Film launches refer only approximately to European/UK release dates and are subject to studio change.
This convention diary lists only the major national and international SF conventions relating to the genre's literary and cinematic forms. For a more complete list of book conventions (including smaller regional ones especially in the US) then consult the Locus listing. For details of TV related SF conventions in the UK then consult SFX magazine in the UK and for conventions in countries with a significant Russian-speaking population see MIR Fantasy magazine in Russia.
For registration details see the convention's own website linked to each of the below entries.
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2008
March 2008
ORBITAL (21st -24th Mar '08) Heathrow, London, UK. This eastercon is the British national convention. GoHs: Neil Gaiman, Tanith Lee, China Miéville and Charles Stross, Fan GoH - SF book dealer Rog Peyton.
SWANCON 2008 (20th -24th Mar '08) Perth, Australia. Australia's national convention. GoH's : Paul Cornell, Ken Macleod and Glenda Larke. FGOH: Zara Baxter.
CONJUNCTION (21st -24th Mar '08) Copthorne Plimmer Towers, New Zealand. This eastercon is the New Zealand national convention. New Zealand guest author: Philippa Ballantine. Overseas guest author: Peter F. Hamilton. Media guests: Kate Orman and Jon Blum Dr Who novel writers.
WORLD HORROR CONVENTION (27th - 30th Mar '08) Radisson Hotel, downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. Guests include: Dennis Etchison, John Jude Palencar, Simon Green, Dr. Michael Collings, Mort Castle and Jeff Strand.
April 2008
NEW YORK COMICON (18th - 20th April '08) Jacob Javits Center, New York, USA. Principal Guests: Alex Ross and Mike Mignola. Loads of other guest appearances from many comics professionals.
SCI-FI LONDON (30th April - 4th May '08) The seventh in the run, this is arguably the biggest non-residential Film Fest in the UK with screenings in two central (West End) London cinemas. Notably it features SF (not just sci-fi) and fantasy films from around the World including having several UK and/or European premieres. Included in the twin track programme of films are a few non-film items. Instead of a dealers room there are three or four genre-related shops within a mile (kilometer or so). Last year's Sci-Fi London reviewed.
May 2008
EUROSCON (3rd - 7th May '08) The 2008 Eurocon in Moscow, Russia, combined with the Russian national convention Roscon. GoHs include the Russian writer Sergei Lukyanenko. For further news check out the 'Eurocon/Worldcon' section of our seasonal Science Fiction News page. STOP PRESS: Date change details here.
BRISTOL INTERNATIONAL COMIC EXPO (9th - 11th May '08). Empire Commonwealth Museum Exhibition Hall and the Ramada Plaza Hotel, Bristol, UK. GoHs: Walt Simonson, Louise Simonson, Michael Avon Oeming, and Yanick Paquette.
June 2008
CONFUSE (13th - 15th June '08), Ryds Herrgård, Linköping, Sweden. Guests include Cory Doctorow.
July 2008
FESTIVAL FANTAZIE (30th June - 6th July '08) at Chotebor, Czech Republic. The Czech Republic national convention. Well over 1,000 expected to attend, multi-programme streamed mainly on TV but with some film SF (Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, Matrix, X-Men, Red Dwarf, Dune, anime, Lord of the Rings, etc.) 8 GoHs to be announced. (This was a Eurocon contender but lost to Russia in the 2006 bid session).
SFCD Con, Tagungshotel Mühltal, Mühltal Trautheim, near Darmstadt, Germany. Germany's national convention. SFCD stands for SF Club Deutschland.
FINCON 2008 (26th - 27th July '08) at Tampere, Finland. Finland's national convention. Author guest: M. John Harrison. Illustrator guest: Charles Vess. The Finnish and comics guest: Petri Hiltunen. This convention is combined with an anime convention.
August 2008
DENVENTION / WORLDCON 66 (6th - 10th Aug '08) Colorado Convention Center, Denver, Colorado. GoHs: Lois McMaster Bujold, Rick Sternbach, Tom Whitmore. Toastmaster: Wil McCarthy.
ORICON (21st - 24th Aug '08) 35th French National SF Convention, Nyon, France. (Nyon is the former home town of the French SF grandmaster author Rene Barjavel and part of the programme will relate to Barjavel.)
DRAGONCON 21 (29th Aug - 1st Sept '08) Atlanta, Georgia, USA. No Guests of Honour but countless Special Guests on numerous programme streams covering the entire ambit of SF (TV, books, films, gaming, science, art, comics, music, etc.) for around 30,000. The annual gathering of the US science fiction clans.
September 2008
October 2008
OCTOCON (18th - 19th Oct '08). The Irish national convention. Royal Dublin Hotel, O'Connell St, Dublin.
FESTIVAL OF FANTASTIC FILMS (17th - 19th Oct '08) Day's Hotel, Sackville St, Manchester, UK. Including the international amateur and professional independent SF/fantasy/horror film competitions which provides a rare showcase for recent/current SF art house films. Vintage and rare vintage SF, fantasy and horror films are also covered in other of the three parallel programme streams. Guests not announced as we post this page (check our latest seasonal SF news page for updates) however they will include up to half a dozen film directors and actors. The venue is six minutes walk from Manchester's Piccadilly central rail station.
HISPACON (Date to be confirmed at time of posting (January) but may be November - check the website). Spain's national convention.
WORLD FANTASY CONVENTION 2008 (30th Oct - 3rd Nov '08) Calgary, Alberta, Canada. As it says, the World Fantasycon. Guests: avid Morrell, Barbara Hambly, Tom Doherty, Tad Williams and Todd Lockwood.
November 2008...
2009
April 2009
LXCon, Bradford, Great Britain (10th - 13th April '09). British national convention. Guests: Jon Courtenay Grimwood, Tim Powers and Dirk Maggs. The Fan Guests are the incredible, but shouldn't be edible, Mary & Bill Burns. Now residing in the rebel colonies, Bill has had roots in Manchester and district (MaD) fandom but not withstanding his translocation he is (we understand) the longest continuing attender of the UK Eastercon!
August 2009
ANTICIPATION -- WORLDCON 2009 (6th - 10th Aug'09), Montreal, Canada. Principal Guests: Elisabeth Vonarburg - Invitee d'honneur; Taral Wayne - Fan Guest of Honour; David Hartwell - Editor Guest of Honour; Tom Doherty - Publisher Guest of Honour; Julie Czerneda - Master of Ceremonies. Can Canada build on 2003? Well the 2003 science programme was very well organised albeit exclusively panels.
Want a feel for whether any of the above might be for you? Check out our reviews of past SF conventions.
Note: This list features UK/Western European dates as at December '07, so these may change.
Also release dates in other parts of the World may vary by a few months.
2008
January 2008
I Am Legend
This is the release of the IMAX version of the Will Smith latest version of the Richard Matheson 1954 SF classic novel about a plague that has wiped out mankind. One man remains alive in the big city, but is he alone? Are there creatures of the night...? Film website here. (The UK cinematic release was Boxing Day (26th December 2007) and a number of other continental European cohntries had released it the previous week to this.)
Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem The latest in the alien saga now out in Europe. This time a small rural town gets it. For more information see our autumnal science fiction news or the film's website.
Invasion of the Not Quite Dead
This is a British spoof SF-horror. Alien bacteria enter the Earth's atmosphere above Wales. Years later the result is an invasion of the 'not quite dead'.
February 2008
Cloverfield
A giant monster stalks New York in this special effects dominated adventure.
March 2008
10,000 B.C.
Prehistoric wildlife drama at the end of the last glacial as a hunter stalks a mammoth.
They Came from Upstairs
Some US children must protect their holiday home from invading aliens.
The Spiderwick Chronicles
Moving with their single mum to the run down Spiderwick manor, children enter a land of fantastical creatures. This film is based on the chidren's fantasy books.
Diary of the Dead
The latest zombie from George A. Romero. This one is being played with irony and takes us back to the very beginning of the infestation. A group of students are making a horror film when events begin. Cameos include newsreaders played by Quentin Tarantino, Guilermo del Toro, Wes Craven, Simon Pegg and Stephen King.
April 2008
The Ruins
This is based on the North American SF horror novel by Scott B. Smith. Plants succeed in attacking hikers in the remote countryside. A kind of rural variation on the triffid story.
May 2008
Dance of the Goblins
It is London after a great disaster, but amidst it all the goblins have re-emerged from their deep hiding places and are taking over the underground system. This is based on the fantasy trilogy of novels by Jaq D. Hawkins.
Iron Man
The film based on the Marvel comic character.ironmanmovie.com.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
This time Indie goes into Cold War territory. Directed by Steven Speilberg (hooray) and the story by George Lucas (oh dear). indianajones.com.
Starship Dave
The tiny crew of an alien spaceship explore Earth as the craft can take human form. However the craft falls for a woman. Billed as a comedy, though this remains to be seen...
June 2008
The Incredible Hulk
This is the second time in recent years, and third time in total, that the Marvel comic character has come to the big screen. Given that the last recent attempt was so flimsy, let us hope that lessons have been learned. The Hulk website might be revealling?
July 2008
Dark Knight
This is director (and screenstorywriter) Christopher Nolan's take on Batman. Now the first one was quite good, though we are treading over the series of films that began with Batman in 1989. This time around the Joker makes an appearance: will actor Heath ledger be up to Jack Nicolson's portrayal?
August 2008
The Mummy III: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
In this latest version of the special-effects rich action romp, the story is given a far-eastern twist and a shape-shifting evil wizard is added to the mix.
Get Smart
This generation's re-make of the 1960s TV spy comedy spoof. The film's summary details are here. (It may be out earlier in North America.)
Hellboy 2: The Golden Army
The comic-strip and graphic novel hero makes a welcome return to the big screen. Hellboy is a mild-mannered, but tough, demon from another dimension whom the authorities keep on tap (with other superheroes) for when they need to deal with something out of the ordinary. The director is Guillermo del Toro. Say no more. For ruther information see the comic character website or that of the film.
A Russian woman is escorted by a veteran soldier turned mercinary. He does not know that she is carrying something that will help to recreate through molecular genetic science the new Messiah.
X-Files 2
The second X-Files cinematic spin-off from the US TV series. No aliens in this one apparently.
September 2008
Death Race
This is effectively the remake of the 1975 minor classic Death Race 2000.(The original was rather fun.) This remake may appear a month or so earlier in Northern America.
Ghost Town
Starring British actor/comedian Ricky Gervais, the protagonist has a near-death experience that allows him to see ghosts.
October 2008
Robosapien
A family friendly film (not to be confused with its more violent cousin) about the robot toy. The film is a mix of CGI and live action.
November 2008
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
More magical fun for youngsters.
Star Trek
The latest Star Trek film returns us to the early days and a young Captain Kirk who is - if early reports are to be believed - threatened by time travellers from the future.
December 2008
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