We talk to Xavier Mendik, organiser of the Cine-Excess festival, which mixes academic conference on all aspects of cult cinema and screenings of films at the ICA (London), May 1-3.
Interview by Virginie Sélavy

While the BFI’s Pop Goes the Revolution season was a slightly fluffy affair offering little insight into French cinema and May 68, this month sees the Southbank cinema host part of the Fashion in Film Festival, which conversely offers an impressively rich and well thought out programme.
Preview by Virginie Sélavy

There are still many old-school fans in attendance but SFL also attracts cooler fashionistas looking for alternative programming. By having a variety of events that range from highbrow to lowbrow, the festival tries to be all things to all (sci-fi) men and it almost always succeeds.
Feature by Alex Fitch

Director Shane O’Sullivan tells us about his new feature documentary, RFK Must Die, which explores the controversies surrounding Kennedy’s death and the possibility that his assassin may have been hypnotically programmed. The film screens as part of the East End Film Festival.
Feature by Shane O’Sullivan

This year, the true beauties of the Berlinale film festival remained on the margins: in the final days of the cine-marathon, a cinema far away from the buzzing festival centre presented a late-matinee screening of Wakamatsu Koji’s stunning exploitation classic Ecstasy of the Angels (Teshi no kokotsu), a visually stunning head-on collision of explicit violence, political revolt and soft-core porn.
Review by Pamela Jahn

With ever decreasing opportunities for independent films to be shown in cinemas, festivals such as the End of the Pier are a crucial platform for new, low-budget and independent filmmakers.
Feature by James Merchant

Asif Kapadia made his feature debut in 2001 with the stunningly confident epic The Warrior. Six years later, his second feature Far North is showing at the London Film Festival. Harsh and beautiful in equal measure, Far North confirms Kapadia’s unique talent and is one of the unmissable films of the festival. In the following interview, Kapadia tells us about living on a Russian ice-breaker for four weeks, old-fashioned filmmaking and seeing things with two different brains.
Interview by Virginie Sélavy

Arriving at the end of the season, the London Film Festival attempts to summarise a year’s worth of cinema, cherry-picking the choicest titles from around the world. Largely eschewing awards galas and celeb-spotting, the festival aims itself squarely at those who love film in all its diversity, offering everything from major works by big-name directors to micro-budget experimental shorts and features.
Preview by Tom Huddleston

We talk to Raindance Features Programmer Suzanne Ballantyne and review a selection of the cinematic delights on offer at one of Britain’s edgiest film festivals.
Feature by Virginie Sélavy, Tom Huddleston and Lindsay Tudor