Directors Digest — Friday 28 March 2025

In the news this week, director Philip Barantini discusses Adolescence, the BBC on improving working conditions for deaf production crew, and HETV Skills Fund to allocate funds to mid-career development.

Read about it in this week’s Digest.

News

•  A new report from Creative UK calls for urgent reform and increased support for freelancers — and echoes our calls for the introduction of a Freelance Commissioner. (Broadcast) You can read the full report here. (Creative UK) Its findings correspond with our own research, which shows that TV and film directors suffer from financial instability and irregular employment. As the Creative UK report highlights, “the cultural and creative industries rely on freelancers twice as much as any other sector”. If our sector is to thrive it’s crucial that its workforce has better protections and support.

•   YouTube hit a record 11.6% of all TV viewing in February, according to the latest edition of Nielsen‘s Distributor Gauge Report. (Deadline)

•  Oscar-winning Palestinian director of No Other Land, Hamdan Ballal, has been released after being arrested and attacked by settlers in his village in the West Bank. (The Guardian)

•  The BBC’s head of creative diversity Jessica Schibli has set out how the broadcaster is improving working conditions for deaf production crew. (Broadcast)

•  The BBC has launched a new season across TV, iPlayer and Radio to help start conversations between those living with dementia and their friends, families and carers by evoking memories of their past through content from the BBC’s archive. (Televisual)

•  The High-End TV Skills Fund will place greater resource on backing mid-level talent, enabling career development and protecting progress made around diversity and inclusion. (Broadcast)

Director Interviews

•  Documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer on his first fiction film, The End. (Little White Lies)

•  Adolescence director Philip Barantini and director of photography Matt Lewis discuss casting and how the single shot scenes were orchestrated (The Rest is Entertainment). Philip and writer Jack Thorne and delve into the script and the current landscape of TV drama. (The Filmmaker Podcast)

Awards

•  The winners from the RTS Programme Awards were announced this week. See the full list of winners here. (Televisual)

•  The BAFTA TV Award nominees have been announced (BAFTA). Congratulations to all the Directors UK members nominated across factual, fiction, and multi-cam directing.