For those of you looking to keep in touch with your audiences through streaming at this challenging time, MUBI are offering you the opportunity to share a 90 day free MUBI subscription with your members or newsletter subscribers.

MUBI have always been a champion of cinemas, for example, through their existing MUBI GO offer which extends the cinema-going experience to all of its members. With many cinemas now temporarily closing their doors, they are offering this partnership as a way of cinemas keeping contact with their audiences.

They can build a bespoke offer landing page with your logo and a customised URL that you can share with your members or newsletter subscribers. This could be a way to stay connected with your audiences and potentially invite them to join in watch-alongs of specific titles, promote donations or friends of schemes and keep independent cinema watching alive during this challenging period.

If you think this offer can add value to your membership, contact MUBI to find out the next steps.

For more information, please contact Irene Musumeci ([email protected]) or Stefana Dragan ([email protected])

This page will continue to be updated with information and relevant links.

To all our colleagues and friends across the Film Hub Wales membership. We hope you’re well and keeping safe and healthy.

We want to share the following information, which you might need during coming weeks/months:

• Our office
  In line with current medical advice, Chapter has had to make the difficult decision to temporarily close. During this time, calls will be diverted to us during office hours, so please call as normal.
• Hub events
  The rural cinema event on the 28th March was postponed. We will be in touch in relation to any further planned events.
• 20/21 funds
  We launched the repurposed BFI FAN Resilience fund. Recipients of grants can be found here. The Film Exhibition Fund is currently open with a deadline of September 30th.
• Existing 19/20 funded projects
  If you have concerns about a current award with us for an ongoing project, please get in touch.
• Talking to each other
  Members can access the closed Hub Facebook group and Slack group. You will need to fill in an updated membership form (if you haven’t already) in order to access this. If you can’t locate your Slack invitation, just let us know.
• Reopening
  If you did not fill in our reopening survey, please do let us know when you have a date in mind to reopen. This will help with nationwide return to cinema campaigns.

• Welsh Government announce cultural recovery fund of £53 million. Check your eligibility to apply here. Applications open from mid September,
• Welsh Government guidance for the re-opening of cinemas and guidance for multi-purpose community spaces here,
• Cultural and heritage organisations to be protected with £1.57 billion support package,
• Welsh Government test, trace, protect guidance,
• Welsh Government – A traffic light roadmap setting out how Wales could exit the coronavirus lockdown (May 2020) here,
• Measures for freelancers and the self-employed here,
• 2020 budget information here,
• Advice for employers here,
• Welsh Government have announced a support package for small businesses, which you can read about here with update on 1.1 billion funding available announced here.
• Monday November 9th, the Welsh Government have announced the Lockdown Business Fund
• The Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee has written a report on the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on the arts sector can be found here. (June 2020)
• Wednesday January 13th, applications for the Welsh Government’s Economic Resilience Fund (ERF) – Sector Specific Grant are now open.

• Cultural Recovery Fund for sites in England only (relevant if you operate across the UK),
• Covid-19 Film and TV Emergency Relief Fund set up,
• BFI answer questions on Covid-19 from the screen sector here,
• The BFI have set up an email address to field general enquiries from across the industry through [email protected],
• BFI advice and information here,
• Message from CEO Ben Roberts here.

• Arts Council for Wales: The cultural recovery fund is open for applications until September 9th 2020.
  Information for those working as artists, freelancers and in publicly funded cultural organisations here.
• Find all sorts of articles from BFI FAN Members and Hubs on The Bigger Picture,
• Independent Cinema Office: Drive-in cinemas in post-lockdown UK (May 2020) here,
• Film Hub NI: Drive-In Cinema – the answer to getting our film fix soon? (May 2020) here,
• Film and TV Charity
  If you have individuals working with you who are suffering financial loss, or just need someone to talk to, there is a very helpful service from the Film and TV Charity.
• Cinema For All 
  Covid-19 advice for Community Cinemas can be read here. Results of their volunteer-led cinema focus groups can be read here (June 2020).
• UKCA
  The UKCA published safeguarding guidelines for the reopening of cinemas and safeguarding guidelines for the re-opening of drive-in cinemas (June, 2020) you can also check for regular updates and UKCA members can access HR advice.
• Screen Skills 
  Updates and online learning here.
• CICAE
  Useful advice for cinema operators here.

We will update you as soon as we have any new information and we are on hand to help if we can do anything to support you. Our utmost concern is that you are all well and that we can work together to keep cinemas, festivals and events running in the long term.

The Film Hub Wales team

COVID-19 presents us with an unprecedented challenge to our business. We are keenly aware that the wide ranging and damaging impact of the virus is being felt across the entire industry and at every possible level.

As the lead organisation for film, we will support our many industry colleagues during this fast moving and rapidly evolving situation, and we are in discussion with key partners, stakeholders and Government to urgently assess the scale of the short and longer term impact on business.

We are focused on ensuring the resilience of the industry and on tackling the huge range of short to mid-term financial, cultural and societal challenges – not least to the exhibition and freelance sectors who are likely to be hit hardest most immediately by the crisis.

The BFI is in constant communication with colleagues in Government and with other funders across the sector, to ensure we all fully understand the ramifications of the most critical issues, and help shape measures to address them.

We have an already established Screen Sector Taskforce which will be convening to coordinate our conversation with Government and discuss the potential mitigations. We also urge practitioners across the industry and cultural sector to contact us with their key concerns and have set up an email address as a centralised point for all enquires [email protected] to feed into our impact response recommendations.

As a funder, we will be as supportive and flexible as possible across existing funding arrangements, including the ability of those organisations and projects to meet contractual requirements.

As a production financier, we are obviously supporting our filmmakers with advice on a case by case basis. They are all different projects, each case is different and complex with completely different variables, so there isn’t one size fits all guidance, and we are advising them through these very particular challenges as best we can.

The BFI is working hard to support everyone across the sector during this extremely challenging time and we will update you with more news and information when we can.

Ben Roberts, Chief Executive, BFI

February, 2021

“That fertile legacy from the past century” was how Dave Berry, Wales’s much-missed film historian referred to Welsh screen culture. It is now being honoured in a completely new way – with a series of film screenings throughout Wales to promote the publication of an innovative free-to-download app, Picturing Our Past/Fframio’n Gorffennol, which will tell the story of Welsh film and television by combining text and film inserts in one free product.

The screenings, organised by the National Library of Wales Screen and Sound Archive with the support of Film Hub Wales as part of the BFI Film Audience Network (FAN), will pair a film from the past with a more recent production. On 27 February, at the Phoenix Cinema, Ton Pentre, the 1937 documentary Today We Live (1937), with its famous shots of miners scrabbling on a coal tip, will be shown with the heart-warming, award-winning documentary Dark Horse (2015), about the celebrated racehorse bought and trained by a Cefn Fforest syndicate. Then on 5 March at Yr Egin, Carmarthen, composer John Rea’s powerful new film Atgyfodi will be paired with Tryweryn – the Story of a Valley (1965) – made by the pupils of Friars School, Bangor.

On 23 March the Coliseum Cinema, Brecon will be screening Coming Up Roses/Rhosyn a Rhith (1987), a gentle comedy that is a joyous celebration of cinema itself, portraying the plight of the much-loved Rex in Aberdare, together with Cinema Memories, a short film recording the reminiscences of Cwm Afan residents of movie-going and working in the cinema. The star of the main film, Dafydd Hywel, will join the audience for a Q+A at the end of this showing, and also at the later screening in Theatr Twm o’r Nant, Denbigh on 3 April, where it will be paired with the award-winning documentary short Dial-a-Ride. The tour will conclude on 29 May with the new bitter-sweet Welsh comedy Denmark at Sinema Sadwrn, Llansadwrn.

The app Picturing Our Past/Fframio’n Gorffennol, supported by the Books Council of Wales, brings Dave Berry’s pioneering book Wales and Cinema up-to-date and digital technology enables its authors, Colin Thomas and Iola Baines, to include extracts from key films from Wales’s cinematic past.

Iola Baines, Moving Image Curator at The National Library of Wales Screen and Sound Archive explains:

Colin Thomas, a TV producer/director of who made the Welsh history series The Dragon Has Two Tongues and is three times winner of BAFTA Cymru’s Best Documentary and a Prix Europa, adds

Pedr ap Llwyd, Chief Executive and Librarian of The National Library of Wales, said:

Hana Lewis, Film Hub Wales’s Strategic Manager adds:

The app will be officially launched in May with a special event in Cardiff.

To raise the profile of the existing youth ticketing schemes at FAN member venues we’ve developed a new partnership with the Art Fund’s Student Art Pass which aims to give independent cinemas in the UK some additional profile.

COLLABORATIVE OPPORTUNITY

If you have a ticket offer of £5 or less for 16-25 year olds (or if your general ticket offer is £5 or less) they’d like to profile your cinema and offer to their student membership. The partnership will run for a year from the 25th February and will continue if successful. All we need to add your cinema to their offer is details about your venue, your ticket prices and a lovely image! Venues will be added on a rolling basis over the year but the more we have on board by the 25th February the better.

Film Hub Wales (FHW), led by Chapter as part of the BFI Film Audience Network, has announced two pioneering new projects that will champion Welsh storytelling across Wales, the UK and internationally.

Supported by Creative Wales and developed in consultation with Welsh screen organisations, an exciting new role will be created for a Made in Wales Officer. Building on the work of FHW to date, the post holder will explore ways of bringing Welsh film to public audiences, ensuring that regional stories, talent and locations are at the forefront. Details of the post can be found on Film Hub Wales’ website.

Also underway, is a piece of research into the potential of Made in Wales as a recognisable brand. Funded by Clwstwr, the project will explore the possible cultural and economic impact of a national brand for films with Welsh connections.

Read the full press release here

At Abertoir Corp’s 2019 edition of the festival, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Alien and their sci-fi theme, Abertoir attempted something literally out of this world…Abertoir, IN SPACE!

Teaming up with one of the writers of Alien, Ron Shusett, they recorded a very special introduction to the screening of the iconic film.

Before the festival, Ron’s video was loaded onto a computer attached to a special balloon capable of travelling to the edges of space. There, a mounted camera recorded Ron’s introduction playing back against the backdrop of our planet. The resulting footage was screened before the 40th anniversary screening of Alien on the closing day of the festival.

As a special thanks, Abertoir included Film Hub Wales, BFI Fan, the Institute of Physics, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth Arts Centre and Ffilm Cymru in the launch!

Rare Beasts and Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm, two films that featured in our latest Welsh Film Preview Days, will premiere at the festival held in Austin, Texas in March.

The SXSW Film Festival celebrates raw innovation and emerging talent from both behind and in front of the camera and this year it features two Made in Wales films in it’s programme.

Rockfield: The Studio on the Farm, a feature-length music documentary is about two Welsh brothers that launched the legendary Rockfield studios and brought rock and roll royalty such as Black Sabbath, Oasis, Coldplay, Stone Roses, Robert Plant and Simple Mind to their studio in the Monmouthshire countryside. It is produced by ie ie Productions’ Catryn Ramasut and also features Wales’ own James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire (Manic Street Preachers)

Joining Rockfield at SXSW is another film, Rare Beasts that featured in our latest Welsh Film Preview Days at Gwyn Hall in Neath & Galeri in Caernarfon and is the directorial debut of Billie Piper, who also plays Mandy, a modern woman in a crisis. Raising a son in the midst of a female revolution, mining the pain of her parents’ separation and professionally writing about a love that no longer exists, she falls upon a troubled man, Pete, who’s searching for a sense of worth, belonging and ‘restored’ male identity. Rare Beasts is produced by Vaughan Sivell (Western Edge Pictures) who is from Pembrokeshire.

Both films have received funding from Ffilm Cymru Wales.

FIRST LOOK IMAGE REVEALED

London, October 31, 2019 — Cornerstone Films has closed worldwide sales, including a multi-territory deal with Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA), for BAFTA award-winning director Euros Lyn’s Dream Horse. The film stars Toni Collette and Damian Lewis together with Owen Teale, Joanna Page, Karl Johnson, with Nicholas  Farrell and Siân Phillips. It is is currently in post production in Wales. Cornerstone Films has also closed deals with  Welt Kino (Germany), Impuls (Switzerland), Hakuhodo DY music & pictures Inc. (Japan) and Terry Steiner (Airlines). As previously announced, Bleecker Street and Topic Studios have jointly acquired the U.S. rights and Warner Bros is  distributing in the UK. The SPWA deal includes rest of world, excluding Canada, Italy and France.

Jan Vokes, a cleaner and bartender, recruits her initially reluctant husband Brian and local accountant Howard Davies to help her bring together a syndicate of local people to breed a foal – which they name Dream Alliance. On the racetrack, he proves himself to be more than a match for the multi-million pound racehorses he comes up against – a true working-class champion, taking on the establishment at their own game. But much more than this, Dream begins to alter the lives of everyone in the syndicate, not least Jan’s. He is everything to her: friend, confidant and an escape from a life of always putting other people’s needs first.

Dream Horse is a classic story of triumph against adversity, and a tale of how a woman strives to make her dream a reality in a place where hope is thin on the ground. The true story behind the film was previously told in the documentary Dark Horse, produced by Judith Dawson and directed by Louise Osmond, also backed by Film4 and Ffilm Cymru. It won the World Cinema Audience Award at
Sundance before being released by Picturehouse in the UK and Sony Pictures Classics in the U.S.

The RAW production was written by BAFTA award-winning writer Neil McKay and developed with Film4. It is produced by Katherine Butler and Tracy O’Riordan. Executive producers are Piers Vellacott and Joely Fether for RAW, Daniel Battsek and Ollie Madden for Film4, Peter Touche and Stephen Dailey for Ingenious Media, and Pauline Burt for Ffilm Cymru Wales.Film4, Ingenious Media, Ffilm Cymru Wales provided funding for the film, which is also supported by the Welsh Government. They are joined by Warner Bros UK, which will release the film in the UK. Cornerstone Films handled
international sales, and is selling Canada, Italy and France.

November / Tachwedd, 2019

For over a year The National Library of Wales (NLW) has been developing a scheme to offer bilingual resources from the Library’s graphic and audiovisual collections for reminiscence.

As part of the scheme, they are offering independent cinemas and film societies a programme of archival films that will appeal to older people, those living with dementia and their families; they will also offer a wider audience a medium to generate discussions about their community, e.g. how culture and traditions change over the years.

Find out more here

Ers dros flwyddyn mae Llyfrgell Genedlaethol Cymru (LlGC) wedi bod yn datblygu cynllun i gynnig adnoddau dwyieithog o gasgliadau gweledol a graffigol LlGC ar gyfer hel atgofion ac i hwyluso therapi’r cof.

Fel rhan o’r cynllun rydym yn cynnig rhaglen o ffilmiau archifol (sy’n addas ar gyfer pobl hŷn, rhai sy’n byw gyda dementia a’u teuluoedd) i sinemau annibynnol a chlybiau ffilm; bydd y ffilmiau hefyd yn cynnig cyfrwng i gynulleidfa ehangach i gychwyn sgyrsiau am y gymuned, e.e. sut mae diwylliant a thraddodiadau wedi newid dros y blynyddoedd.

Darganfod rhagor

The Equipment Hire Scheme is designed to help members who need to hire kit for pop up screenings.
Cinema For All has three sets of equipment one of which is hosted by Film Hub Wales, which are available to hire at low prices.

To help new groups get started the equipment pack is comprised of:

• a projector
• portable Screen
• AMP
• speakers
• blu-ray player & cabling

For more information about the scheme, click here.

If you’d like to book, fill out the booking form here.

This is an online space for Film Hub Wales members to connect with each other.

Hold conversations, announce events, provide information and ask questions. The more members and partnerships we build, the greater impact we can make for audiences and our exhibition sector in Wales.

Find out more