BFI FAN are excited to announce Major Programmes’ Film Feels and Screen Heritage’s Changing Times theme for 2022. The two nationwide FAN opportunities, respectively led by Film Hub Midlands and Film Hub North, are joining forces with a common theme, CURIOUS, to spark creative programming with the membership, beyond the core, new release schedules.
Film Feels
Film Feels: CURIOUS is a UK wide cinema season taking place June-July 2022 and celebrating films’ unique ability to transport us, to illuminate ideas, and to spark exciting conversation. Film Feels CURIOUS is inviting programmers across FAN to connect with their wondrous, nerdy selves and unleash their curatorial curiosity through ambitious curated special events and enhanced screenings. And in doing so, take audiences on a journey to discover intriguing films and unique voices across eras, genres and borders, as well as experience films in new, surprising ways.
Possible explorations of the theme include:
- Films about curiosity, from murder mystery to fairy tales, science-fiction to coming of age.
- Curious films and filmmakers that stand out for their unique, distinctive, bizarre style or themes
- Curious contexts surrounding films, from cursed works to banned titles
Curious film formats and presentations, from early cinema pioneers techniques to 16mm/35mm films, and from gimmicks and 4DX to artist works playing with cinema’s forms and limits. - Curiosity from the archives (for programmes solely composed of UK archives, applicants are advised to submit their proposals to the Changing Times: Curious season)
Changing Times
Changing Times: CURIOUS is a UK wide screen heritage programme that celebrates the human desire to learn more about the people and things around us. From June-October 2022, CURIOUS will support film screenings that showcase the unexplored and unexpected, through ambitious collaborations between exhibitors and archives. It is a chance to celebrate the collections of our National and Regional Film Archives and invite audiences to experience something new through the moving images of the past.
Examples include:
- unexpected stories from your region, town or city or the communities within these places
- exploring traditional ways of life long forgotten or alternative lifestyles
- underrepresented experiences of UK communities e.g. re-evaluating UK Black and Asian lives on screen, looking at the often hidden experiences of people who live with a disability, or exploring the changing expressions of personal identity and sexuality over the last 100 years
- how personal curiosity can lead to major developments that affect us all. E.g. the scientific discoveries and technological explorations that emerged from the human drive to answer the question ‘what if?’
In addition, we are especially interested in receiving proposals that complement the StoryTrails project which is taking place during the summer and autumn of 2022 and forms part of UNBOXED: Creativity in the UK.
StoryTrails is a deep dive into our collective history, an immersion in the lost and untold stories that shaped our towns, cities and communities – and a chance to start a conversation about who we are now and where we’re going next. Using screen heritage in new and innovative ways, StoryTrails will be taking place across the UK between 1 July and 30 September 2022. If you would like to organise a complementary activity, please see more here and contact us for further information.
- Film Feels CURIOUS will be taking place UK-wide from 1 June to 31 July.
- Changing Times CURIOUS will run from 1 June to 31 October.
Funding of up to £10,000 will be available to support a wide range of projects, from one-off events to larger scale initiatives such as touring programmes or ambitious installations.
More information on funding will be available soon. For now read the individual Creative Briefs – Film Hub Midlands website (for Film Feels) and on Film Hub North (for Changing Times.)
To express your interest in taking part, talk about the programme, discuss your ideas and raise any queries, get in touch with
- Changing Times: Screen Heritage Producer Andy Robson: andy@filmhubnorth.org.uk
- Film Feels: Major Programmes Manager Manon Euler: manon@filmhubmidland.org
