SCI-FI-LONDON (25)

Festival start: 19 June 2025      Festival end: 22 June 2025

SCI-FI-LONDON is the UK's dedicated science fiction film festival and is recognised internationally as a great place to premiere and showcase your film.

We seek thought-provoking, challenging and exciting genre films, whether short form, features or relevant documentaries.

For 2025 we are running at the Finsbury Park Picturehouse Cinema. We have a very cool private bar and two cinema screens to show off our handpicked content.

We will also have an online version, known as 'The Lists' is a selection of short films.

Our online showcase will be geo-blocked to the UK and run for a week. Access to the films will be to registered members of the List/site only.

After the online screening, we will add details of the included films to our archive and hope that once you have done your festival run, we can link to a public viewing copy of your film. Alumni, please let us known!

About us:
The London International Festival of Science Fiction and Fantastic Film or 'SCI-FI-LONDON' as we like to be known, promotes science fact as well as fiction.

Filmmakers often tell us that sci-fi is tough to make due to a perceived need for special effects or a lack of credible stories. Our festival looks at new ways of telling stories and puts cutting-edge research and practice in the spotlight.

Also, we are keen to encourage female directors and writers to submit without any financial hindrance - so drop us a line or look out for our F-RATED fee amnesties.

Scientists, comic artists, leading genre writers and filmmakers explore where fact and fiction intersect. Where 'what if' meets 'wtf'.

We have awards for each edition of SCI-FI-LONDON that include:

1ST PLACE
2ND PLACE
3RD PLACE
BEST STUDENT FILM
SPECIAL MENTION
AUDIENCE AWARDS

Our awards are picked by the SFL team - we don't bring in an external jury. We selected the films, we know what we like best!

Submitting is easy, and our rules very simple.

We ONLY accept online screeners, via FF or links to other services like Vimeo, but only with a valid FilmFreeway reference.

Your film does not need to be a UK premiere, though we'd prefer it. However, it does need to have been completed in the last 15 months.

For screening, should your film be accepted, we will require a Download link to an HD MP4. and a DCP for cinema screening.

We will also want at least 3 stills from the film, a trailer, a poster image, and a subtitle file in English, unless the subs are already burnt in. PLEASE MAKE SURE THE SUBTUTLES WORK, ARE BIG ENOUGH AND ARE NOT WHITE TEXT ON WHITE BACKGROUNDS - THEY ARE IMPORTANT, TAKE CARE OF THEM!!!

DO NOT SEND PHYSICAL OR DIGITAL PRESS PACKS, TESTIMONIALS OR ANYTHING ELSE WITH YOUR SUBMISSION - it is a waste of paper and post. If we accept your film, we will ask for any other things we need. PLEASE - make sure you upload a full press kit and trailer to your film's listing on FilmFreeway!

So, the process is this - our selection team view the film, if we like it...it's in!

Films submitted to the festival will be promoted on our social media, website, in printed materials (such as the festival programme, where applicable) and our press and marketing activity (this can include presenting films that we have selected to the press. You give us the right to use the name of the film, the images submitted for the uses listed. We will of course ask you if we want to screen your film in any tour or similar activity, as we often get asked to do guest spots at other festivals. E.G. We annually do a guest spot at the Silbersalz Science and media Festival - this is in Halle, Germany and is a free public event.

Once a film is submitted and accepted to the festival you guarantee to not withdraw it from the festival under any circumstances. You also guarantee to make sure we actually receive screening materials at least four weeks before the festival.

If the screening is a world premiere, please talk to us about a)making a big deal about it and b) keeping us in the production loop!

All online films are geo-locked to the UK and behind secure DRM. If we accept your movie, please clarify that you have all the relevant copyright clearances, and your movie can be put in our secure screening room.

**Please note: We are careful to watch and evaluate every film submitted to our festival. Therefore, if you submitted the film you intend to submit in a previous year and were not accepted, please make sure that you have significantly changed your film (new sound mix, different ending, re-edited, shortened etc.) if you wish us to reconsider it.

Thank you, and we look forward to seeing your film.