Into Film partners with the BBC for the Bring the Drama Festival

31 Jan 2024

6 mins
The logo for the BBC's Bring the Drama festival.
The logo for the BBC's Bring the Drama festival.

We're proud to be partnering with the BBC's Bring the Drama Festival, which runs alongside the upcoming TV series, Bring the Drama, coming to BBC2 in February.

The festival, launching in February, is a six-week programme of careers events around the UK showcasing behind-the-scenes jobs in the creative industries. Over the six weeks, UK audiences will be able to find an event showcasing everything from stage-managing to wig-making; lighting to line producing; set design to make-up design. The BBC is joining forces with some of the UK's leading cultural organisations to create the first festival of its kind: bringing together stage and screen and opening up doors for the next generation of behind-the-scenes talent.

There is so much talent across Britain, and making world-class movies, TV shows and theatre is one of our greatest global exports - working with more than 100 partner organisations, the festival promises to lure in the next generation of brilliant creatives.

Suzy Klein, Head of Arts TV at the BBC

Those involved in creating the festival (in addition to Into Film) include Arts Council England, the BFI, BAFTA, National Theatre, National Youth Theatre, Screen Alliance North, Society of London Theatre and UK Theatre, Get Into Theatre, Cameron Mackintosh Limited, Bristol Old Vic, ScreenSkills, Screen Scotland, Northern Ireland Screen and Ffilm Cymru.

The festival will feature hundreds of events with more than a hundred partners from across the UK, and offer a range of activities including talks, tours, workshops, masterclasses, Q&As and meet-the-teams celebrating craft roles.

We at Into Film, delivering with the support of the BFI, awarding National Lottery funding, are hosting several UK-wide screen industry careers events for educators and their students, including a raft of career panels throwing a spotlight on the broad range of industry roles, from directing, to working in the gaming industry. 

Two panels will be taking place in-person at BAFTA in London, and both will be available for schools across the UK to join online. One panel will be for 11-14-year-olds, and the other for 15-19-year-olds, and they are being held in partnership with BAFTA in celebration of both National Careers Week and International Women's Day on 8 March. There are still a few spaces available to join the 11-14 session in-person, and both sessions can be joined online.

We will also be hosting an additional Working in TV & Film Panel Event on Friday 8 March at 10:00am, also celebrating both National Careers Week and International Women's Day. At this event, in partnership with Pact and Speakers for Schools, three experienced independent producers, whose companies make factual programming for top broadcasters and streamers in the UK and overseas, will be discussing their roles as both producers and business owners. They will be sharing information about their routes into the industry, and the skills needed for a successful career in independent production. Educators and careers professionals can express interest in taking part in our Working in TV and Film panel until noon on Thursday 7 March.

In addition, we have a further twelve film careers Q&A events taking place across the UK throughout March as part of our free Spring Screenings programme. Find out more and book your free screenings and events today.

Meanwhile, our careers page aims to keep careers professionals and educators up-to-date with the essential information and resources needed to advise on opportunities across the screen industries. Whether its classroom resources, videos from past events, or podcasts offering insight into the industry, you can find it on our dedicated careers page.

Examples of other partner events include backstage tours at The Lyric Belfast throughout its production of Little Women; behind-the-scenes tours of Hamilton and Les Misérables with the Cameron Mackintosh Limited production teams; Bristol's The Bottle Yard Studios running an marketplace event to showcase the vast range of careers across film, TV and theatre with a host of exhibitors; A Play, a Pie and a Pint in Glasgow opening their doors to showcase opportunities for craftspeople and stage managers amongst other craft roles; Northern Ireland Screen offering work experience opportunities across Northern Ireland; bespoke tours of the Royal Shakespeare Company's many workshops in Stratford and BBC Cardiff Central hosting tours of the Crimewatch and Sin Bin sets. Other partners hosting and creating events include Sadlers Wells, the Royal Opera House, Into Film, The Curve theatre in Leicester, Liverpool Everyman, Birmingham Royal Ballet, Confetti Media in Nottingham and Whitechapel and BECTU in Glasgow.

Full details can be found by using the ERIC | Creative Career App from 1 February, where you can use your postcode to find events taking place near you. ERIC is a creative careers app designed to connect people with skills and confidence-building opportunities and get them ready to enter the creative workforce.

As well as offering audiences opportunities to experience and understand the skill within these craft roles, the festival aims to create a community for cultural organisations across film, theatre, and television to share and collaborate and to work to tackle the skills gap that is present within the sector in these roles.

You may also be interested in...

Viewing 4 of 4 related items.

Into Film Clubs

Into Film Clubs

Find out everything you need to know about starting an Into Film Club.

News details

Want to write for us?

Get in touch with your article ideas for the News and Views section.