Alan Jones is one of the film industry’s longest serving film critics. Having begun working during the 70s, Alan Jones has been on the sets of some of the highest-profile movies ever made, such as George Lucas’ Star Wars. In addition to being a well-regarded film critic, for the last twenty-five years he has been one of the four directors of FrightFest, but that’s not the only film festival that he runs.
Since 2022, Alan Jones has also taken on the role of Artistic Director within Italy’s Trieste Science+Fiction Festival. The event typically runs during the latter half of October – with this year’s festival running from 29th October to 3rd November – and champions all things science-fiction. But what is life like juggling film journalism, and two film festivals? THN sat down with Alan Jones to find out.
For those that don’t know, what is Trieste Science+Fiction Film Festival?
Trieste science plus fiction, is the world’s oldest science fiction festival. It started in 1963. It had a few stops and starts in the 70s, but came back from about 2000 onwards. It’s the 25th anniversary next year, although last year we celebrated the 60th anniversary – we’re very fast and loose with all that.
If you go through the records and see the very first 1963 event, the people who were on the jury and the films that were on… I mean Isaac Asimov was there, Arthur C Clarke was there, Umberto Echo. Roger Corman won for The Man with the X-Ray Eyes. I’ve told this story a million times, but that was literally one of the very first quad posters as a teenage kid that I put on my wall. On the poster it actually said, “winner of the Trieste Science+Fiction Festival,” and all these years later I’m actually there, in the office, with that poster staring at me. You can knock me over with a feather, that was the last thing I ever expected to happen.
How did you get involved?
Because of FrightFest, they were starting up again in Italy. They asked me to come over to be a consultant. The history of Trieste as a city is really interesting. At one point in its life, during the war, it did belong to Britain. So as part of one of their strands they invited me and Kim Newman to come over to be part of the Brit Invader strand.
I loved the city so much. I like all the places I’ve gone to for film festivals, but for some reason, Trieste really got to me. They have invited me back every single year since. Then about three years ago, Kiara Barbeau who runs the company who actually oversees the festival, La Cappella Underground, said to me, “would I take over the festival?”, and I said yes obviously. I have a particular affinity with Italy. I would always have loved to have lived in Rome because of my contacts there with Dario [Argento].
I did think about it, a British person running an Italian festival, but they wanted me to make it more international. Up until then it had been very local. That’s not a bad thing, but we had to appeal to outside forces. So I’ve brought loads of international guests in, loads of press in to spread the message. The very first year I was there [running the festival], a couple of FrightFesters came over and loved it and they’ve been coming back ever since. I do keep that link with FrightFest because I do show a FrightFest film there, and then I show a Trieste selection in FrightFest London. There is a bit of a connection between the two festivals. We can share titles, but most of the time I go and really go after the pure science fiction stuff.
This year’s event has just finished, how did it go and what were your personal highlights?
It actually went brilliantly. Unlike FrightFest, Trieste has a series of events. One of the best things we did this year was we had a see-through plastic globe in one of the main piazzas. It was free, you could go in and watch people talk about books, talk about AI. Trieste is actually the world city of science. One of the reasons why it’s the hub it is is because it actually has a lot of scientists there and a lot of the universities are geared towards subjects like genetics, like AI etc., so I think it’s important to actually focus on that.
The weather was just brilliant, it was like summer. So actually having these transparent globes in the middle of the piazza really worked. It really acted as a major selling point for the festival. Unlike FrightFest, it’s not just about the films. I have an educational program, which school people have to come along to; The NeverEnding Story in its anniversary year provided that. Flow, the cat movie – we showed that to kids as well, and that was one of our biggest successes. Also, we have another area where we do book discussions. I actually presented my latest Starburst book there with Jeremy Dyson, who I put on the jury, and Martin Unsworth who’s the editor. There’s a Halloween party. There’s a lot of different things going on, it’s not just the films.
But this year, the films actually increased. I was really pleased. We had two venues for films and there’s going to be a third one next year because we’re adding one, but they all work really well. We had an increase of 30% on ticket sales which is good, especially considering the weather. I was really worried people weren’t going to come, but we had the program to match and I think we had everything that people wanted to see. When I came back to London at the airport, I suddenly heard a massive cheer of “raggio fotonico”, which means Photon Ray. It’s one of the battle cries of the festival. The moment the festival starts, everyone in the audience goes “raggio fotonico.” They yelled it out [at the airport] and came over and said how much they loved the festival.
Next year Trieste is 25, what can attendees expect?
FrightFest doesn’t get public funding, we just rely on the sponsor. With Trieste I get public funding from the local area and it’s a good amount of money. So I can actually say, “yes, we can do this”, whereas with FrightFest it’s always a case of the budget – can we do it? So it’s completely different. I tried to deal with both separately, because they are so different. It’s only four of us with FrightFest, but with Trieste, I have a team of thirteen to be able to do what I want. FrightFest taught me what I need to get done.
We’ve got quite a big budget for next year because of the 25th anniversary. I’ve already put into action three main guests. One, I’m hoping will come through, the other two definitely will. But I’ve had to plan this far ahead because I find that with most guests other festivals will try and steal them, and I want to try and book them first before anybody else pounces on them.
I’m guessing the retrospective strand might feature an anniversary screening or two, so people might be able to guess as to what might potentially screen?
Absolutely, and unlike FrightFest, the retrospective strand of Trieste is really important. This year, we had The Terminator, we had Them!, the 50s movie, which a lot of people amazingly hadn’t seen, and loved; The NeverEnding Story as I said before, Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Because I’m so old, I keep forgetting that people haven’t seen these films on the big screen. The audiences we got for them, I was shocked. The Terminator was packed. But no, it’s a really important part, whereas in FrightFest, I don’t think it matters. We did A Nightmare on Elm Street, but that’s, that’s because it’s that film, whereas I think we can get away with showing a lot more diverse things, more unusual things. So next year. For example, they’ve asked me if we should put on Explorers. Now for me, I love Explorers, but is it a cult film? Will people go and see it? I’ve got to make that judgement call. I’m not quite sure at the moment.
Frightfest turned 25 this year, proving that these festivals definitely have legs. Why do you think that festivals like Trieste and FF are so vital to independent filmmakers?
At Trieste we can afford to do daily lunches for the visiting talent. I’ve felt this is really important, because I do think all the talent comes along and they bond in a way that you never really see. In this case, every single guest that we invited all got on really well. I could see them all exchanging ideas and swapping phone numbers. I know this is a really good networking process for the future and I think that’s one of the reasons why these festivals work.
Also, who in their right mind is going to give films like The Invisible Raptor a major theatrical space? The fact that we can do it, and that it’s been a success everywhere, is incredible. We’ve shown that in FrightFest Glasgow, in FrightFest August, and in Trieste; it was one of the three biggest sellers that we had. That to me proves that…okay, I get the reason and the whole commerciality of the multiplex situation, but they’re missing a trick by not showing these films, and that’s why I think these festivals are really important to do so.
Also the two prize winners at Trieste, U Are The Universe, the Ukrainian movie, this wouldn’t normally get a theatrical screening, and yet, it should. And the other one that won was After Us, the Flood, the Finish movie. That’s a bit more divisive, but again, these films look great on the big screen and this is the only chance you’re going to get to see them.
In addition to running these festivals you also have a couple of books releasing in quick succession to one another. Both cover very different aspects of your life and career, can you talk a little bit about them?
Starburst, is a compendium of all my reviews from 1977 to 2008. It was something I resisted doing for so many years. A lot of people said to me, “you should put them all together in a book,” I thought “why? No one cares”. Then through lockdown I thought “let’s have a look”. So I read through everything and then I suddenly realised that it was actually not just showing me evolving as a writer, but it also charted the evolution of the rise of the fantasy genre. From just being a fan boy / girl thing into a major industry. I thought there’s value in this. I put it in a political context all the way through. All the key junctures of what happened are all there. I explain how I got the job; I explain why I felt it was an important thing to do.
Luckily I got Edgar Wright, Jeremy Dyson, Andy Nyman, and Neil Marshall to come up with their own ideas of why they thought the magazine and my reviews were important to their lives. They were really great, I was really pleased. In Neil Marshall’s case I did impact on Dog Soldiers because I stopped them changing the title. So that’s out and about. I did a presentation at Trieste to the complete bemusement of the Italians. They didn’t know the magazine or who I was when it came to that sort of thing.
My next book is out in March, Disco Mania, which is my semi-autobiography. Unless you know my punk history, you don’t know that I was involved with the Sex Pistols and Vivienne Westwood in the way that I was, and so it’s all there. What this is is all my favourite disco movies from 1974 to last year, reviews of them, why they’re important disco wise, what disco tracks are in every single one of them, and what memories either the date of release, or the person in it spark for me. You get the review, you get why they’re culturally important, and you get my memories of that particular era. It was a great exercise to do, I absolutely love it. It’s been delayed a couple of times, and the main reason for that is because people, when they found out I was doing it, kept throwing all these pictures at me that I’d never even seen from the time. There’s some really exclusive stuff in there.
Both of these books seem to be looking back on your life, you’re not planning on retiring anytime soon are you?
I’ve said this to everybody, “what would I do?” I am now making more money now from the stuff that I did in the 70s than you could possibly imagine. I covered all the films that people now are more interested in than ever before and I was on the set of most of them. I was on some very, very key movies during that era. I mean, from Star Wars, to Alien, to everything… Little Shop of Horrors, being my absolute favourite to do, because I’d never seen a musical filmed before, and it was quite startling to see that.
I’m not going to give up. I’m still doing unit publicity. I always say that I’ll probably keel over during a Q&A. If something came up and it was “now is the time to give-up” I would know that, but at the moment, I’m still a film reviewer, I still write for the Radio Times. I’m still being asked to do a lot of stuff. My luxury now is that I can turn down what I don’t want to do, and that’s the difference. As long as I can keep getting quality jobs, and I’m still excited about it, I don’t see why I should stop.
In terms of festivals, Glasgow is next, is there anything you can tease about that one?
I have signed up a major guest who no one’s ever seen before, who is one of my absolute favourites. I can’t say any more than that because I do not want to jinx it in any way whatsoever. It’s with their new film, which I think is an absolute masterpiece, and I will be in full control of that. I’m going to make it the best FrightFest Glasgow you could possibly imagine because of this person. And that’s all I can say. I know he’s one person I know everybody wants to meet. So let’s see how it goes.
For more information about Trieste Science+Fiction Festival head to the website.
