(1) BRITISH FANTASY AWARDS NEWS. The first round of voting for the British Fantasy Awards is open until May 9. These nominees will make up part of the eventual shortlist. Complete guidelines at the link.
To be eligible to vote, you must be a member of the British Fantasy Society or be an attendee at Fantasycon 2024 in Chester, or have bought a ticket to the upcoming World Fantasy Convention in Brighton this year. You can vote by completing the form here: https://forms.gle/LbGiqY8sywYSrTLF7
Eligible titles must have been published for the first time in the English language in 2024, anywhere in the world.
Once the voting is closed, the votes are tallied and the short list for each category is formed. This shortlist is sent to the jurors who may then add up to 2 egregious omissions, based on their knowledge of the category. Once the short list is finalised, the jurors will have the opportunity to read, listen to, and/or view the works and discuss them as a group to decide upon the winners.
The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at World Fantasy Convention in Brighton, held from 30th October to 2nd November. You can find out more about the convention and book your ticket here: World Fantasy Convention 2025
Call for Jurors
We are now also inviting applications to be a juror for the British Fantasy Awards. You do not need to be a member of the BFS to volunteer as a juror – and in fact, we like to include as many non-members as possible. The only qualification you need to be a juror is a love of Fantasy in all its forms and the time and willingness to review the materials for as many categories as you volunteer for.
(2) LONDON SFF ART DISPLAY. “’Building Bigger Worlds’ exhibition wows fans of SciFi artist John R Mullaney” at downthetubes.net. Images of the exhibit at the link.
…Reading-based artist John R Mullaney has been creating highly detailed cutaway artwork featuring locations, architecture, vehicles, spaceships and weapons from major sci-f cinema properties, for more than two decades. Each piece undergoes a laborious hand drawn process, taking months to complete. The finished art has been approved by some of Hollywood’s biggest studios and printed in a range of officially-licensed bestselling books, which fans of the movies and TV shows enjoy reading….
(3) BY GEORGE. “’Star Trek,’ ‘Twilight Zone’ and ‘Ocean’s 11’ Writer Had A Rough Childhood In Cheyenne” — the Cowboy State Daily profiles a beloved sff figure.
Mr. George Clayton Johnson. Storyteller. A middle school dropout who escaped lonely life in a cold, barren little town only to become one of the most imaginative minds of Tinseltown.
He was inspired by visionaries and inspired others to become visionaries. He traveled the world and led countless millions to new worlds. But the irony is that Mr. Johnston never returned to a place that he never left, and the elation he evoked in so many others came from a determination to overcome the depths of lonely desperation in the Cowboy State.
The author of “Ocean’s 11.” One of the most revered and provocative storytellers of “The Twilight Zone.” The screenwriter who introduced the world to “Star Trek.”…
(4) OCTOTHORPE. Live from Reconnect, the 2025 Eastercon in Belfast, comes episode 133 of the Octothorpe podcast, “I Understand That Alison Has Never Been Pope”.
We discuss the fun we’ve had at the convention, and also discuss other forthcoming Eastercons through to 2030. It’s possibly more coherent than some other live episodes?
An uncorrected transcript is available here. Really, this time.
(5) PARLIAMENT DEBATES AI. “MPs argue that AI text and data-mining exemption lacks effective ‘opt-out’” reports The Bookseller.
James Frith, Labour MP for Bury North, opened a Westminster Hall debate on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on intellectual property on Wednesday 23rd April, calling for amendments to the data bill “that recognise the super massive concerns” of the creative industries.
The debate comes just two months after the government closed its consultation on AI and copyright, which received thousands of responses.
During the debate, various members criticised the text and data-mining exemption, which is intended to improve access to content for the training and development of AI models, pointing out the lack of an effective opt-out mechanism.
In terms of copyright law, Frith said the issue “is not uncertainty in the law” – which he argued is “clear” about infringement – but “the opacity in the technology”. This view was shared by some but was not universally held, with Polly Billington, Labour MP for East Thanet, highlighting the gaps in the law when it comes to protecting independent writers and artists. “Smaller creatives, such as many in my constituency, find it extremely difficult to enforce copyright as it currently is, which is one of the reasons I think we should be using this opportunity to create strengthening of our copyright laws to protect low-paid workers,” she said….
… Chamberlain called for a response from Meta, while Frith said that “AI developers must be required to disclose which copyrighted works they’ve used to train or fine-tune their models”.
Meanwhile, Alison Louise Hume, Labour MP for Scarborough and Whitby, referred to the payments writers receive via the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) at the end of March, for secondary usage of their works. She praised this “vital income stream” for writers, emphasising that licensing “does work”, and called for “granular transparency requirements” in the Data Bill, and a “stop to unregulated scraping”.
(6) NASA CASTS ITS SPELL. [Item by Jeffrey Smith.] NASA’s Landsat satellites have taken gazillions of photos of our planet over the years, and now have a tool by which you can enter your name — or any other word — and see it spelled out in images of Earth. (I tried “File 770,” but it doesn’t do numbers.) Hovering over the picture tells you where in the world the picture is from. “Your Name in Landsat” at NASA. Here’s their rendering of “Mike”.
(7) DAVID SCHLEINKOFER (1951-2025). Artist David Schleinkofer died April 20. Downthetubes.net has an extensive tribute with many images: “In Memoriam: SF and Fine Artist David Schleinkofer”.
We’re sorry to report the passing of American SF and fine artist David Schleinkofer, who died earlier this week, of Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
David was a professional artist and illustrator for over 40 years who had a distinct airbrush style, who received his art training at Bucks County Community College and The Philadelphia College of Art, now The University of The Arts, both in Pennsylvania.
“His work was eminent in the 1970s, especially on the cover to a book called Tomorrow and Beyond in 1978,” noted fellow artist Bob Eggleton on Facebook, “sort one of the first books to collect the works of many many SF/Fantasy artists of the 1970s. It became the granddaddy inspiration of the Spectrum annuals in the 1990s.
“David’s work featured in this book and he was on many SF paperbacks and in the 1980s, on a short-lived but visually stunning magazine called Science Digest.”…
(8) TODAY’S BIRTHDAY.
[Written by Cat Eldridge.]
April 24, 1930 — Richard Donner. (Died 2021.)
Tonight we have Richard Donner who has entered the Twilight Zone, errr, the Birthday spotlight. As a genre producer, he’s responsible for some of our most recognizable productions.
His first such works was on The Twilight Zone (hence my joke above in case you didn’t get it) as he produced six episodes there including “Nightmare at 20,000 Feet”. He’d go on to work in the Sixties on The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Get Smart! and The Wild Wild West. He closed out this period by producing Danger Island (which I’ve never heard of) where, and I quote IMDB, “Archaeologists are being pursued by pirates around an island in the South Pacific. On this island, various adventures await them.” It’s at least genre adjacent, isn’t it? Who here has seen it?
The Twilight Zone is streaming on Paramount +; Get Smart! is currently on HBO; The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Wild Wild West aren’t streaming right now.
So forty-nine years ago and then two years later, he directs not one but two now considered classic films in two very different genres. First out was The Omen with an impressive cast far too long to list here that got mixed reviews but had an audience that loved and which birthed (that’s deliberate) a franchise and garnered two Oscar nominations.
Next out was, oh guess, go ahead guess, Superman. Yes, it would win a much-deserved Hugo at Seacon ’79. DC being well DC the film had a very, very difficult time coming to be and that was true of who directed the film with several sources noting that Donner may have been much as the fourth or fifth choice to do so. Or more. Yes, I love this film, both for Reeves and for itself.
So what did he do post-Superman? Well something happened during the production of Superman II and he was replaced as director by Richard Lester during principal photography with Lester receiving sole directorial credit.
That being most likely caused by tensions, and that was the polite word, which he had with all of the producers concerning the escalating production budget and ever lengthening production schedule. Mind you both films were being shot simultaneously, so I’m not sure how he got blamed first the second being out of control separately.
If you’re so inclined, Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut was released oddly enough when the film came out so I’m assume he had the legal right to do so which I find damn odd. I’ve not seen this cut. Who here has?
He did go on to direct The Goonies. Now I really don’t think it’s genre, but I will say that the treasure map and the premise of treasure make it a strong candidate for genre adjacent, wouldn’t you say? Truly a great film!
He went on to direct one of my favorite Bill Murray films, Scrooged. The Suck Fairy says she still likes that film and will agree to watch it every Christmas as long as there’s lots of hot chocolate to drink. With cream on top. And chocolate chip cookies. Somehow it’s alway snowing when we watch it…
His last work was a genre one, Timeline, about a group of archaeologists who travel back to fourteenth century France, based on a Michael Crichton thriller. I’d never had of this one until now. Who’s seen it?
(9) COMICS SECTION.
- Bizarro introduces an underpublicized Avenger.
- Loose Parts knows the sound of silence.
- Rubes thinks a different name is called for.
(10) WHAT’S COMING TO ANIMATION FILM FEST. “Annecy Unveils 2025 Lineup (Full List)” at The Hollywood Reporter.
Annecy, the world’s leading animation film festival, unveiled its official program on Wednesday, with a line-up that includes features from some 20 countries across Europe, Asia and the Americas and a range of styles, from the big-budget 3D computer animated feature Into the Mortal World from Chinese director Zhong Ding; to the hand-drawn title Balentes by Italian filmmaker Giovanni Columbu, and the digital cut out animation of Mexican filmmaker Aria Covamonas: The Great History of Western Philosophy.
Covamonas’ debut premiered at the Rotterdam festival, and Annecy’s 2025 lineup features a best-of selection of recent fests, including Berlinale highlights Lesbian Space Princess and Tales from the Magic Garden, and several features premiering in Cannes next month, including The Magnificent Life of Marcel Pagnol from The Triplets of Belleville director Sylvain Chomet; Dandelion’s Odyssey from Japanese director Momoko Seto; and Death Does Not Exist from Canadian filmmaker Felix Dufour-Laperrière….
(11) ABOUT THE YELLOWSTONE SUPERVOLCANO. [Item by Mark Roth-Whitworth.] No, the cap does not read “Make America Boom Again”. “Hidden magma cap discovered at Yellowstone National Park” at ABC News.
Geoscientists have discovered a magma cap at Yellowstone National Park that is likely playing a critical role in preventing a massive eruption in one of the largest active volcanic systems in the world.
The cap is made of molten silicate materials and supercritical water — a liquid-like gas that forms after water exceeds its critical point of 374 degrees Celsius — and porous rock. It is located about 2.4 miles below the Earth’s surface and essentially acts as a lid, trapping pressure and heat below it, according to the team of researchers who uncovered it.
The scientists found the cap by using a 53,000-pound vibroseis truck, a device capable of injecting low-frequency vibrations into the Earth to study the geology of the volcanic system. By generating tiny earthquakes that send seismic waves into the ground, the researchers were able to measure how the waves reflected off subsurface layers.
The scientists were surprised to see “something physically happening” at that depth, said Brandon Schmandt, professor of earth, environmental and planetary sciences at Rice University and co-author of the study, in a statement….
(12) PITCH MEETING. Ryan George takes inside the “Snow White Pitch Meeting”.
[Thanks to Chris Barkley, Cat Eldridge, SF Concatenation’s Jonathan Cowie, John Coxon, Jeffrey Smith, Mark Roth-Whitworth, Steven French, Kathy Sullivan, Teddy Harvia, Mike Kennedy, Andrew Porter, and John King Tarpinian for some of these stories. Title credit belongs to File 770 contributing editor of the day Peer.]
