SCI-FI-LONDON festival programme announced

With its theme of "life in 2050", the ninth annual SF film festival (28 April to 3 May) is locked and loaded

The programme for this year's SCI-FI-LONDON has been revealed! And it seems you can expect a stellar cargo of big-name releases, low-budget gems, futurist rom-coms, crazed all-nighters and Belgian Vampire Cowboys; there's even an intergalactic Bollywood musical with digital effects courtesy of Peter Jackson’s Weta SFX house thrown in for good measure.

Taking the general theme of "Life in 2050", the festival aims to give attendees a feel of how we'll be living over the next 40 years with an art show, panels, talks, workshops and screenings.

Full details for each movie can be found on the festival's website www.sci-fi-london.com but here are just a few highlights:

WED 28 APRIL
Opening night highlights include the Arthur C Clarke award , a screening of this year's winning short from the 48 Hour Film Challenge and Vincenzo Natali's SPLICE. SFX is the media partner for both the Arthur C Clarke award and SCI-FI-LONDON, so you'll see us there at 7.45pm as the festival plays host to the annual prize for the best science fiction novel of the year.

THURS 29 APRIL
Amongst other big events, there's the Girl Geek Dinner panel, and a Focus On Poland event with a 6.30pm screening of The Hospital Of Transfiguration (Edward Zebrowski's 1979 dark movie based on a Stanislaw Lem story).

FRI 30 APRIL
Three films screened, one programme of shorts, stand up comedy (featuring Gemma Whelan, Rik Moore, Rob Deb and the Lone Gunman himself, Dean Haglund) and The Director’s Guild of Great Britain drinks event.

SAT 1 MAY
Seven feature films are on the big screen at the Apollo, plus ahead of Blizzard’s release of StarCraft II: The Wings of Liberty, there's a few movies with mecha, monsters, aliens and some great macho dialogue... then join us in the bar from 10.30pm and play a beta version of the game. It's followed by a Comedy All-Nighter and a Manga All-Nighter! We're also pretty sure that at some point during today SFX's Dave Bradley is taking part in a discussion panel: watch this space.

SUN 2 MAY
Five features screened (including the class Daleks Invasion Earth 2150AD starring Peter Cushing), two documentaries and a selection of shorts.

MON 3 MAY
Last day of the festival. Four films (including a free screening of Spielberg's Minority Report), one documentary, and one programme of shorts screened. Plus the notorious SCI-FI-LONDON pub quiz... will you be taking part?

Throughout the weekend, you'll also want to look out for the art exhibition, the SCI-FI-LONDON Labs , for promoting science fact as well as fiction, and a Faith Wars discussion on Sunday at 5.15pm - is the battle between science and religion here to stay, and what will we believe in 2050?

SCI-FI-LONDON is mostly centred on the Apollo cinema at Piccadilly Circus although there are venues throughout the capital during the weekend. You can find out more, including the full programme of events, at the official website here .