THE NATIONAL SCIENCE MUSEUM LAUNCHES BRITAIN'S FIRST EVER IMAX® FILM
FESTIVAL, AS PART OF NATIONAL SCIENCE WEEK

To celebrate National Science Week, the Science Museum is screening an
unprecedented series of IMAX films in the UK¹s first IMAX film festival.


The Science Museum IMAX Film Festival will show 10 spectacular 3D and 2D
films exploring Energy and Sustainability which will give audiences a unique
insight into the world around us and the powerful forces which shape it on a
screen the height of four double-decker buses!

Suitable for both adults and children, the Science Museum IMAX Film Festival
will run from 10 to 28 March 2003, screening visual spectaculars such as:


- FIRES OF KUWAIT - the story of how the world worked together to extinguish
the 607 terrifying fountains of burning oil in the Kuwaiti desert after the
last Gulf War.

- THE SECRET OF LIFE ON EARTH, which uses stunning micro, macro and
time-lapse photography to explore the complex relationships between plants
and animals.

- SOS PLANET ­ an eye-popping 3D extravaganza using state of the art
animation to underline the threat posed by issues such as global warming,
deforestation and over fishing of the world¹s oceans.


With narration from Tom Cruise, Harrison Ford, Patrick Stewart and Lord
Winston, viewers will be stunned at the breathtaking images on the largest
film frame in motion picture history - more than ten times the size of
conventional 35mm - and three times the size of standard 70mm.

Alison Roden, Head of IMAX Development at the Science Museum said: ³The
Science Museum IMAX Film Festival will entertain and educate visitors about
energy and sustainability in a way they will never forget. Viewed on our
giant IMAX screen, images are larger, more vivid and incredibly powerful,
making the viewer feel like they are actually there in the film.²

From seismic energy to the natural energy sources of plants and fossil
fuels, the Science Museum IMAX Film Festival allows viewers to travel into a
black hole, to the heart of a volcano, to discover how human bodies
transform food into energy and to glimpse what life might be like for the
first space colony. Films showing include: The Secret of Life on Earth, SOS
Planet, Cosmic Voyage, Solarmax, Ring of Fire, Lost Worlds, Fires of Kuwait,
The Human Body, L5 ­ First City in Space and Space Station 3D.

All films will be screened at the Science Museum IMAX Cinema, at The Science
Museum, Exhibition Road, South Kensington, London SW7 2DD.

**ends**

For more information, competitions, schedules, screenings and images please
contact Jessica Cross / Jezz Lindkrantz, 020 7428 8844 / 020 7428 8853

Prices: Adults £7.10 Child/Concessions £5.95
Imax Booking Line 0870 870 4771
Open seven days a week, from 10.00 to 18.00.

All 11.00am morning screenings will be accompanied by a talk, related to the
themes of Energy and Sustainability.