SCI-FI-LONDON (or The London International Festival Of Science Fiction And Fantastic Film), the UK’s leading genre event and an internationally recognised launch pad for genre movies is coming! The festival, now in its 9th year and will take place Wed 28th April – Mon 3rd May 2010 at The Apollo Piccadilly Circus Cinema, London’s most luxurious cinema.Each year SCI-FI-LONDON have at least a dozen UK premieres and in the last few years have had the first public screening (ahead of the USA!) of 28 Weeks Later and the world premiere of Bruce (Iron Maiden) Dickinson’s Chemical Wedding. Amongst the myriad of special events last year's SFL saw premieres of Eyeborgs, The Hunt for Gollum, a screening of The City of Lost Children introduced by Director Marc Caro and an early preview of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
For me the highlights from last year's festival where the Gala opening party, the talk with 2000AD legend Kevin O'Neill, a hi def screening of the little known sci fi masterpiece Hardware (c'mon Richard Stanley make another film already) and a talk by Director Neil Oseman about the inventive The Darkside of the Earth a family fantasy adventure time travel steam-punk feature film that he (at the time) was looking for competion funding for. I have to say the teaser clip he showed from The Darkside of the Earth was phenomenal and I can't wait to see it on the big screen.
THE DARK SIDE OF THE EARTH, set in the 19th century, the world stops spinning suddenly. But there is hope, a mysterious character on the dark side may have the key to getting the planet moving again.
The Darkside of the Earth
Pictures from SCI-FI-LONDON 8 can be found here http://www.flickr.com/photos/entropy1138/sets/72157617398322065/.
Guests that attendees included; film director Marc Caro (Delicatessen, City of the Lost Children), Cory McAbee (Stingray Sam, American Astronaut) and Gerrald McMorrow (Franklyn). We also had writers such as China Miéville, Charles Stross and Alastair Reynolds, along with screenwriter Stuart Hazeldine (Knowing, Exam) - even William Hurt popped his head in.
Regular events include; World Premieres, exclusive preview screenings, the prestigious Arthur C Clarke Award, the SFL: Film Lab, All-nighters, Shorts, Special talks, Documentaries, The SCI-FI-LONDON Awards and the SCI-FI-LONDON Pub Quiz.
This year's festival will run from Wed 28th April – Mon 3rd May, 2010. Although no official announcments have been made about this year's festival. It looks like Louis Savy (Festival Director & Founder) is pulling a great show together for SFL9. So far we have gleaned that:
- This year's theme is Life in 2050
- There will be an Aliens vs Humans all-nighter.
- The first pick for the Sci Fi Comedy All-nighter at SCI-FI-LONDON is the 1977 The Alien Factor, riffed by the fantastic Cinematic Titanic.
- 2 Mexican features can be expected in the programme. I'm hoping one of them is the awesome Sleep Dealer.
- Also screening will be Radio Free Albemuth adapted from a Philip K. Dick story.
Radio Free Albemuth (Jon Scarfe, Alanis Morissette)
Nick Brady is a college dropout and record store clerk living in Berkeley in the year 1984. But it's not the same reality we know. The Watergate tapes were burned and President Ferris Fremont, a Nixon-like clone is still in office. And he'll probably be elected to another term and another ... pursuing a terrorist organization known as Aramchek.
- And most exciting! The SCI-FI-LONDON 48 Hour Film Challenge will run from 10-12 April and one of the judges will be Vincenzo Natali director of amongst others; Cube, Earth: Final Conflict, Cypher, Paris, je t'aime and Splice. I wonder if a screening of Splice is on the cards?
-SCI-FI-LONDON are currently looking for volunteers, head over to http://www.sci-fi-london.com/festival/2010/volunteer/ for more information if you are intrested in being involved.
Update 1#: Via the magic of the Internet I have found some further info about some of the films that may be part of the SFL9 lineup:
8th Wonderland8th WONDERLAND secretly gathers people from around the world which have one point in common: the wish never again to be subjected to news broadcasts, without being able to react. And as it is true that an individual barely has any chance of being listened to, a country on the other hand, has many more possibilities of intervention at an international level.
Every week, each inhabitant of 8th WONDERLAND gives one euro. Every week, they vote for a different motion by referendum. Should one be adopted, the inhabitants of this virtual country take it upon themselves to apply it to the real world. They have only one line of conduct: to improve things.
Depositarios
A Sci-fiction police thriller set in Mexico city 2015, a future similar to Children of men, where each person has got a "depositario", a sort of twin who has not got rights to live except for receipting the pain of their brothers.
1
A clever adaptation of Stanislaw Lem's One Human Minute. A bookshop renowned for its rare works is mysteriously and completely filled with copies of a book entitled 1, which doesn't appear to have a publisher or author. The strange almanac describes what happens to the whole of humanity in the space of a minute. A police investigation begins and the bookshop staff are placed in solitary confinement by the Bureau for Paranormal Research (RDI Reality Defense Institute). As the investigation progresses, the situation becomes more complex and the book increasingly well known, raising numerous controversies (political, scientific, religious and artistic). Plagued by doubts, the protagonist has to face facts: reality only exists in the imagination of individuals.
Adás (Transmission)
A mesmerizing dystopian drama set in a world in which all the screens have stopped functioning. Television stations don't broadcast, computer monitors are empty, the entire telecommunication industry is gone. The story starts months after the last screen has stopped working and society has started to develop alternative ways of living.
EarthlingPremiering at SxSW 2010. After a mysterious atmospheric event, a small group of people wake up to realize that their entire lives have been a lie. They are in fact aliens disguised as humans. Now they have to make a choice. Live amongst men, or try to find a way back home.
http://www.everythingcomesfromthewater.com/
2033In 2033, a military government dominates, taking away religious faith and freedom of expression. Paul, a young banker nestles into drugs and alcohol, but his life changes when he meets Lozada. Paul leaves his privileged life to help the disadvantaged and destroy the system that controls the populace through PACTI an addictive drink.
Twitter updates here (Spanish): @2033pelicula
Eraser ChildrenOriginally scheduled to be screened at lasy year's festival it has made it this year. In a dystopia of useless products, pre-paid dreams, and a system of violations so invasive that if you laugh too loudly you will be fined, Misner Corporation has invented a new source of energy, generating a monopoly on all facets of human existence. The world is now a totalitarian global state ruled by one man. Anyone unwilling to work for Misners regime lives underground in a dark world of insane system dropouts. Finnegan Wright, a lower level worker at Misner Corp. is taken on an enthralling journey when one of these dropouts kidnaps Finnegan and tries to convince him to change the fate of the world by killing Misner.
Test pilota Pirxa The movie is about "finite nonlinears," robots that closely resemble human beings but are even more perfect than humans. They are intended to eventually replace human beings in space flights. Somewhat apprehensive about their usefullness, the United Nations sets up a space flight to determine their reactions to the human beings who also make up the crew. Pirx is selected as a commander of the flight, although the identity of the robots is not revealed to him.
Golem Set in a terrorizing world of the future, where technology commands the movements of individuals, supervised by the doctors, carrying out a program to improve the human race. Thus, instead of doctors creating a monster, the monsters are already there as the species of the future - but one of them is suspected by the doctors of being a human being. That is Golem in reverse
The War of the Worlds: Next CenturyThe film starts with the arrival of a more advanced civilization from Mars which purports to have a friendly attitude towards Earthlings. The place visited by the Martians resembles a police state in which a huge role is played by television, which is used as a propaganda tool.
Love Story 2050It's story about Karan (Harman Baweja) a young spirited sporty boy who lives life off the rules and Sana (Priyanka Chopra), a young petite, shy girl who lives lives by the rules. Their interaction thus developes into a magical love story. Karan's uncle Dr. Yatinder Khanna (Boman Irani), a whacky scientist has been working on the Time Machine for years, which one day finally, works! Sana expresses her wish to travel time to Mumbai in the year 2050. What they see in the future is a spectacular city with flying cars, 200 storey building, robots and sky rails that have changed the very face of Mumbai and the world! Through a series of twist and turns, the time traveler Karan finds himself separating from his love.
Barbarella
NothingDirector Vincenzo Natali's tale tells the story of two good friends who live together, Andrew (Andrew Miller), an agoraphobic travel agent who works from his home, and Dave (David Hewlett), a loser who works in an office where he is treated with contempt. Just when it seems things can't get any worse for the two, the entire world outside of their house disappears and is replaced with an endless white void.
SCI-FI-LONDON 9 (2010) is coming
Where
The Apollo Piccadilly Circus Cinema
19 Lower Regent Street, London, SW1Y 4LR
When
Wed 28th April – Mon 3rd May 2010
More info over at SCI-FI-LONDON
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