Sci-Fi-London Film Festival preview

Tom Huddleston delves into the wonderful world of the seventh annual Sci-Fi-London Film Festival, which arrives in the West End next week

At last year’s Venice Film Festival, Ridley Scott provoked an outcry by declaring that science fiction was going the way of the western: ‘There’s nothing original. We’ve seen it all before. Been there. Done it.’

One of those striving to prove him wrong is Louis Savy, director of the Sci-Fi-London Film Festival, which this week enters its seventh year with a typically eclectic slate, covering, as Savy describes it, ‘hardcore deep-space science fiction, comedy vampires, zombie movies, documentary and classic fantasy.’

Sci-Fi-London is tailored to appeal to the genre sceptic, refusing to sell festival passes for fear it’d put off the casual viewer. ‘When you say science fiction, people get an image of stormtroopers, explosions, cheesy aliens, blokes in rubber costumes. And if you sell 500 passes, then those 500 people are the same every year.’

This year’s opener, ‘Dante 01’ marks the return of ‘Delicatessen’ co-director, Marc Caro, with a futuristic prison thriller. ‘It’s a gorgeous-looking film,’ Savy gushes. He’s equally enthusiastic about lavish Argentinian fairytale, ‘L’Antena’, a near-silent expressionist dreamscape, describing it as ‘Guy Maddin meets Guillermo del Toro.’

Squarely placed at the less cerebral, more asskicking end of the spectrum comes ‘Wolfhound’, a monstrously entertaining old-fashioned sword ’n’ sorcery epic. ‘It’s brilliant, by-the-numbers, formulaic action fantasy. It’s got all the things you want, where you want them, in the right order.’

But Savy saves his most effusive praise for a more unlikely candidate: a small-scale documentary, ‘Your Friendly Neighbourhood Hero’, a funny, affectionate portrait of four real-life masked crusaders as they prowl the streets trying, but usually failing, to find evidence of crime.

‘Your Friendly Neighbourhood Hero’ is indicative of a growing trend within the sci-fi community: innovative DIY filmmaking like the shot-in-one-day time-travel drama, ‘11 Minutes Ago’, or the dark and complex ‘Suspension’, which uses a simple sci-fi hook to meditate on themes of loss, grief and obsession. ‘The mainstream isn’t picking these stories up, so these teams say, sod it, let’s make it ourselves.’

The festival also organises a 48-hour short film competition, the success of which took Savy completely by surprise last year . ‘I didn’t think anyone was going to turn up. We had 138 teams register, 87 turned up and 70 managed to complete the task. There were 15 to 20 people on each team, so we estimate there were about 1,000 people running around London that weekend making films. And there are some exceptional pieces of work.’

So, is Savy concerned for the future of the genre? ‘There’s some fabulous material out there, and there’s going to be more coming. I think it’s alive and kicking, and if Ridley doesn’t want to be a part of it, that’s fine.’

Sci-Fi-London 7 Film Festival is at Apollo West End from Apr 30 to May 4 (www.sci-fi-london.com).