Screenskills

An additional £104M ($127M) and 20,000 full-time jobs will need to be injected into the UK’s film and high-end TV (HETV) sectors over the next three years for the industry to keep up with demand for projects, according to the BFI . The body published its long-awaited skills review today, with the key recommendation being that at least 1% of all production budgets are invested in training in order to mitigate the growing skills crisis. The review, which has had buy-in from major stakeholders in the HETV and film sectors, said £104M will need to be spent and 20,770 more full-time posts created to meet demand by 2025, with production spend having rocketed over the past four years to £5.6BN ($6.8B). A similar report last week from UK training body ScreenSkills , which predicted film and HETV could hit £7.7B ($9.4B) by 2025, forecast roughly the same number of jobs required but a colossal £300M ($368M) investment needed. Projects have been rushing back into production … [Read more...] about Landmark BFI UK Skills Review Calls For $127M Investment & 21,000 Extra Crew By 2025; Urges 1% Of Production Budgets Used For Training

The British Independent Film Awards is making some changes for its 25th anniversary, going gender-neutral with its acting categories as it also adds new performance awards, a new debut director category for feature documentaries, and two new music prizes. In doing away with “actress” and “actor” honors, BIFA joins other orgs that have recently made the change including the Berlin Film Festival, the MTV Movie Awards and the BRITs. BIFA says it will now present five acting awards: Best Lead Performance, Best Supporting Performance, Best Joint Lead Performance — for two (or exceptionally three) performances that are the joint focus of a film — and Best Ensemble. BIFA’s established Breakthrough Performance award (which was already non-gender specific) remains unchanged. The Lead and Supporting Performance categories will have up to 10 nominees each while the Joint Lead Performance and Ensemble races will include up to five. In addition, BIFA is adding a Best Debut … [Read more...] about British Independent Film Awards Shifts To Gender-Neutral Acting Categories; Adds Prizes