornerhouse will play host to an epic all-nighter on Saturday 15 November, with a programme of six films that will transport audiences into the weird and wonderful world of science fiction. Also taking place at Cornerhouse will be The End of the World News: Science Fiction and Apocalypse, a season of films and events exploring a classic Sci-Fi theme – the end of the world as we know it. Titles such as Things to Come and Dr Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb will fill audiences with fear of alien invasions, outbreaks of pestilence, natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes and volcanoes, and nuclear destruction.

Derby

Audiences in Derby should head to QUAD, where they can embrace Sci-Fi with a season of classic and rarely seen films. The season will be split into three, covering European auteurs’ take on Sci-Fi, failed Hollywood franchises and landmarks of the genre, including films such as Fahrenheit 451, Je t’aime je t’aime, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Things To Come and Howard the Duck.

Preston

They Eat Culture will transport audiences through space and time with Future Preston Tours, a series of immersive screenings in top-secret locations across the city. Commencing in October (with a full line up of films to be announced in due course), there will also be a host of participatory and performance events, panels, talks and workshops to complement the screenings and explore the best that the genre has to offer.

Lancaster

The Dukes, Lancaster will screen a season of Sci-Fi films as part of the UK-wide season. Full details will be announced in the coming weeks. 

East Midlands and East of England: 

Presented by Film Hub Central East, led by Broadway, Nottingham and Cambridge Film Trust

Milton Keynes

Presented by the Cambridge Film Trust in association with Independent Cinema Milton Keynes, Station X at Bletchley Park will be a day of immersive screenings and fun themed workshops for all the family, exploring science fiction war narratives, totalitarian dystopias and fear of the power of science, set against the historic backdrop of the world-class heritage site Bletchley Park. Station X’s screening programme will be confirmed in due course and will take place in early November (date TBC). Also taking place in Milton Keynes from October–December will be Don’t Panic! at the MK Gallery; this series of 12 consecutive, weekly special events will bring together a programme exploring classic and modern Sci-Fi film. Working with musicians, DJs, artists, filmmakers, workshop leaders and science lecturers, Don’t Panic! will offer a new enlivening film experience each week.

Nottingham

The University of Nottingham will be working with passionate academics to help audiences answer the question about the accuracy of the science behind the fiction, with the university hosting a Sci-Fi/Sci-Fact day on Saturday 25 October at their spectacular maths building, with screenings of The Day the Earth Caught Fire and Gattaca. Mayhem Presents: The Created Woman will be a three-day season of film screenings, events and discussion forums on the theme of ‘The Created Woman’, a popular and enduring idea within science fiction. Presented by Mayhem Film Festival on 5-7 December, the season will explore creating the ‘perfect’ woman, creation gone wrong and wives and daughters. Screenings will include timeless classics such as Metropolis and Bride of Frankenstein as well as cult favourites like John Hughes’ Weird Science and the 1975 adaptation of The Stepford Wives.

Norfolk

Working with Creative Arts East and their Village Screen network, Film Hub Central East will infiltrate rural community cinema in Norfolk with Village Screen of the Damned. Six venues across Norfolk will see high quality screenings of, amongst others, The Day the Earth Caught Fire and Village of the Damned. Rural communities already confirmed include Hilgay (near Downham Market) as well as Croxton and Great Hockham (both near Thetford). 

London:

Presented by Film Hub London, led by Film London

Ada & After: Women Do Science (Fiction), presented by Club Des Femmes in association with the ICA, Hackney Picturehouse and the Aubin cinema, will showcase the contribution of women to science and science fiction. The specially curated film programme of features, documentaries and short films will include Conceiving Ada by Lynn Hershmann-Leeson and starring Tilda Swinton, and an extended discussion with artist/filmmaker Maja Borg following the screening of her new film We The Others. Further highlights include Sepideh: Reaching for the Stars, Codependent Lesbian Space Alien Seeks Same, Afronauts and a special interactive workshop on writing feminist science fiction for the screen with writer/director Campbell X and novelist Nalo Hopkinson (Brown Girl in the Ring) via Skype.

The New Black will host Blackhole, a Sci-Fi themed Black History Month. This cultural and educational programme will address the issue of the alienation of black stories in western cinema through afro-futuristic art-forms. Films screening in the programme will include After Earth, Maafa 21 and Attack the Block, tackling subject matters from eugenics to illegal aliens. Pop-up movie house DVDBANG will be offering a rare collection of East Asian science fiction at their themed bar and screening room.  The programme includes ‘pink film’ Underwater Love and schlock horror Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack.

LOCO London Comedy Film Festival will present Time Travel with Woody Allen at JW3; this double-bill of Sleeper and Midnight in Paris will be followed by live stand-up from top comedy talent on the theme of society’s notions of time travel and the future. Celluloid Circus and Movimientos will celebrate Mexican culture and the Dia de los Muertos tradition with their Day of the Dead Futuro Weekend. Taking place across key venues in South East London in early November, the weekend will include screenings of classic Mexican Sci-Fi films from the 1950s and 60s, with events incorporating art and craft workshops for children, and music and performance at a secret Brixton location.

Northern Ireland:

Presented by Film Hub NI, led by Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast

Belfast

Beyond the Infinite: Sci-Fi on Screen will see the QFT invaded by Sci-Fi this autumn with thematic approaches to the genre. Highlights will include Sci-Fi/Sci-Fact (Weird Science?) with screenings of Fantastic Voyage and Aliens; the all-nighter Attack of the Killer ‘B’s! with screenings of Starship Troopers, both versions of The Fly and Them!; and Sounds of Sci-Fi with screenings of Forbidden Planet and Flash Gordon. Also taking place at the QFT will be a series of events and screenings for children; Cinemagic Presents: Junior Sci-Fi will include workshops with astronomer/artist Deirdre Kelleghan before a screening of animated tale Moon Man, and an animation workshop looking at the world of both stop motion and hand-drawn animation before a screening of The Iron Giant. There will be a night of Film Music with the Ulster Orchestra, complete with a screening of ET; before the screening members of the orchestra will take audiences on a string-tastic journey of iconic music from ET to Star Wars and Star Trek. Also for young people will be U.F.O – The Universe, Fiction and the Obscure, devised by the QFT’s youth panel which organises the annual Takeover Film Festival; screenings will include Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, as well as free interactive events and competitions for children of all ages. 

Also taking place in Belfast will be a season of events programmed by Filmgoer at the Beanbag Cinema and a season at the Strand Arts Centre. There will be a weekly dose of Sci-Fi horror with Black Box presents The Atrocity Exhibition; from Quatermass to Clockwork Orange, and from Ziggy Stardust to Jerry Cornelius, Horror Film Club Black Sunday will provide a comprehensive view of the darker side of the genre. San Francisco drag superstar Peaches Christ will present her stage show parody of Barbarella in Belfast (see Manchester section for full details).

Belfast Film Festival will join in on the action with a series of screenings celebrating the finest of the genre; the opening night on Saturday 18 October will be a site-specific screening of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. For one night only, T13, a former shipbuilding warehouse turned skate park, will be transformed into a post-apocalyptic wasteland for Miller’s futuristic science fiction fantasy. Outburst Arts, Space Camp is a performance and film exhibition that will explore the connections between Sci-Fi and ‘the other’ through a one-off ‘spectacular’ event. Also taking place in Belfast will be a season of films linking with the release of the new film Robot Overlords, which was funded through the BFI Film Fund and shot in Northern Ireland. The season will follow the technological evolution of the man-machine on screen, from Metropolis to The Terminator via Saturn 3 and Westworld.

Derry-Londonderry

Foyle Film Festival and Nerve Centre will present Sci-Fi: Reflections on the Big Screen, a series of classic films including Alien: The Director’s Cut, The Fly and A Clockwork Orange, as well as filmmaking workshops, presentations, and panel discussions.

County Tyrone

Dungannon Film Club will team up with Film Hub NI to present immersive screenings of George Lucas’ THX 1138 and Ridley Scott’s Alien on Saturday 25 October and Saturday 29 November respectively.

Scotland:

Presented by Film Hub Scotland, led by Centre for the Moving Image, Edinburgh; Dundee Contemporary Arts; Eden Court Theatre & Cinema, Inverness; Glasgow Film Theatre; and Regional Screen Scotland

Glasgow

There will be a thrilling adventure-style treasure hunt through the streets of Glasgow to locate a screening of Sci-Fi action masterpiece Escape from New York. Audiences will be asked to navigate Glasgow’s grid system streets, following a series of thematic clues to uncover a special Glasgow Film Festival screening of the cult classic. Stanley Kubrick’s brother-in-law, confidant and regular executive producer Jan Harlan will join an audience at Glasgow Film Theatre (GFT) following a screening of A.I. Artificial Intelligence to talk about working with Steven Spielberg to bring Kubrick’s original unrealised vision for the film to the screen. San Francisco drag superstar Peaches Christ will present her stage show parody of Barbarella in Glasgow (see Manchester section for full details).

Sci-Fi cinema has a patchy history with its depiction of women, with female characters often being relegated to the role of sex object, victim or one-dimensional villain. GFT and Glasgow Women’s Library will team up to explore this: their season Teknowomen celebrates powerful, complex Sci-Fi dames. From Fritz Lang’s silent classic Women in the Moon to Ridley Scott’s Alien, each film will be contextualised by a talk from a crack team of female writers, comic book artists and film critics, including Hannah McGill and Zoe Strachan. Also taking place at GFT will be Africa at the Door of the Cosmos. With the help of programme partners Africa in Motion, Scottish audiences will be introduced to the brilliance of African Sci-Fi and Afrofuturist films, with a season offering bold and imaginative visions of the continent and its diaspora. Specially-curated African Sci-Fi shorts programme Visions of the Future will tour to five UK venues, while other screenings at GFT will include John Akomfrah’s influential cinematic essay The Last Angel of History and the beguiling The Space is the Place, starring legendary jazz giant Sun Ra.

Inverness

In the north of Scotland, Inverness’s Eden Court will be camping it up with 1950s cult double-bill The Man from Planet X and Devil Girl From Mars. Both are black-and-white B movies in which Martians from another planet touchdown in Scotland and proceed to mingle with the locals, with entertaining consequences. Eden Court will also screen a selection of cult, rarely screened Sci-Fi films specially curated by award-winning Artist Film and Video Maker Ben Rivers, including Je t’aime, je t’aime, Sexmission and The Tenth Victim.

Orkney

The Phoenix Cinema on Orkney will get into the Halloween spirit by screening a double-bill of the Directors’ Cuts of Alien and Aliens. 

Rural Scotland

Film Hub Scotland and Cinema For All are working together to ensure that the season reaches all parts of Scotland, especially the most rural, by supporting twenty community cinemas and film societies to screen a title from the genre. Events will include a screening of the critically acclaimed Under the Skin by Duirinish Media and Culture Club on Skye; a fancy-dress Ghostbusters party organized by the Community Cinema at Onthank in Kilmarnock; and a screening at Scotland’s most southerly cinema, Machars Movies in the Isle of Whithorn, of Ridley Scott’s Alien prequel Prometheus, which was partly shot on the Isle of Skye.

South East:

Presented by Film South East, led by Screen Archive South East; Picturehouse in Brighton; Cinecity; and Lighthouse

West Sussex

Film Hub South East will celebrate two titans of the science fiction world with a series of talks and film screenings in Midhurst and Chichester dedicated to H.G. Wells and John Wyndham. H.G. Wells spent a great deal of his life in and around Midhurst, studying and later working at Midhurst Grammar School, now Capron House, the home of the South Downs National Park Authority. Midhurst was also an influence on another world famous Sci-Fi author; John Wyndham, author of The Day of The Triffids, was a student at nearby Bedales School from 1918 – 1921 and visited the town often. There is also a strong argument that Midhurst was the inspiration for the village at the heart of his classic novel The Midwich Cuckoos, which was filmed as Village of the Damned. The programme, which runs from 20-28 September will include screenings of The Invisible Man and Village of the Damned in Midhurst. There will be an accompanying talk on how Sci-Fi novels are translated to film, plus a further two talks on H.G. Wells. 

East Sussex

For one weekend only (3-4 October) the Herstmonceux Observatory and Science Museum will present Cinema Under the Stars. The observatory will transform into an open-air drive-in cinema to screen classic titles. After the film is over, those interested in taking a closer look at space will be able to visit the observatory domes and telescopes for a guided tour. There will also be film-related activity for families to enjoy inside a special cinema tent in the observatory grounds on Saturday 4 October.

Brighton will be home to a number of special Sci-Fi events: on Sunday 23 November Roger Corman’s classic X: The Man With the X-Ray Eyes will be treated to a brand new score by legendary American avant-garage rock band Pere Ubu, who will perform a live score to the film at the Duke of York’s Picturehouse as part of the 12th CINECITY Brighton Film Festival. CINECITY will also host Midwich Cuckoos Live, at the Duke of York’s Picturehouse. In a deconstruction of John Wyndham’s classic Midwich Cuckoos, five actors will perform to microphone as if in a live radio play, complemented by a live score from Spacedog including theremin and electronics, live foley and sound effects. François Truffaut’s Fahrenheit 451 will screen in a pop-up cinema at the Old Reference Library, Brighton Museum and Art Gallery (28-30 November); the empty shelves of the old Reference Library will prove a poignant setting for this classic dystopian tale of a society where books are outlawed.

Nearby Portslade will play host to a special one-off event exploring the landscape of the South Downs as a site of invasion and menace. Taking place at the Foredown Tower, with its 360° view of the Downs and the region’s largest camera obscura, will be an exploration of a rare science fiction novel set in the South Downs. Brighton-based author Kay Dick’s novel They: A Sequence of Unease comprises a strange series of dream sequences; ‘They’ are a group of un-named cultural fascists who roam the countryside and remove all books, music scores, instruments and artworks from people’s houses. Published in 1977, They won the SE Arts Literature prize but has now been almost entirely forgotten. Presented in partnership with Portslade Adult Learning, the event comprises a talk, and live readings from the novel, by the actor Hugh Ross.

Kent

A Sci-Fi programme curated by award-winning artist film and video maker Ben Rivers will launch in October at Folkestone Triennial 2014 before touring to selected venues across the UK. Rivers’ selection of rarely screened cult films includes Alain Resnais’ Je t’aime, je t’aime, The Quiet Earth, Late August at the Hotel Ozone and The Tenth Victim. A selection will screen at venues across the Film Audience Network in November – January.

South West and West Midlands:

Presented by Film Hub South West & West Midlands, led by Watershed, Bristol

Birmingham

Invasion of the Body Snatchers screens under the Birmingham stars at mac’s Sundown Cinema: Out of this World and Chris Marker’s seminal film La Jetée plays alongside a programme of shorts with a live set from a Birmingham based musician, co-curated by Flatpack and Encounters Animation & Short Film Festivals.

Bristol

Throughout October, Watershed hosts a major focus on Afrofuturism, curated by Dr Edson Burton, as part of Black History Month. It bridges everything from spirituality to Hip Hop, art, fashion, comic books, science, and, of course, film; kicking off with a special focus on free jazz hero Sun Ra in celebration of his centenary (Sun-Ra: A Joyful Noise and Space Is The Place). Inner city take on outer space in Attack the Block, while George Clinton brings the funk in Tales of Dr Funkenstein, and feminism and Sci-Fi come together in the one-of-a-kind Born in Flames. There are opportunities for young people to explore their own superhero alter egos at an animation workshop, and for everyone to participate in discussions led by guests including award-winning creative Jon Daniel (Afro Supa Hero) and writer and DJ Chardine Taylor-Stone.

Explore the unforeseen consequences of science fiction technology in The Future is Now, a series of late night screenings in October curated by Watershed’s Future Producers, a group of young people aged 18–25. For films that have mutant insects (The Fly), killer aliens (Under the Skin), shady clones (Moon) and memory-zapped lovers (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) at their hearts, they all focus on what it is to be human. For one weekend only, Watershed transforms into The Mothershed, Bristol’s very first (and absolutely free) interactive Space Palace as part of Fun Palaces. Step inside the Mothershed for UV ping-pong, astronaut food, out of this world games, robot portraiture, a blind date with cinema and more! Continuing the family theme, after a screening of Steven Spielberg’s all time classic E.T The Extra-Terrestrial, all the family are invited to take part in an out-of-this-world Sci-Fi workshop, part of the Family Arts Festival during October half-term.

Music is a planet-size part of almost all great Sci-Fi films. Bristol’s own audio visual pioneer DJ Cheeba (Solid Steel) and friends will be taking audiences on a journey through some of the most iconic Sci-Fi films ever made. On Friday 21 November Cheeba will perform a one-off live re-score to Ed Wood’s infamous Plan 9 From Outer Space, a film which despite being ridiculed at the time, has now taken on cult-like status. There will be a late night screening of Space is the Place on Thursday 23 October with DJ Food’s (Ninja Tune/Solid Steel) Future Shock, a live turntablist soundscape of Sci-Fi songs, cosmic music and retro electronic visions of a future very different from the one we live in now. On Friday 28 November The Herbaliser’s Ollie Teeba presents an inspired re-imagining and homage to Jeff Wayne’s musical version of War of The Worlds followed by a late night screening of the 1953 version of the film. Finally, audiences can experience a live DJ set from electro-acoustic heroes Bronnt Industries Kapital, before a screening of James Cameron’s classic Terminator 2: Judgement Day on Friday 14 November.

Also in Bristol, Arnolfini will present a Neural Geometry Weekend (13-14 Dec), which will include a movie marathon of B-movie and art-house classics, plus a new live performance by Circumstance, internationally known for creating cinematic experiences in uncontrolled environments. With When There Is Only Us audiences will be able to experience an intimate Sci-Fi opera that explores the real and fictional possibilities of terraforming. In addition, Chris Marker’s seminal film La Jetée, plays alongside a programme of shorts and a live set from a Bristol-based DJ at the Bristol Planetarium presented by Encounters Short Film & Animation Festival.

The Cube cinema takes on a distinctly 70s look in October, decked out in dandyish threads, pop art labyrinths and weird inflatable bubbles, for two events dedicated to post-war Sci-Fi voices: The Year Of The Sex Olympics, a twisted take on the future where reality television dominates life, and The Final Programme, an unclassifiable spy caper come Sci-Fi mash-up from 1973. Stay on board for Dark City, the visually dazzling cult favourite, and worship the programme of religious and post-punk Sci-Fi in November, kicking off with the classic crime-comedy-punk-musical, Repo Man. Bow your head in December for a programme exploring the strange world of religious, spiritualist science fiction presented by American film writer Jack Stevenson.

Clevedon

Just before Halloween gets underway, the 100 year old haunted Curzon Cinema Clevedon will screen E.T on Friday 24 October; audiences will be encouraged to wear fancy dress and will round out the evening with a Haunted Tour and Jammin’ Disco competition.

Cornwall

An otherworldly evening of Sci-Fi immersion in the magnificent setting of the Eden Project on Sunday 26 October.  Expect the Sounds of Fear and Wonder from Portishead’s Adrian Utley and Goldrapp’s Will Gregory leading up to a screening of ecologically prescient cult classic Silent Running introduced by renowned film critic Mark Kermode. 

The Poly in Falmouth will host a season in collaboration with Falmouth University’s School of Film and Television, during October and November, kicking off with a special event on Thursday 23 October with director Mike Hodges introducing his classic film Flash Gordon.  Other screenings include a Halloween double bill of The Fly and Demon Seed, followed in November by The Thing, Rollerball, THX1138 and Primer. Each film will be contextualised by a film lecturer, who will extol its virtues and explain why it deserves to be revisited on the big screen.

Cornwall Film Festival will present Dystopian Futures, a series of workshops and screenings designed to help young people articulate their views on what the future holds.  Events include a mobile planetarium, filmmaking workshops with filmmaker Brett Harvey, making mini robot people at The Newlyn Art Gallery and screenings in collaboration with Penwith Film Society at the Merlin Savoy Cinema in Penzance. Highlights include a screening of Fritz Lang’s classic Metropolis with a lecture from the BFI Reuben Library public events series and a special screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Film clubs across Cornwall will also be screening the BFI National Archive’s new restoration of the classic 1961 feature The Day the Earth Caught Fire.

Wales:

Presented by Film Hub Wales, led by Chapter, Cardiff

Wales-wide

From November 2014, BBC Cymru Wales, BAFTA Cymru and Film Hub Wales will showcase a series of six Monsters and Villains themed Doctor Who events drawing from episodes that have been filmed in Wales throughout its 50 year history. With special appearances and master classes planned from the talented Doctor Who team, this spectacular programme of events across the nation is a must-see for fans of the cult television classic.

Cardiff and South Wales

Chapter and Darkened Rooms kick off their October Sci-Fi season with The Fly, where the science is explored before the fiction in this classic creature feature with a transformative movie experience at science discovery centre Techniquest in Cardiff Bay. Back by popular demand, October will also see the first instalment of Chapter’s partnership with CADW at Castle Coch and Caerphilly Castle, where Frankenstein, The Wizard of Oz, Invasion of the Bodysnatchers and more hit the screens for what will be another spectacular season of Films in Castles. There will also be a special screening of Dr Strangelove with live music from Gwenno, a discussion on the creative Welsh response to nuclear threat, presentations from robotics artist Paul Granjon on the cutting edge science behind films such as Westworld and Robocop and an all-day immersive event themed around Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Plus filmmaker Ben Ewart-Dean will give audiences an insight into one of the most imaginative genres in the history of cinema with An Introduction to Sci-Fi Film, looking at the themes and ideas that make up science fiction film. Llancarfan Community Cinema will go on a voyage of discovery with a weekend chock full of action and adventure. Over the course of two days the cinema will present three very special film events to be announced in due course. Look to the skies as Planet Neath invades the town this October and November with a science fiction extravaganza like no other – Gwyn Hall is mission control and events throughout the town will be packed with films, live performances, activities and a Forbidden Planet Flash Mob!

Mid Wales

In January, Chapter collaborate with Magic Lantern Cinema in Tywyn to present a dystopian future of environmental peril at the Centre for Alternative Technology in Machynlleth.

West Wales

The Torch Theatre’s Cult Film Season opens on Saturday 20 September with an interactive screening sing-a-long Rocky Horror Picture Show and continues throughout the autumn with cult classics such as The Man Who Fell to Earth and The Matrix. In October Aberystwyth Arts Centre have a day-long celebration of diverse and exciting Sci-Fi movies, tracing three distinctive eras of production. The day will begin with 50s & 60s B-movies, including the BFI National Archive’s new restoration of The Day The Earth Caught Fire, then on to the 1970s and a special presentation of the hilarious Star Crash. The day will end by looking at the 1980s and a new era for the genre, dominated by violence, action and special effects and will finish with a screening of the new digitally re-mastered version of Robocop.

North Wales

It’s been described as one of the most magical places in the world and for the first time ever the incredible Bounce Below in North Wales will be turned into a subterranean cinema through a partnership with CellB. The series of caves that are home to three huge trampolines will host schoolchildren who will watch a fantastic Sci-Fi film in what will be the first event of its kind in the UK. The film showing will be followed up with a number of filmmaking workshops with Into Film. In November, Scala Cinema Prestatyn host a weekend of film screenings and talks with classic titles, Metropolis, The War of the Worlds and Alien.

Yorkshire and the North East:

Presented by Film Hub North (led by Showroom/Workstation in Sheffield)

Sheffield

Film Hub North, in partnership with Sensoria Festival of Film and Music will present an outdoor screening of the BAFTA award-winning BBC drama Threads, against the back-drop of Sheffield’s skyline at South Street Park Amphitheatre. Originally shot in Sheffield and adapted from local author Barry Hines, Threads projects a chilling view of what life would be like after nuclear war.  Sensoria Festival will also present an artist talk with Matt Stokes about his new film and audio installation, In Absence of the Smoky God, commissioned by Sensoria Festival and Site Gallery. 

Showroom Workstation will present 39 screening events throughout October, November and December. Highlights include a Sci-Fi Shocks All-Nighter as part of Celluloid Screams festival on October 26. Sci-Fi will take over the cinema’s regular Cult Tuesday and Midnight Marauders slots with screenings including Quatermass and the Pit and BFI National Archive’s new restoration of The Day the Earth Caught Fire. A two-day Out of this World event will take place from November 1-2, as part of Sheffield City Council’s two day festival of the same name, focusing on a younger audience with screenings of ET, The Iron Giant, Flight of the Navigator and Journey to the Centre of the Earth. Each screening will be accompanied by a complimentary workshop focussing on science and the creative arts, inspired by the film programme. As part of Black History Month, Showroom Workstation will present a programme of Afrofuturist film, with screenings including Space is the Place.

Showroom Workstation will also offer an expanded programme of education events throughout the season including Film Bites, led by Matthew Cheeseman of Sheffield University, while local cult blogger Paul Bareham will focus on British Sci-Fi Invasion & Gender, highlighting British classics such as Village of the Damned, Unearthly Stranger and Devil Girl from Mars. In addition, the Film Studies: Red Planets programme looks east and brings a season of screenings and lectures on Russian Cinema to our screens, led by Sheffield Hallam University. Titles screening will include Solaris, Ikarie XB1 and Letters from a Dead Man. Science Fiction / Science Fact will screen classic and modern Sci-Fi films with lectures, demos and discussions with leading academics in a variety of sciences.

Elsewhere in Sheffield, the Five and Dime Picture Show at the University of Sheffield present a special screening of Nicolas Roeg’s masterpiece The Man Who Fell to Earth starring the ultimate musical alien, David Bowie. With Bowie at his finest in a newly restored digital print, this is a big screen experience not to be missed. Expect free Bowie face painting, a pre-screening Bowie sing-along and a special “Bowie’s in Space” disco, featuring special guest DJ sets until the early hours, with fancy dress actively encouraged.

West Yorkshire

Ilkley Film Festival will present The Final Frontier, a touring programme of live Sci-Fi soundtracks to towns with no independent cinema provision. The shows take place in Ilkley at the Festival’s ‘home’ King’s Hall, in Huddersfield in partnership with Kirklees Council’s Festival of Light, and at the newly re-opened Unity Hall in Wakefield. The programme will feature the world premiere of a new soundtrack to A Trip to the Moon by Huddersfield band Stems.

The National Media Museum will present a series of films as part of Bradford Science Festival including Moon and Barbarella, plus a screening of Fritz Lang’s Metropolis with a live musical accompaniment.

East Yorkshire

Junction, Goole will present a series of events exploring adaptations from Sci-Fi literature to screen. Reading groups will be run in the lead up to the events, with each screening being supported by a speaker to illuminate the transition from page to screen.

Newcastle

The Star and Shadow will embrace the theme of Sci-Fi across their November and December programmes and create an immersive space at their venue for audiences to explore. Films screening will include: Things to Come, The Incredible Shrinking Man, Dark Star, The Day the Earth Caught Fire and many more.

Across Yorkshire, Cumbria, Northumbria and Tyne & Wear

Cinema for All (formerly the British Federation of Film Societies) will bringing Sci-Fi to community cinemas and film societies across the Film Hub North region, making it the biggest genre programme to date to be presented across the region’s community sector.