London Diversity Film Festival

“Only 3% of the sector’s production workforce is from BAME backgrounds” It’s Nice That.

“Women made up 46% of the film workforce, and yet only 7.8% of the UK films released were directed and only 13.4% were written by women, demonstrating that there is still a lot of work to be done.”

“The 2012 Creative Skillset employment census shows that only 0.3% of the total film workforce are disabled (2% in production, 0.1% in exhibition and none in distribution).”

“Working-class people continue to be hugely underrepresented in the arts, and the people at the top - mostly well-paid, middle-class white men - are least likely to see it.” - The Guardian.

The London Diversity Film Festival is a three day event aimed increasing understanding about ethnic and sexual minority groups. It will connect communities from diverse backgrounds to come together and participate in screenings, workshops and networking events.

This festival will enable filmmakers, artists and stories that reflect the population of London with a public space to make their voices heard. We aim to produce an authentic multicultural experience through the sharing of cultural and heritage films with audiences.

This festival will consist of film screenings, skills workshops, seminars, guest speakers and more! This festival is for people who love to make films or just love watching them. It’s a win win!

We created this festival to help contribute to making the film and TV sector more representative of the population of London. This is where we celebrate talent, endorse creativity & push our participants to widen their horizons. There are so many reasons why this festival is needed: we want to encourage our fellow BAME & LGBT society members to not let the colour of their skin, sexuality or class be a hindrance onto their careers.

History of MADE:
Make A Difference Entertainment is registered charity with an overall vision is to reduce discrimination against BAME & LGBTQ+ Londoners. Our specific aims are to increase career readiness for young people and develop opportunities for BAME & LGBTQ+ people in the film/TV sector by increasing the understanding through the content we produce to reduce prejudice about these communities. MADE’s objectives consist of 3 main aspects. Firstly, we offer skill development workshops and networking events - one of the main purposes of this required festival. Secondly, we create short film & documentary content with & for underrepresented communities where the best contents will be screened at our festival. And lastly, we want to distribute these works to festivals, broadcasters, MADE’s screening events & online platforms.

In the last 4 years, MADE has run over 500 workshops, 3 screening events with over 100 attendees, delivered 10 projects with employability and community cohesion outcomes and produced over 100 short films. To date we've hosted 4 events: two at the BFI Southbank & more. We have reached a point in our charity's strategy where we would like to develop projects that are more focused on producing content and campaigns that involve our communities of interest. We would also like to develop a bigger platform to get work shown and build the necessary relationship with potential broadcasters and distributors to fund new content.

Categories:
Accepts the following:
Features (up to 120 minutes)
Shorts (up to 30 minutes)
Documentaries (up to 120 minutes)
Web Series (1 episode up to 30 minutes)

Benefits of submitting to London Diversity Film Festival:

- Networking drinks
- Guest speakers from the film industry
- Films selected will have visibility on promotional materials and on MADE’s platforms
- Winning filmmakers will be featured in the event documentary
- 10 films will be chosen to be screened at the gala
- All the images and soundtracks used in your film must be your own or you must have permission of the copyright holder to use their music/images in your film.
- Films will be selected by a panel of film and TV professionals.
- You will also receive feedback from them on your films should they be selected.
- Films in a language other than English must be subtitled in English, unless dialogue or commentary is unnecessary for comprehension and appreciation.