Made in Wales Case Study

• To work with exhibitors, distributors and filmmakers to make films with Welsh connections more visible to public audiences.
• To add creative, cultural and economic value to Welsh release campaigns, helping films to avoid market failure.
• To help cinemas and community screens to generate more income and sustain jobs through ticket sales.
• To put more effective and equitable storytelling strategies in place about Welsh people, life, locations and talent, making space for diverse and lesser known portrayals of modern Wales that more accurately reflect communities and make Welsh identity more visible to the world.
• To inspire new entrants by developing a stronger national film culture, presenting aspiring stories that break down harmful stereotypes about Wales, meaning people can see themselves on screen.
• To facilitate regular meetings where cinemas, distributors and industry can connect, improving communications.
• To advocate for the views of the Welsh exhibition sector, including what they and their audiences hope for from the future of Welsh film.

• Between 2022-26, we supported 155 cinemas 937 times, 231 production companies, 211 distributors, 359 filmmakers and we promoted or recommended 471 films.
• We’ve created 134 resources on ‘The Whole Story’ to date, which includes news, reviews, interviews and podcasts designed to boost central marketing campaigns on a select number of Welsh feature films annually. We also create space for rare and important conversations such as the Future of Welsh film.
• Welsh Film Preview Days – these annual in-person events are popular with cinema programmers as cinemas struggle to get to events in London. They can watch films in advance, debrief together and plan marketing approaches. Our online preview room is also popular. 504 UK BFI FAN programmers have signed up with a total of 653 films offered to date.

• Our film catalogue stands at over 1,200 Welsh films and in a recent survey, 93% of members said they used it regularly to find film rights.
• Each year we run a where to watch Welsh films campaign to generate interest amongst audiences and industry.
• We collate and share annual box off office data relating to Welsh films.
• There have been many campaigns that we’ve loved working on but a few to mention are Effi o Blaenau which Welsh cinemas rated 4.7*. The journey that followed was incredible, from 54 pieces of coverage to screenings in 152 cinemas. Other titles include The Toll which was set for VOD only but went on to have a theatrical run, with 99% of revenue in Wales. Also London Recruits which had a ‘peoples’ release’ securing 48 sites, as well as a particularly special panel discussion for MIW.
• Through our valued partnership with the National Library of Wales’ Screen and Sound Archive (NLWSSA), we’ve developed 6 archive packages covering Coast and Sea, Rural and Urban life in Wales. We also brought archive to Sinemaes at the National Eisteddfod, toured animated classic; Jerry the Tyke and Abertoir’s Silent Horror Shorts. We also supported them to develop an app called Picturing our Past and in 2025 we worked with them to create a new print of Oed yr Addewid which toured across Wales.
• We’re proud that we have a connected community of cinemas and festivals that love talking about Welsh film! They’re actively engaged and always ready and waiting to take on the next release. Our partners in production, sales and distribution are also so important and enable us to do what we do.

• The majority of screen-based organisations in Wales are production focussed. This can naturally lead to a lack of understanding about the value of film exhibition, meaning disparities and gaps in provision develop. We have had many conversations over the last 10-12 years about whether audiences are interested in Welsh film and why this work matters. Cinemas tell us it does matter but we also asked ourselves, ‘what impact does it have on screen culture if Welsh audiences don’t care?’ We felt certain that to have a thriving national screen culture, audiences need to know about films as a starting point. We could also see in box office data that films with clear Welsh connections perform the best in Wales and cinemas actively sought out these rare titles. We just needed to make the case to a range of decision makers.
• Film Hub Wales is B2B. We’re driven by the needs of our membership, so starting audience facing social channels from scratch and building it up with just 0.5 days per week paid marketing hours was a challenge.
• We don’t have distributors here in Wales so we have to stay on top of R&D as best we can, find out what the latest films are, how they are progressing and then work with the teams to amplify their releases with limited budget.
• We only have around one Welsh language release per year, or every two years, and we respond to the release slate. We can’t solve this demand for cinemas and it can be challenging for them to take a risk on films with less visible Welsh connections, so we work hard to new ways to explore these releases.
• It can be expensive for exhibitors to access feature films from some historical collections, costing £500 per screening, which can deter important archive bookings and hinder access to screen heritage. Prints can also be in poor quality and rights are not always available for theatrical.
• Filmmakers are often referred to us for funding to make or distribute their films which leads to disappointment when we explain that our funds are expressly for exhibitors to screen films. We create marketing assets to support releases but have never funded production or distribution. This likely arises from our earlier point about understanding exhibition in a production heavy sector. This is difficult for our team as it can feel like failing at something that we don’t offer.
• We’re contacted regularly by filmmakers who ask us to read their scripts, to fund concepts, find locations and other production related queries. We always try our best to help but it’s a challenge for our small team to go beyond our remit. We created this Screen Organisations in Wales page and that helps to point people to the right resources.

Support from the BFI and Creative Wales is fundamental. As we outlined in challenges, MIW has facilitated some deep, forwarding thinking conversations about gaps in Welsh distribution strategy and the needs of exhibitors. This support makes Welsh identity feel more seen and considered within the context of UK screen. It also makes central funding reach further into the nations and into the lives of communities. We hope MIW creates templates for activities that can be delivered at greater scale in future.

• Welsh film exhibitors have reported increased skills and confidence relating to the programming and marketing of Welsh films as a result of centralised work.
• Audiences have greater awareness and understanding of Welsh culture, through projects that would otherwise rarely be marketed as Welsh.
• Data relating to Welsh film for the last five years, has been accessible to exhibitors and stakeholders informing future performance strategy.
• Meaningful conversations have been facilitated across Welsh industry about Welshness on screen.

We’ve seen programmes that support national film culture grow in regions of the UK over recent years and we hope that MIW has inspired others to celebrate regional stories. We hope that cinemas feel more confident programming Welsh film with clear rights information and assets on hand to support marketing – that we make their difficult jobs easier. We also hope other Hub members learn more about Wales on screen as a result of our work.