By SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie: Well, that was the Sci-Fi-London film fest done and dusted for another year. So now’s the time for the reckoning….

Many film fests assemble a small panel of experts to ascertain their fest’s “best film”.  They also ask the audience for their view.  Sci-Fi London (SFL) do it differently, while they too ask the audience, they do not assemble a panel of experts as, since the organizers themselves select the programme, they already know the films and are quite capable of deciding which is the best, thank you very much. So, no panel of experts for good old SFL.

Here then are the best feature films and best shorts as decided by the marvelous SFL folk and also best as determined by the cinematically literate SF fans who attend the festival and give it meaning.

The SFL Organiser Best Feature was Once Upon A Time In The Future: 2121. The Earth’s surface has become uninhabitable due to the climate crisis and famine. Family units exist in underground homes run by a strict authoritarian regime. Population numbers are closely controlled and the old must be euthanised to make way for new lives…

The SFL Audience Best Feature was The Bystanders. Ever wonder why the animal excreta happens to you despite your best efforts…? Well, it might just be the “bystanders” screwing with your life because they are bored…! Bystanders are invisible immortals supposed to act like guardian angels. Each Bystander is tasked with watching a human, but they have been recruited from the human world and are mostly bitter people with no friends; a bunch of misfits and loners…

Into this comes new recruit Pete. He is being shown the ropes by his world-weary tutor Frank, who is mostly irritated by their subjects, and for fun suggests they swap their charges.

This is a superb sci-fi satire of modern life. Imagine the 1954 Phil Dick short story “Adjustment Team”, that was made into the film the The Adjustment Bureau, as an Ealing comedy.

The SFL Organiser Best Short was Sylvie Made It.  Ever been rude to customer service? Let me tell you, working in a call centre is literally hell…

The Sci-Fi London people say: “This short film (23 minutes from Belgium) reminded us of the best Twilight Zone stories.  It cleverly sets up a world we can feel very familiar with, and taps into so many frustrations we have all experienced. A brilliant performance by Isabelle Anciaux, and tight direction (Adrien Orville), this is a wonderful short film.”

The SFL Audience Best Feature was a tie – I do love it when that happens as we get a double shout out – with the shorts Lost In The Sky and Dark Cell.

Sweden’s Lost In The Sky’s screening at the fest was its UK premiere. Just 12 minutes long, it concerns a rescue robot who dreams of becoming a hero, but in his search for survivors he makes a dark discovery, leaving him with a devastating choice…

The screening at SFL of France’s Dark Cell was also a UK premiere. This 25 minute long offering sees two convicts in an orbital prison doing what they usually do, which is not much. Then two panicked guards, armed to the teeth, burst into their cell…

I could not find a trailer for Lost In The Sky, but then it is difficult to trail a short-short. However, here is the one for Dark Cell.

You can find Sci-Fi London here. Its YouTube channel is here.