Last week, GMAC and Film City Glasgow represented Scotland with Screen Talent Europe at the Noordelijk Film Festival in Leeuwarden. As part of the festival’s industry program, Screen Talent Europe delivered a panel discussion on the importance of talent development and diversity; raising the voice of filmmaking workshops and hubs across Europe.  

At the event, Scotland’s talent development pipeline, supported by Screen Scotland, was showcased to Dutch policy makers and funders alongside the work of our colleges at Ardán (Ireland) and Odense Film Workshop (Denmark); demonstrating the need for adequate time and funding when supporting talent into the film industry.

Sophie Jones of GMAC Film and Wilma Smith of Film City Glasgow were delighted to share the collaborative and coherent approach Scotland takes to non-formal training routes into the film sector; highlighting on an international scale Scotland’s strong reputation for championing underrepresented filmmakers.

The festival also gave us the wonderful opportunity to connect with organisations based in Italy, Holland, Ireland and Norway over protected languages such as Gaelic, and discuss the importance of celebrating diversity by encouraging filmmakers to create work in their mother tongue.

The overriding outcome of our trip to the Netherlands was a collective commitment to share best practices from our respective countries to ensure all partner  organisations are properly supported in delivering inspiring projects for new filmmaking talent.

GMAC alumni, watch this space for international opportunities coming soon!