There is some exciting news in West Midlands. Earlier this week West Midlands Combined Authority and Mayor of the West Midlands, Andy Street, announced the creation of a new West Midlands Screen Industry Body. Film Birmingham look forward to working with the new body – which intends to act as a coordinated voice for the screen sector and oversee a programme of activities to support the industry.
This is a promising step forward, one which comes on the back of some significant developments in the region’s creative economy over the last 18 months, including winning a £1.3m boost from the DCMS Creative Industries Scale Up programme and the upcoming Local Industrial Strategy, with its commitment to ‘creative content, techniques and technologies’. The region’s screen sector has also benefited from supportive programmes such as Creative England’s Be More Birmingham event, the West Midlands Screen Bureau’s Design Labs, pilots and research and the work on the Channel 4 bid created momentum and identified some promising opportunities for the region’s creative industries.
Film Birmingham and other local partners will be involved in the consultation process for the WM Screen Industry Body. Creative industries specialist Suzie Norton (Zanna Creative) will be leading the consultations with stakeholders on behalf of West Midlands Combined Authority to help get this new project up and running. There are some exciting times ahead and we look forward to sharing more positive news and developments in the coming months.
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