Screen International and Broadcast are teaming up with FilmLondon and Creative Skillset to host a forum on November 13 in London about improving diversity within the UK Film and TV industries.
Diversify will be a one-day event hosted by Baroness Oona King, C4’s diversity executive and BFI board member. King commented on the importance of the event.
This event will be one of the most significant of its type and is a must-attend for anyone concerned with equality in the workplace.
The forum will bring industry insiders, policymakers, actors and actresses and others to discuss how to diversify the industry. They will analyze topics like on-screen portrayals, women in the industry, how the industry is hard to break into and losing black talent to the U.S. There will be panels to discuss how to improve diversity both on and off camera as well.
Over the summer, Creative Skillset released their eighth annual Employment Census which had troubling numbers for minorities working within the industry. There was a decline in all sub-sections of production, distribution and exhibition. Women have increased their numbers in the industry, yet, they still only account for 36% of the workforce.
Screen International editor, Wendy Mitchell commented on how the employment census data helped to kickstart this event.
Diversity in the UK film industry is a topic Screen has tackled in stories and roundtable discussions in previous years, but now seems like the perfect
time to delve deeper into the deficit both on screen and behind the camera. We were saddened to read the recent Skillset data that diversity is slipping in
some areas in the UK, and that’s what spurred us to take action with our sister publication Broadcast to bring the experts together to talk about
the current issues and how we can create a brighter future with more equality for all people from all backgrounds to work in the booming British film
industry.
The event, which is free and open to the public, will be held on November 13th at BAFTA. Email: events@mb-insight.com to attend.
