ReelScotland round-up 🎬 August 2024
Funding cuts, class divides at TV Festival, Bridging the Gap returns
Welcome to the ReelScotland round-up, a look at what’s happening in Scottish film and TV. If you work in the Scottish screen sector or enjoy films and TV with a Scottish connection, this is for you.
🎭 “Devastating” funding cuts which could decimate Scotland’s culture industry are discussed by Brian Ferguson in The Scotsman, focusing on the news that Creative Scotland is facing a projected £47.5m budget shortfall. The creative industries are said to support more than 90,000 people and be worth more than £4.5 billion to the Scottish economy.
📺 Class, the freelancer crisis and regional snobbery were just three of the topics discussed at the 2024 Edinburgh TV Festival last week. For those interested in reading and hearing more about the fact that just 8% of workers in film and TV are from a working-class background, that broadcasters still have a London bias and about what can perhaps be done about it, Deadline’s festival summary and both James Graham’s MacTaggart Lecture and Carol Vorderman’s Alternative MacTaggart are good places to start.
📺 Rufus Radcliffe, former ITV streaming chief, has been appointed as the new CEO of STV Group reports Deadline. The leadership change comes as STV aims to further its growth as a digital-first, content-led business.
🎬✨ The Scottish Documentary Institute’s Bridging the Gap talent initiative - offering development training, a cash budget and one year of international festival distribution to emerging filmmakers based in Scotland and Northern Ireland - is once more open for applications, with a deadline of 15th September.
📽️ With an average capacity of 63 per cent, significantly above the UK average, Cromarty Cinema on the Black Isle is a bit of a success story. The Scotsman's Katharine Hay stopped off at the cinema during her epic walking tour of Scotland and found out more about how smaller cinemas in rural areas are fighting for survival.
🍿 “We’re here to show films that are not getting the space,” explains Glasgow Film Theatre CEO Allison Gardner in the Glasgow Times this week. “The audiences love us, and they need us and unfortunately many cinemas are closing.” The cinema is one of six candidates hoping to be voted Glasgow’s Favourite Business for 2024.
🍿 Fort William's Highland Cinema is running a regular film club, featuring “screenings of classic, cult and other movies of cinematic note.” Titles include Stand By Me on 16th September, Risky Business on 30th September and Gladiator on 13th October.
🍿 It’s National Cinema Day tomorrow, 31st August, with many Scottish cinemas taking part and selling tickets for just £4 each. Smaller cinemas including Edinburgh’s Cameo, Glasgow’s GFT and Dundee’s DCA are taking part along with the chains, so check your local cinema’s website for details.
🎼 Fans of Shetland, Downtown Abbey and (my favourite) Hamish Macbeth might be interested to know that their composer, Scotland-born John Lunn, is heading to Nairn Book and Arts Festival on 4th September to discuss his career.
🌊 LandxSea, Scotland’s first environmental film festival, returns from 13th-15th September and promises a showcase of climate-focused films, guest speakers and discussions, exploring the intricate connections between land and sea from global perspectives.
📺 Two new documentaries popped up on BBC iPlayer this month in the shape of The Journey to Scotland’s Remotest Pub (Inverie on the Knoydart peninsula) and The Secret Lives of Lighthouse Keepers, the latter described as “a rare glimpse into the working world of the teams who are responsible for keeping the lights on in 208 lighthouses round the coast of Scotland and the Isle of Man.”
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