The Sci-Fi London Film Festival

For those looking for science fiction and fantasy films away from the box office need look no further. Today marks the start of the Sci-Fi London Film Festival. The seven-day event showcases the best science fiction and fantasy films from around the world and will be screening dozens of films at several locations across the city.

This is the festival’s eleventh year and it was set up by Louis Savy who says: ‘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’.

One of the films that will be shown this year is ‘Clone’, a poignant love story that defies death and science, starring ‘Doctor Who’ actor Matt Smith and Eva Green. For something lighter, there is ‘Manborg’, a pastiche of Eighties straight-to-video films which celebrates bad movies. Those more interested in documentaries can catch ‘The Mechanical Bride’ which looks at the fantasy of creating the ‘ideal woman’.

There are also several all-nighter screenings that give visitors the chance to take part in a film marathon. There will be a Paul Verhoeven all-nighter where fans of the Dutch filmmaker can watch ‘Robocop’, ‘Total Recall’, ‘Hollow Man’ and ‘Starship Troopers’ back-to-back, with a 20-minute interval in between each movie. There will also be an all-nighter celebrating the work of ‘Frankenstein’ actor Boris Karloff, while another all-nighter will feature several anime films for fans of the Asian fantasy genre.

To accompany the screenings there will be some other events taking place, including Rob Deb’s Sci-Fi Cabaret which is a mixture of geeky comedy and burlesque, Geek Chic Meetup where guests can go geek dating, and a discussion at the Bafta headquarters about the state of science fiction filmmaking in Britain today.

For more information about the festival visit: www.sci-fi-london.com

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