As Interstellar joins Guardians of the Galaxy and Transformers: Age Of Extinction as cinema hits, the appetite for sci-fi on screen has rarely been stronger.
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So strong, in fact, that Sydney is about to host two sci-fi film festivals within a week.
On Sunday, the first Parramatta Sci-Film Film Festival takes over two venues at Riverside Theatre and the appropriately named Mars Hill Cafe.
Launched with the backing of the Parramatta City Council, it includes feature films, shorts and a program called Sci-fi On The Street.
A cosplay – costume play – competition for a $1000 prize is bound to be entertaining judging by those who turned up to a preliminary event dressed as Star Wars characters, Transformers and even The Joker. There will also be stalls featuring comic books, games, novels and a replica of the famous DeLorean sports car from Back To The Future.
Four days later, the Fantastic Planet Horror, Sci-Fi and Fantasy Film Festival starts in Newtown. It promises films "that will transport audiences to strange and wonderful worlds" at the Dendy cinema over 10 days.
Parramatta festival director Tom Papas believes Sydney is big enough for two apparently competing events.
"There's so many film festivals in Australia," he says. "There's room for more than one sci-fi festival."
His festival sprang out of the success of Project Sci-Fi, a competition to make a sci-fi short film in 30 days, last year.
"Everyone came dressed up in their favourite costumes and had such a good time, we thought we had to turn it into something cool," Papas says "Parramatta [City Council] said this is a perfect fit. It's a city of the future."
Papas has a five-year plan to tap the thriving interest in sci-fi films, which includes the Australian releases Predestination and The Infinite Man this year.
He is looking at setting up the sci-fi equivalent of a comic book convention, with exhibitions, memorabilia and international guests.
"We'd like to develop into a four or five-day event," he says.
The festival will screen a new Australian sci-fi thriller – director Tim Lea's 54 Days, about five people trapped in a shelter after a nuclear and biological weapons attack. With a little-known cast that includes Stephanie May, Yasmin Kassim and Matt James, it was made for $54,000 raised via a crowdfunding campaign.
There is also an American anime film, War of the Worlds: Goliath, described as "a retro-futuristic epic" centring on a steampunk battle in 1914.
"We're hoping people can come dressed up in their favourite steampunk outfits," Papas says.
In Newtown, the Fantastic Planet festival includes the world premiere of another new Australian film, Nick Kozakis and Kosta Ouzas's Plague, about a small band of survivors seeking shelter from an infection that has spread throughout humankind.
In the year that Gravity won seven Oscars, Papas says the interest in creating sci-fi for the screen is huge.
"With software and special effects, it's a lot easier to create all that stuff," he says.
