Film industry in Wales booming after another blockbuster year

It’s been a blockbuster year for film and TV in Wales with productions from the world’s biggest studios making Wales their home.

Creative Wales reported that £14.2m of production funding has so far been successfully awarded to 22 projects since it began 2020.

Production spend from industry giants Lucasfilm, Netflix and Bad Wolf generated over £155m into the Welsh Economy.

With shooting for big-budget films like Havoc which recently wrapped and Wales-made series Willow, His Dark Materials 3 and the fourth season of Sex Education poised to hit screens, the local creative economy is growing year-on-year.

In the last two years alone, Wales Screen, Creative Wales’s location service, has received over 900 production enquiries from film and TV crews wanting to take advantage of the country’s production facilities.

[mid-content-banner]

Skilled workforce 

With a vast choice of filming locations, seven shooting studios and a skilled workforce, the Welsh screen sector saw a turnover of £575 million in 2021, a 36% increase from the year before.

A memorandum of understanding with BBC Wales and S4C is seeing an increased partnership working in Wales to tell uniquely Welsh stories and supporting independent production companies.

Hitting our screens next year will be Wolf (Hartswood / BBC) a prime-time thriller rooted in Wales and Steeltown Murders (Severn Screen) which centres on the hunt to catch the killer of three young women in the Port Talbot area.

Following the announcement of the Ffilm Cymru Fund earlier this year, a collaboration between Creative Wales and Ffilm Cymru Wales saw five independent film productions approved – with work on the first project ‘Timestalker’ underway.

Growth

A funding boost of £180,000 has also been made available to support the development of Welsh Language film and provide financial support to develop talent and ideas.

The commitment is part of the Co-operation Agreement between the Welsh Government and Plaid Cymru.

In 2022 Creative Wales relaunched production funding and for the first time included support for the games industry.

Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport, Dawn Bowden, said: “We’ve seen unprecedented growth in the creative sectors over recent years and it’s been wonderful to see Wales’ unique locations on screen – and also to demonstrate the excellence of our world-class talent, crews and facilities.

“Our focus on skills will continue in the new year – to ensure that we can deliver the demand for skills and talent for this growing sector.”