Welsh Film & TV Industry Goes from Strength to Strength as Key Partners Pledge Support

Influential women working across production finance, accounts and production management gathered at Wolf Studios in Cardiff, Wales on Monday June 19 to raise a glass to the region's success and hear how key partners are working to support local crew.

Hosted by Entertainment Partners (EP) and Women in Film and TV – in partnership with Screen Alliance Wales – the event demonstrated a shared commitment to Wales’ booming film and TV industry.

As the region continues to attract major studios and broadcasters such as HBO, Sony Pictures Television and AMC, EP is committed to investing in the next generation of Welsh production professionals to help the industry continue to meet demand.

Earlier this year, EP became an official sponsor of Screen Alliance Wales, a leading not-for-profit which grows and promotes the talent, crew and services of the film and TV industry in Wales. EP is also a sponsor of The Production Guild of Great Britain’s (PGGB’s) new Wales Committee, which has been established to support the needs of the Welsh production workforce.

Opening the event, Laura Webster from Entertainment Partners, said:

“We are delighted to be here tonight with Women in Film and TV at our first event in Cardiff. Entertainment Partners is passionate about supporting this production hub which is so vital to the UK film and TV industry.”

Laura went on to host a panel discussion with notable guests Jane Tranter (Founder and CEO, Bad Wolf), Vicki Delow (Producer, His Dark Materials (HBO)) and Allison Dowzell (Managing Director, Screen Alliance Wales), who reflected on Wales' emergence as a global production center.

Vicki Delow (Producer), Jane Tranter (Bad Wolf), Allison Dowzell (Screen Alliance Wales) and Laura Webster (EP) opened the event with a panel discussion

Tranter is one of the most consistently celebrated TV producers both in the UK and worldwide, whose 20-year career has a track record of groundbreaking shows including Succession (HBO), His Dark Materials (BBC/HBO) and A Discovery of Witches (Sky/AMC). She discussed how Wales was a natural home for Bad Wolf (now majority owned by Sony Pictures Television), which she co-founded with Julie Gardner in 2015 on her return from the United States:

“I really loved how New York crews were so passionate about what they did; they reminded me a lot of the Welsh crews I had been lucky enough to work with in the past. That’s when I knew I wanted to come back to Wales and build a studio where we could make big, international, high-end TV productions using local talent and crews.”

To bring this vision to life, Tranter knew the Welsh industry needed strong training and enablement initiatives in place to build a community of world-class crew. She founded Screen Alliance Wales in 2018 to educate, promote and train local production crews and provide all local people – regardless of their backgrounds or experiences – access to opportunities within the Welsh creative industries.

Since then, Screen Alliance Wales has worked with 37,000 people from the ages of seven to 75, including 100 paid trainees and more than 300 work shadow placements.

For Vicki Delow – who has produced some of the UK’s most loved high-end drama series, including Cardiff-based His Dark Materials (HBO) and the iconic Doctor Who (BBC) – the work of Screen Alliance Wales is evident: “The talent we have here is incredible,” she told the room. “The crew I have now on Doctor Who are some of the best I’ve ever worked with.”

The event ended with open floor networking over drinks and light snacks

To continue to encourage local people to enter the creative sector and move up the professional ladder, this event was the first in a series of activity EP has planned for Wales. Later this year, it will be supporting PGGB's Step Up to Production Accountant Training Programme in Cardiff, which will help new and aspiring production accountants take the next step in their career.

This five-day course will be funded by the newly created Talent Development Fund, in which EP and Netflix have each invested £250k ($308k) to train 150 production accountants and production managers over the next three years.

For more information on upcoming training and enablement initiatives, keep an eye on EP’s Industry News page.