SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival

The oft-maligned science fiction genre is, in general, a victim of its own success, and its reputation for providing thought-provoking ideas has been somewhat marred by Hollywood blockbusters, such as Star Wars and Independence Day, or by unsatisfactory adaptations such as the recent War of the Worlds. The obsessive fans haven't helped, either, in promoting sci-fi as the thinking person's genre of choice. SCI-FI-LONDON, or The London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film to give it its full title, was established to overcome the popular misconceptions of the genre.

The SCI-FI-LONDON Film Festival was started by the Festival's director Louis Savy "because there wasn't one".

"The festival started primarily because there wasn't anywhere for low-budget, interesting or foreign science fiction films. Its purpose was to show films that you're not likely to see in the UK at all, or that are going to be difficult to get hold of," says Louis.

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Starting a film festival is never easy, especially when catering to a niche market, and, funding aside, finding a suitable venue is always difficult. Cinemas are often reluctant to give up screens that they know they can sell seats for with the latest Hollywood release, rather than with obscure films no one has heard of. Initially the NFT showed interest, but it was Curzon Soho that eventually came through as the home of the Festival for its first four years, mainly because its events organiser was a huge sci-fi fan. Although the festival had its initial base at the Curzon Soho, it relied on other small cinemas around the West End, such as the Odeon Panton Street and the now defunct Other Cinema, to supply extra screens. Louis explains, "The difficult bit from there on, once we were successful, was getting screen time, because we were a February event, which is normally a good time for regular cinema, so I was fighting against commercial movies for screen space. This is why we moved to May." The new date brought a new venue, the luxuriously refurbished (and fully licensed) five-screen Apollo West End, which meant the Festival could be held in one venue, overcoming all manner of logistical problems.

From the outset the Festival's intention was to attract people who thought they didn't like sci-fi, rather than just the hard-core sci-fi fans. Unlike other genre festivals, SCI-FI-LONDON does not offer festival passes, but only sells tickets to individual films. This is partly due to the diversity of the Festival's programming. According to Festival director Louis Savy, "There are 30 to 50 people that you see around the festival all of the time, but, generally, what we tend to find is people will dip into the festival, see one or two titles, and we'll never see them again. They don't come to see everything. For example, at SFL5 we screened Confederate States of America, two screenings of that film were sold out to very different people who came to see Die You Zombie Bastards, or who came to the anime all-nighter. The geeks and the costume wearers are reflected in our audience, but they come in their civvies and you can't tell them apart from the 'normal' people."

It is during the all-nighters that this diversity becomes clearly apparent. A regular fixture at the Festival, the all-nighters offer three very different programmes of movies that run from around midnight until sunrise. There is always the massively popular anime programme that gives fans the rare opportunity of seeing the latest releases on a big screen that would otherwise be restricted to DVD releases. The Mystery Science Theatre 3000 programme has proved so popular that it is becoming a permanent fixture while there is an availability of material. The third option is usually made up of a themed programme of either sci-fi or horror classics. All attendees are given goody bags, ice-cream, a good supply of caffeine (Red Bull, coffee and tea) throughout the night and breakfast.

While the Festival is a lot of fun, it also has its serious side. It acts as the host for the annual Arthur C Clarke Award for Science Fiction literature. Although this is not a public event, it brings together the different sci-fi disciplines under one roof. Another great British literary figure is remembered in the Douglas Adams Memorial Debate, conducted by the Institute of Ideas.

Another hugely popular event is the pub quiz, which is free, thanks to the generosity of the Festival sponsor, Cobra Beer. It ends the Festival on a light note and is a chance for sci-fi fans who have survived the all-nighters to team up, 'geek out' and win prizes with their knowledge of obscure science fiction shows and books.

As supporters of low budget filmmaking, the festival runs workshops for budding filmmakers, with events such as special-effects masterclasses on the Saturday morning, where a guest director will show scenes from his new feature film and explain how the effects were created.

As with most other festivals, short films are an integral part of SCI-FI-LONDON, as Louis Savy explains: "The short film format is brilliant for science fiction, and the Festival has always been strong on shorts. We get, on average, 400 submitted every year and we pick between 10 and 30 to appear in the festival. We do a shorts programme, where we show them all together, and every short also gets at least one screening before a feature film in front of a paying audience."

SCI-FI-LONDON is an independent film festival that gets no funding from any of the arts or film councils and relies on the generosity and support of its sponsors, and the filmmakers and distributors themselves. Ultimately it is the ticket-buying public that make it a success and one of the friendliest festivals around, a view that is expressed by not only by the punters but also by the visiting filmmakers and guests.

As the Festival's reputation for programming a variety of exciting and independent films grows year by year, its core intention remains to be fun and inclusive and break down the misconceptions of what sci-fi encompasses.