Update from Manager, Hana Lewis.
I’m going to start with a thank you, to all of you that gave up your time to come to meetings and fill in consultation surveys in 2022, as the BFI shaped their Screen 2023 strategy. The fact that we all came together with the same goal of championing film exhibition in Wales, is something we’re personally very grateful for and we don’t underestimate the value of your time.
Many of you will have seen the recent announcement from the BFI that the BFI Film Audience Network will continue beyond April 2023 as part of their 10-year National Lottery Funding Strategy. I’m delighted to say that Film Hub Wales, with Chapter as the Hub Lead Organisation, is one of 11 UK-wide strategic partners to receive National Lottery Funding from the BFI to continue developing cinema audiences for UK independent and international film.
What does this mean for Wales? Film Hub Wales will receive an award of £895,500 over the three-year strategy (£286,900 annually). This award will be split across skills development, audience research, communications, a new ‘spotlight’ project and the film exhibition fund – which will re-launch in late March / early April. The training bursary fund and pitch pot will remain open year-round with renewed budget in April.
Based on what you told us during the consultation and the challenging landscape across exhibition, we are making some adjustments to our programmes. We’re planning on running quarterly programming sessions online to give us a chance to actually talk about the best new film releases. We’re also aiming to get together more, including an annual event where we can share ideas. We’re also talking to the National Screen and Sound Archive for Wales about access to Welsh content and exploring the costs of digitisation for key titles.
Our Made in Wales project which celebrates films with Welsh connections, is currently funded to March 31st 2023 and we are working on the future funding plan, with films such as India’s 1st Best Trans Model Agency and Comrade Tambo’s London Recruits in our calendar. We will also work with our partners at Ffilm Cymru Wales / BFI Network Cymru to champion new and emerging filmmakers across the UK.
We will collaborate with BFI Film Academy Plus, the newly named UK-wide in-venue education offer, which will help to connect 16- to 25-year-olds to film culture and career pathways. Also led by Chapter in Wales, funding will support masterclasses, screenings and bursaries. The scheme will help young film enthusiasts to learn about the industry, watch cultural cinema, get to know their local venues and develop skills as independent filmmakers and curators.
There will be additional new activities across the wider BFI Film Audience Network, which we’ll discuss with you in the coming weeks as those plans are established.
Finally, we are truly saddened that the FAN Inclusive Cinema (IC) project comes to an end in March. There is still so much work to be done but we are proud of our ambitions and the contributions that we have made. We extend our deepest thanks to IC’s partners and advisers. We wave goodbye to Toki Allison, our talented IC Project Manager, as she heads on to an exciting new role. You will be able to access some fantastic new resources in the final weeks of the project including Trans Loving Care and Working-Class Cinema. We will update you on how to access resources created across the life of the project in the coming months.
We hope you can join us for Hub Helo at Hay Castle on the 23rd March, where we’ll talk more about the year ahead.
Until then – long live cinema.
