The Film and TV Charity introduces £1 million programme to tackle racism and discrimination

The Film and TV Charity released the below statement as the organisation strives to be an actively anti-racist platform:

“12 months ago, The Film and TV Charity acknowledged that we had not done enough to recognise racism in our industry, and that this affected our ability to provide support to everybody working behind the scenes in film and TV.

We are committed to being an actively Anti-Racist organisation. We recognise the importance of long-term investment in this process as we make permanent, structural changes to ensure support is readily accessible to Black, Asian and minority ethnic people in our industry.

As a first step, in September 2020 we created a Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Community Grants Scheme, funding groups who were already active within their community networks at an extremely challenging time, and we saw so many examples of powerful Anti-Racism work taking place in the industry.

Since then, we have spoken to a wide range of the individuals and organisations who have pioneered much of this Anti-Racist action. We understand that for our actions to be meaningful they must be properly funded over the long term, and that we must collaborate with those who are leading change.

That is why today we are announcing two significant changes at the charity:

1. Effective immediately, The Film and TV Charity will ringfence 30% of its future grants budgets for Black, Asian and minority ethnic people to ensure fair access to our funding.

2. The Charity will also introduce a new £1 million programme to support the under-funded community leaders and groups working effectively to tackle racism and discrimination in the industry.

These changes signify our permanent commitment to better engage with and support work to eradicate structural racism and discrimination in our sector. This work will continue in the coming months and years.”