Purpose of the Role
To support the Hub and its members to develop audiences for British independent and world cinema across Wales through marketing and outreach activities. This includes a specific ‘spotlight’ project in North Wales and B to B marketing of opportunities to the Hub membership.
Application forms and job description available to download below. We are unable to accept CVs. If you have any queries about the application process, please contact apply@chapter.org
We will not be able to meet with individual candidates prior to interview.
Closing date for applications: Wednesday 8 May, 10am
Interviews to be held: Tuesday 14 May at Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff.
Please fill in an Equal Opportunities form online, in addition to your application documents below
Our quarterly get together for exhibitors to talk about the latest films with Welsh connections, meet distributors and find out about MIW assets.
Coming up in this session:
There will be an opportunity for exhibitors to ask questions directly to the distributors, talk about what support you might need for marketing/programming these films and time to chat with other exhibitors during the session.
Read more about our Made in Wales strategy here.
Book your place – MIW Meet-up (April)
This event is exclusively for exhibitors. You must be a Film Hub Wales member or a member of another Film Hub around the UK.
We look forward to seeing you!
Image: The Almond and the Seahorse, Unicorns, Chuck Chuck Baby
The first edition of the BFI Film Audience Network Conference, BFI FAN CON, will take place at Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast, from the 11th – 13th September 2024.
This conference is for BFI FAN members across the UK (including Film Hub Wales members!) to meet, celebrate the work we do, share our experiences and professional practice, and consider new approaches to the wider industry issues facing us all.
The exhibition sector has faced extraordinary challenges in recent years and this biannual event will serve as a space to reflect on and celebrate the vital role we play in our communities. The conference will explore practical examples of grassroots approaches to audience development and engagement, informed by member experiences and interests, and – in response to the most pressing systemic and structural issues facing our sector – will also use the event as a forum for discussion and a springboard for collective advocacy and change. .
We look forward to welcoming members to attend a full programme of presentations, case studies, workshops and curated networking opportunities.
The programme will see investment in eight local areas across the UK to boost audience choice and improve access to screenings of independent film.
Announced today as part of the latest iteration of BFI Film Audience Network (FAN), SPOTLIGHT sees additional BFI National Lottery investment in eight local areas across the UK to boost audience choice and improve access to screenings of independent film. In addition, each FAN Hub now also has funding available – totalling over £750,000 – to support a wide range of exhibition activity across the UK, and Network is also rolling out significant skills programmes to upskill exhibition professionals. This comes as an external evaluation of BFI FAN is published, highlighting its success in reaching new audiences and broadening access to screen culture.
For BFI FAN 2023 to 2026, the BFI ringfenced £1.85 million National Lottery funding for SPOTLIGHT. It takes a hyper-local approach to developing screenings in eight areas, each identified as having little or no screening provision by their local Film Hubs. The projects will be delivered over three years, in many cases operating in partnership with locally based film organisations, with an end goal of establishing audiences and screening activities that can be sustained and continue once this targeted support ends.
The SPOTLIGHT areas and the partners set to receive support are:
Ben Luxford, BFI’s Director of UK Audiences says:
The aim of BFI FAN has always been to open up access and opportunity for everyone across the UK to be able to discover and watch a rich variety of UK and international indie film. Given the ongoing challenges the exhibition sector is facing, the value of FAN, particularly the financial support and training it offers, is more vital than ever. The latest FAN evaluation outlines where it has had a positive impact and helped us set the roadmap for this latest iteration – it tells us that having a connected national network which has a localised approach is key to its success. In introducing SPOTLIGHT we want to encourage ultra-local audience development, focussing on a specific area that is underserved and enable the Hubs to take action to improve the offer and engage the local community. As well as benefit to those audiences, we also hope the whole of FAN will gather learnings to make longer-term impact.
Also rolling out in 2024 are a series of BFI FAN skills and development initiatives intended to provide Hub members with access to vital training and learning opportunities. These include REACH: Strategic Audience Development training which has been created by the ICO and run for four previous editions. This intensive course will give its participants an opportunity to build their expertise in growing and developing audiences and is soon to be followed by a new course – Revisiting Your Cinema Business Model – intended to address the pressing need for greater financial and commercial knowledge within cinemas across the UK.
A regular programme of online webinars is also being offered to FAN members across the UK covering a range of topics including environmental sustainability, access, working with young audiences and screen heritage. Later this year will also see the launch of a new BFI FAN Conference, bringing member organisations together to share best practice in reaching audiences with innovative film programmes and develop a more connected community of peers within the Network.
These initiatives come as BFI FAN published an evaluation of its activity between 2018 and 2022 undertaken by Indigo Ltd. The report highlights the success of the decentralised funding model that saw an £8 million investment support over 2,428 projects that added an estimated value of at least £21.2 million to the economy. FAN exceeded its ambitious audience targets, with supported activity achieving almost 2.3 million admissions from 1,514 audience facing projects.
We are devastated by the loss of our friend and colleague, Emyr.
We were fortunate to have worked with him over the last ten years, since the start of his journey at Pontio. He called us in excitement to chat about programming the cinema, before the building had even opened. He was a constant collaborator from that point onwards, someone who supported us, as much as we hopefully did him. He inspired the idea of the ‘Off y Grid’ project because he felt the loneliness of running a venue at times and wanted to create partnerships with neighbouring cinemas.
He was the kind of person that would meet you with open arms and hug you like he meant it. You could talk to him for hours (and we did sometimes) about films or creative ideas. He was someone that we could approach for any project idea and know he’d come up with something spot on. A brilliant champion of Welsh language and culture and font of knowledge when it came to Welsh film.
We only shared a small part of Emyr’s life and are grateful for that. We send our love and deepest condolences to his family, friends and his colleagues at Pontio and beyond.
Emyr often found himself quoted all over our site because he had a beautiful way with words. You’ll find him as a permanent fixture on our home page, where he summed it up in six words: ‘cinema belongs to all of us.’ We’ll miss you Emyr. We know you’ll already have the lights down low and a projector running up there.
It’s our tenth Birthday! We’re looking back to this time in 2013, when we launched a significant new programme in partnership with Welsh cinemas, film festivals and community screens, designed to build audiences for British independent and international film across Wales.
This has all been made possible thanks our partners in exhibition and across BFI FAN, with funding from The National Lottery via the BFI. Join us for a look back at just a fraction of what we’ve achieved together over the last decade.
Watch video messages from our members below, along with a special ten year video edit, plus our press release, ten year highlights and social stories:
We’ve created a Made in Wales Support Pack for this film, featuring an exclusive video introduction from Welsh actor Carly-Sophia Davies, editorial in partnership with Buzz Magazine, social cards, programming recommendations and social assets, all of which you can share with your audiences to promote the film’s Welsh connections.
Our Preview Days include screenings of upcoming Welsh-made, Welsh-language and Welsh archive film releases designed to support the wider programming and reach of films with Welsh connections.
The events are exclusively for members of Film Hub Wales and members of Film Hubs around the UK and we supply all attendees with film information packs and offer networking at different member venues across the country. Film Hub Wales can also offer funding towards minimum guarantees, marketing and/or a contribution towards event costs where talent is available.
Further events will be scheduled according to the availability of upcoming film titles and details will be listed below.
No upcoming events.
TAPE Community Music and Film are launching a new cinema project for communities across North Wales, with support from Film Hub Wales.
Specialising in creative inclusion, TAPE have ‘co-created’ the project in collaboration with their Media Club – a safe and supportive space which offers hands on experiences to a cohort of people from across the local community.
‘Neighbourhood Watch’, named by Josh one of the Media Club members, will launch with a screening of locally filmed, BAFTA nominated, comedy Brian and Charles at Llanrwst Family Centre on Friday 22nd September. There will be special guests and some surprises for the audience!
Josh is looking forward to the first event:
“I like the idea of bringing the community together through film. I feel proud to be part of this.”
Steve Swindon, Creative Director of TAPE explains how the Media Club works and why the project is needed:
“We can bring people together through Media Club and work as a team to develop exciting projects which link to a whole range of creative opportunities. Neighbourhood Watch is a hugely exciting project for several reasons. It builds on the film programming work the group has done and the wide range of screenings and events they’ve hosted. It also moves this work into communities across North Wales and connects people in new ways through the workshops running alongside. We can’t wait to get started.”
Neighbourhood Watch will bring monthly screenings of UK independent and international film to up to five communities from 2023-26, with potential areas for expansion including Anglesey and Llanfairfechan. The communities involved will have opportunities to develop skills such as booking films and marketing events, whilst also making friends and growing their professional networks. Each screening will have a workshop, guest or masterclass, plus the chance to participate in the development of TAPE’s next feature film project, Below the Waves, which is funded by the Arts Council of Wales.
Hana Lewis, Strategic Manager of Film Hub Wales adds:
“There’s so much innovation taking place across North Wales but we know that communities aren’t always able to access events, whether this is due to the cost of living crisis, poor transport links or lack of local services. Neighbourhood Watch is driven by the community itself, creating an appetite for film on their own doorsteps. TAPE’s Media Club are bursting with creative ideas to make the project work for their community in an inclusive way – which is really important to us. We hope that their work will encourage wider cinema going, supporting nearby cinemas and festivals in the long-term.”
BFI FAN is a nationwide programme made possible thanks to National Lottery funding that seeks to ensure the greatest choice of cinema is available to everyone across the UK. In Wales, funds are administered by Film Hub Wales via Chapter. The Neighbourhood Watch project is designed to meet objectives in the BFI’s recently launched 10-year strategy, Screen Culture 2033.
More than £30M is raised each week for good causes across the UK by the National Lottery.
Download the Full Press Release.
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Cinema Unbound: The Creative Worlds of Powell and Pressburger, a major BFI UK-wide film celebration of one of the greatest and most enduring filmmaking partnerships in the history of cinema: Michael Powell (1905-1990) and Emeric Pressburger (1902-1988), best known for their iconic films including THE RED SHOES (1948), A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (1946) and BLACK NARCISSUS (1947), comes to big screens nationwide this autumn. CINEMA UNBOUND: THE CREATIVE WORLDS OF POWELL AND PRESSBURGER today announces a UK-wide programme, funded by National Lottery, with over 56 special events and screenings, in the first round, supported in partnership by BFI Film Audience Network (BFI FAN).
From Martin Scorsese to Matthew Bourne, Kate Bush to Margaret Atwood, Tilda Swinton and Greta Gerwig, Powell and Pressburger have influenced creatives for decades, their bold, subversive and iconoclastic cinema continuing to resonate across the worlds of art, design, theatre, dance and music. This is the largest and most wide-ranging exploration ever undertaken about the work of the legendary writer-producer-director team. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s incredibly fruitful artistic collaboration at their production company, The Archers, spanned 24 films together made between 1939 and 1972.
The UK-wide celebration kicks off this autumn on the big screen with the BFI Distribution re-release of I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING! (1945), back in UK-wide cinemas from 20 October. I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING! was recently restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation in association with ITV and Park Circus, with funding for the restoration provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation with additional support provided by Matt Spick. BFI Distribution is also re-releasing the iconic dance film THE RED SHOES (1948), in honour of its 75th anniversary from 8 December. THE RED SHOES was previously restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive in association with the BFI, The Film Foundation, ITV Global Entertainment Ltd., and Janus Films. Restoration funding for the film was provided by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, The Film Foundation, and the Louis B. Mayer Foundation. Both restorations have been licensed from Park Circus/ITV. A new restoration of PEEPING TOM (1960) restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation in association with Studiocanal will be released in UK cinemas by Studiocanal on 27 October.
Studiocanal will also be unveiling a new 4K restoration of THE SMALL BACK ROOM (1949) as part of CINEMA UNBOUND. Restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation in association with Studiocanal, THE SMALL BACK ROOM will be available via Studiocanal as well as a first ever DCP print for OH…ROSALINDA!! (1955). BFI FAN partners nationwide will also be able to book classic Powell and Pressburger’s titles, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (1946), BLACK NARCISSUS (1947), and double bills of THE EDGE OF THE WORLD (1937) + RETURN TO THE EDGE OF THE WORLD (1978) as well as the recent restoration of Michael Powell’s BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE (1964) + THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE (1955). BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE (1964) has been restored by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation in association with The Ashbrittle Film Foundation, with funding provided by the BFI National Archive, The Louis B. Mayer Foundation and The Film Foundation. The sublime new restoration of BLUEBEARD’S CASTLE (1964) will also be released by the BFI in a Dual format edition (DVD & Blu-ray) in November.4
Following the huge success of the inaugural BFI Film on Film Festival in June, the season will offer UK-wide audiences a chance to experience the magic of seeing films projected on film, with 35mm print screenings of BLACK NARCISSUS (1947), THE RED SHOES (1948), THE LIFE AND DEATH OF COLONEL BLIMP (1943) and THE TALES OF HOFFMANN (1951), with new prints made with funding from the National Lottery and the additional support of donors to the BFI’s Keep Film on Film campaign.
Programme highlights up and down the UK and Northern Ireland include aroma-focused immersive screenings of BLACK NARCISSUS (1947) in Chester, Brighton and Glasgow, a series of screenings in Orkney, Mull, the Isle of Tiree and Oban, celebrating Powell and Pressburger’s Island films including I KNOW WHERE I’M GOING! (1945) and THE EDGE OF THE WORLD (1937). Special screenings planned at Much Wenlock, Shropshire, the location for GONE TO EARTH (1949) and Leonardslee Lakes and Gardens, West Sussex one of the key filming locations for BLACK NARCISSUS (1947). Other event highlights include an immersive screening of THE RED SHOES (1948) at Exeter Cathedral and A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH (1946) at Nympsfield Airfield Aerodrome, Gloucestershire. Plus, Powell and Pressburger film seasons at cinemas across the country from Cardiff, Derry, Belfast, Glasgow, Nottingham and Sheffield, to Dundee, Folkestone, Cambridge and Manchester.
Powell and Pressburger’s masterpieces were so numerous that in 2022 six of their films appeared in the Sight and Sound Greatest Films of All Time Poll (a feat only matched by Hitchcock). True cinematic visionaries, Powell and Pressburger worked with an exceptionally talented creative team of long-term collaborators as The Archers. This included Alfred Junge (production designer), Hein Heckroth (production designer and costume designer), Jack Cardiff (cinematographer), Ivor Beddoes (sketch artist), Arthur Lawson (art director) and Brian Easdale (composer) as well as actors including Roger Livesey, Anton Walbrook, Moira Shearer, Deborah Kerr, Kathleen Byron and Sabu. Together they created some of the richest and most memorable films in the story of cinema, the impact of which continues to be felt today.
Members of Film Hub Wales can still apply for funding to present events and screenings that celebrate the work of Powell & Pressburger and their influence. Read our funding guidelines and submit an application.
Film Hub Wales (FHW) has awarded £50,000 of National Lottery funding to nine independent cinemas and film festivals in Wales through its Film Exhibition Fund.
Funds will enable Welsh communities to watch the latest UK independent and international films on their doorsteps. From queer animated shorts in Cardiff, to live music and film nights in Tywyn, there’s a huge variety of activities to choose from.
The funded projects share the aim to offer climate conscious events at affordable prices. Wales One World Film Festival are running their ‘Ecosinema’ event with the theme of ‘Another World is Possible,’ which includes two short climate stories on screen from Bangladesh and an event in partnership with the Land Workers Alliance, all on a ‘pay what you feel’ basis.
Annita Nitsaidou, Marketing Officer at WOW Festival explains why these are important themes for WOW in 2023:
The climate and cost of living crises are two issues that are as local as they are global, just like Ecosinema. We want to accentuate the urgency of climate change, its global nature and the need for sustainable solutions – reminding us all that ‘Another World is Possible’. We have always believed in the power of storytelling to create social change and by making ‘Ecosinema’ accessible with our ‘pay what you feel’ offer, it will continue to offer a platform for filmmakers, activists, and audiences to come together and engage in meaningful conversations. A space where people can learn, be inspired and be part of a community that is committed to making a positive difference in the world.
Cardiff Animation Festival (CAF) have a host of events on offer all year, from free monthly screenings at their Cardiff Animation Nights, to regular free family film club screenings at both Chapter in Canton and Oasis’ centre in Splott. They are also continuing their ‘Planet Positive’ strand of screenings and talks on how animation can help fight the climate crisis.
Festival Director, Lauren Orme explains how CAF is creating a community around animation in Wales:
CAF is all about bringing people together around a love of animation. We’re running a year-round programme of films, talks and activities people can get involved in, to nurture the kind and welcoming community we’ve built around animation over the past nine years – which is more important than ever after lockdown. We’re making our programme more accessible and inclusive through captioning and BSL interpretation, and making our events free wherever we can. We’re really grateful for the continued support of Film Hub Wales, who have helped CAF to grow since our first festival.
Other highlights Wales wide include free films for families at the Magic Lantern in Tywyn and special climate conscious events as part of the ‘Greener Tywyn’ initiative. At Kotatsu Japanese Animation Festival there will be a free Manga café alongside events, where audiences can read Japanese comics after watching a film. At Cellb in Blaenau Ffestiniog, they have monthly Youth PicZ screenings where their Clwb Clinc youths can watch films at affordable prices, whilst also building their skills in front of house, projection, technical and media techniques.
Hana Lewis, Strategic Manager for Film Hub Wales explains why funding for exhibition is so important:
The Film Exhibition Fund exists to help cinemas, festivals and community screens to bring the best UK independent and international films to audiences right across Wales. Welsh exhibitors are navigating serious challenges like the cost of living crisis, whilst also adapting at a time of global climate crisis. This is no easy thing to do but they never fail to think creatively – meaning that Welsh cinemas and festivals are still the best places to watch films and for audiences to enjoy an affordable night out. Investment to preserve these community services is crucial.
The projects are supported by Film Hub Wales, which is part of the BFI Film Audience Network (FAN) using funds from the National Lottery to ensure the greatest choice of cinema is available to everyone across the UK. Funds in Wales are administered by FHW via Chapter as the Film Hub Lead Organisation.
More than £30M is raised each week for good causes across the UK by the National Lottery.
Download the full press release here
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Film Hub Wales has released a report examining the performance of 14 key films with Welsh connections released in cinemas between March 2021 and March 2022.
The films, which range from Prano Bailey Bond’s Censor, to Lindsay Walker’s The Welshman, were selected as a sample from 20 known titles, reflecting a range of release strategies and sizes. All titles benefitted from the support of Film Hub Wales’ Made in Wales (MIW) strategy, which is funded by Creative Wales and the BFI. Welsh connections include where films were set or filmed in Wales, or made by or featuring Welsh talent.
This unique report, which was written by distribution consultant Delphine Lievens, leads on from an equivalent study commissioned by Film Hub Wales in 2020. It outlines a range of key data including how Welsh films are funded, produced, marketed and distributed, along with a range of diversity statistics. The aim of the work is to create new benchmarks against which emerging trends in Welsh audience behaviour can be explored annually, enabling the screen industry to respond.
Film Hub Wales Manager, Hana Lewis explains:
We take inspiration from countries such as Sweden where they routinely publish data about the performance of their homegrown films and use this to inform future productions as well as distribution and sales strategies. There’s a lack of shared data about film in Wales and we believe by developing this work we can better understand how audiences respond to on-screen content and interrogate issues around equity, prioritising films that explore fair representation. It also enables us to understand how well Made in Wales is working as a scheme, so we can tailor our support and ensure Welsh stories reach audiences.
The 14 titles reviewed for this report took £1.1million at UK and Ireland box office, with 13% of those admissions in Wales (an increase of 2% since 2020). Three quarters (77%) of the films exceeded the 3.15% average market share for 2021 Welsh box office. The report shows that smaller Welsh-set or Welsh story-based releases were popular with cinemas and their audiences in Wales. It highlights films such as The Welshman which had 100% of its screenings in Welsh cinemas; La Cha Cha, which took 99% of its box office from Welsh sites and The Toll, which made 83% of box office takings within Wales.
Director of The Welshman Lindsay Walker explains how important the support of Welsh cinemas and Made in Wales was to the release of the film:
It was so important that The Welshman screened at local cinemas, it was special! It brought communities together and gave a bigger sense of pride to our history in Wales. Having the film screened at independent cinemas during the pandemic allowed smaller cinemas to open and put audiences back into seats and Made in Wales helped us to achieve that. It’s amazing what film can do by bringing people together.
One of the key findings of the report is that despite a growing commitment to equity and inclusion within the UK film industry, none of the 14 films analysed were directed, produced or written by Black or non-Black people of colour, which was a decrease from 4% in 2020. Although there was a 32% increase in women directors and 10% increase in women producers, none were filmmakers of colour. There was a 2% increase in lead credits for actors from non-white backgrounds (from 7% to 9.38%).
Ila Mehrotra, Director of upcoming feature Being Hijra (2023) documenting India’s first transgender modeling agency, explains why stories from diverse filmmakers are crucial for Wales:
When we are given then chance to tell our own stories, then tokenism becomes a thing of the past, but in order to get there the film industry needs to provide us with well-paid, creative opportunities that create long-term financial and creative stability in our lives. Only then will we see real change in front of and behind the camera.
Other key data included that there were no Welsh language features released during the period (a decrease from one film, Anorac, in 2020). It is anticipated that this will improve significantly over the coming years with the announcement of the new Sinema Cymru Development Fund.
Gerwyn Evans, Deputy Director, Creative Wales adds:
This type of research is so important as it helps to provide an accurate picture of the film sector in Wales and enables us to identify areas where we must do a better job of reflecting and representing our communities. While it is encouraging to see an increase in the representation of female directors in the screen industry in 2021/22, it is clear that there is a lot still to do to challenge the lack of diversity and inclusion across Film and TV. Creative Wales is committed to driving change in this arena through continued partnership working, financial support and supporting trainee schemes. Our mission is to tackle these issues head on and, in turn, create more opportunities for people from all backgrounds, at every stage of their career in screen.
Films meeting wider inclusion criteria may have been funded between March 2020 and March 2021 but not released, and were therefore ineligible for analysis in this report. Film Hub Wales is committed to undertaking this research annually, subject to funding, and is working on a selection of titles with diverse talent, releasing in 2023.
Film Hub Wales’ MIW project offers year-round activities in partnership with Welsh exhibitors, including a film catalogue, which hosts over 700 shorts and features with Welsh connections. MIW is made possible thanks to direct support from Welsh Government via Creative Wales and the BFI Film Audience Network (FAN), awarding funds from the National Lottery. BFI FAN offers support to exhibitors across the whole of the UK, to boost cultural programming and engage diverse audiences. In Wales, activity is led by Film Hub Wales, managed by Chapter.
Audiences can keep up to date with news of the upcoming Welsh releases on the Made in Wales section of Film Hub Wales’ website, or by following @Filmhubwales on social media.
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