Directors Digest — Thursday 12 May

The BBC and Channel 4 documentary departments commit to 50% women directors, COVID production protocols are eased, and Irish, Welsh and Cornish-language films break through. Read all about it below.

The BBC and Channel 4 documentary departments are commiting to 50% women directors following a campaign from We Are Doc Women. (Deadline)

The UK is relaxing COVID production protocols, Variety reports. 

The BBC is investing £10m in comedy and will double the number of half-hour comedy pilots it produces. (Guardian)

Meanwhile Channel 4 have agreed a distribution deal with YouTube, Broadcast reports. 

Irish indie Element Pictures has been purchased by Fremantle. (Broadcast)

Filmmaker Vesna Cudic has been appointed Head of Doc Partnerships at Sky Cinema. (Televisual)

The Guardian interviews director Gaspar Noé about working on his new film, Vortex, starring fellow director Dario Argento. 

And finally, is this a breakthrough moment for celtic cinema? Sight and Sound thinks so.