MUMBAI: The UK Film Council is hosting a range of events at the second International Screenwriters’ Festival, 3 – 6 July 2007 at The Manor by the Lake, in Cheltenham.

Lost Voices, on 4 July is a panel-led debate that will focus on the role of writers in developing greater on screen diversity, and in particular their role in considering how and what stories to tell, and how they are conveyed on screen. Speakers include award-winning screenwriter Noel Clarke (Kidulthood) and Anne Hogben of the Writers Guild.

Lost Voices is part of Want to See More of Me, a multi-strand project comprising a series of debates and workshops on the issues surrounding the lack of black and ethnic minority professionals in the UK film industry. It is centred round a collection of 25 portraits of talented black UK film actors taken by photographer Donald Maclellan. The project will celebrate achievements in increasing on-screen diversity, as well as debating potential solutions to current challenges around content portrayal.

Who Gets Hired? is a panel-led event based around key findings from Writing British Films – Who writes British films and how they are recruited, a report commissioned by the UK Film Council and conducted by Royal Holloway, University of London. The report has identified, for the first time, who writes for British film and how they are hired.

The debate will pick up on key recommendations in the report including how to establish better links between commissioners of screenplays for British films and writers from a greater diversity of working writing backgrounds, and soliciting the views of agents and other gatekeepers about the roles they can play in broadening the diversity of writers for British films. The panel includes Oscar® winning screenwriter Diana Ossana (co-writer, Brokeback Mountain).

UK Film Council head of diversity Marcia Williams said. “The International Screenwriters’ Festival is a great forum, giving screenwriters at all levels opportunities to increase knowledge and make contacts, as well as advancing the cause of screenwriters overall. For the UK Film Council, with its focus on developing talent and creating overall sustainability, the festival is a place to extend support for the UK film industry.”

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