SCI-FI-LONDON to celebrate 10th anniversary at BFI Southbank

Ten years of fantastic film: SCI-FI-LONDON celebrates its tenth anniversary with a bigger festival than ever

The UK’s leading science fiction and fantastic film festival, SCI-FI-LONDON (The London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film), will host film screenings, special events, workshops and celebrations during its 10 day festival across the capital in 2011. For the first time, the BFI Southbank and BFI Imax will host festival events.

The festival runs Saturday 23 April – Monday 2 May, 2011. In the current climate, SCI-FI-LONDON makes no apologies for its defiantly carnival attitude. In addition to the core film programme, highlights include:

• The Royal Wedding all-nighter The night before Will and Kate’s wedding we celebrate the wonder of weddings with Veronica Lake, Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. The evening features five black-and-white classics including: BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN, BRIDE OF DRACULA and I MARRIED A WITCH. Midnight ‘til 9am... cheaper than a hotel and a stone’s throw from The Mall!
• 20th Anniversary of MANGA UK
  Celebrate with screenings of the classic AKIRA in glorious HD and brand new animé feature, EDEN OF THE EAST.
• 48 Hour Film Challenge
  With Edgar Wright and Gareth Edwards on the jury, our 2011 challenge has a first prize of a feature development deal with Vertigo Films. The challenge takes place 2–4 April, 2011.
• SCI-FI-LONDON LAB
  Our real science thread examines subjects including long distance space travel and synthetic biology. Thinking caps on please.
• Fantasy Easter Parade along the Southbank
  From the BFI to the London Film Museum on Easter Sunday, featuring Stormtroopers, zombies, superheroes and more. All genres, all costumes, all-comers welcome to this free event!

Festival Director, Louis Savy says:
“It is a tribute to our volunteer staff and the support of our sponsors and venues that we are here today. When we started ten years ago it was to challenge preconceptions about science fiction and bring a few independent movies to London.

I never imagined we would become a key fixture in the international film festival calendar, and be a well-known genre event. This year’s festival will certainly be bigger and bolder but, equally, a celebration of those 10 years of fantastic film.”

Full details will be available soon and on www.sci-fi-london.com.

About SCI-FI-LONDON:
SCI-FI-LONDON, now in its 10th year, is the UK's only dedicated sci-fi and fantasy film festival. It screens world and UK film premieres, documentaries and a selection of classic SF titles. SCI-FI-LONDON also has a strong international shorts programme and screens a short film with every feature screening. It also holds a film school and filmmaking competitions to encourage more science fiction films to be made in the UK Images etc at media.sci-fi-london.com