The SCI-FI-LONDON FILM FESTIVAL 2019, which runs from 15th May until 22nd May across London, will showcase a fantastic lineup with 5 world film premieres, 11 UK film premieres, 11 world short premieres and 13 UK short premieres. It will host 17 features, 36 shorts and 7 VR shorts alongside its regular classic cult events such as the 48 HOUR FILM CHALLENGE and SCI-FIDO, the world’s only cosplay for dogs!

World Premiere Galas include the World Premiere of SHED OF THE DEAD, directed by Drew Cullingham, it’s darkly funny, gruesome and a little bit rude!  Shaun of the Dead meets The Archers.  Trevor (Spencer Brown) doesn’t really like gardening but has an allotment in which he spends his days avoiding his overbearing wife.  Most of his time in his shed is spent painting figurines for wargames he plays with his friend, Graham (Ewen MacIntosh), both of them dreaming and arguing about their gaming alter-egos.

One day, Mr Parsons, one of the other allotment tenants, knocks with a petition to have Trevor evicted as his plot is a disgrace. After what should have been a simple argument, Trevor is left with a corpse to hide. Unfortunately, this untimely accident coincides with the Zombie Apocalypse and Mr Parsons’ return is just the start of Trevor’s problems. More pressing is whether or not he should try and save his wife (Lauren Socha) and her beautiful best friend (Emily Booth), who both he and Graham have a thing for… The film also features a little BDSM fun provided by Michael Berryman.

Celebrating its World Premiere, AFTER WE LEAVE is a brilliant début for director Aleem Hossain, a vibrant script, satisfying special effects and outstanding performances – the type of film this festival searches for every year.

Near future, Los Angeles is a bleak place: permanent recession, water shortages, and rising crime. Six years ago, Jack abandoned his wife and vanished. Now he’s back because before he left, they’d applied for a visa to immigrate to a better life on an off-world colony. The permit has finally come through, but there’s a catch: it’s a couple’s visa, and Jack cannot leave Earth without his wife. Is Jack back because he wants to make things right or because he needs his wife so he can use this “lottery ticket” to a better life?

Another World Premiere is THE TANGLE, a brilliant sci-fi noir written and directed by Christopher Soren Kelly and stars Jessica Graham (Crazy Bitches) and Nicole Da Silva (Wentworth)

In the near future, the TANGLE, an AI with airborne nanotech, connects the world. The Tangle is benevolent; it has stopped crime, keeps us well and safe.  But to make sure it never turns rogue a government agency watches over them from within technology safe rooms, locations impermeable to the nanobots that make up the Tangle. When field agent Margot Foster is found dead in one of these rooms, the agency needs to investigate the first murder in years.

Also having its world premiere is ZOO-HEAD, directed by Navin Dev. With the aesthetic of TRAINSPOTTING and the weirdness of GROUNDHOG DAY, this is a strong debut from Dev, with great performances and awesome techno soundtrack to boot.  Charlie is a zoo-head, a slang term given to junkies addicted to a powerful hallucinogenic that has memory munching side-effects.  Squatting in a foetid apartment and existing on benefits, Charlie is a mess, and it is about to get worse.  The Social Service is forcing the long-term unemployed to under-go radically experimental treatment to get them ‘normalised’; the only danger would be to zoo-heads.  Charlie gets called in and lies about his situation, and so begins his treatment.

And closing the festival is the World Premiere of THE RIZEN: POSSESSION directed by Matt Mitchell and starring Julian Rhind-Tutt, Sarine Sofair, Adrian Edmondson and Sally Phillips.

In 1955, NATO and the Allied Forces conducted secret, occult experiments in a bid to win the Arms Race. They succeeded, but what they unleashed almost tore our world apart and sent a human through a portal to somewhere very alien. This was the story of THE RIZEN, our closing night premiere in 2017.  Come forward to now, and a group of urban explorers is exploring the abandoned bunker.  But will they and a private military unit sent in after them, become the final pieces in a 60-year plan to reopen a door that should have stayed closed.

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