In late 2022, the ICO began a series of in-depth meetings reviewing the existing EDI plan and its commitments and assessing what has worked well and what should be improved or expanded on. All ICO staff and trustees were invited to join these discussions.
Subsequently, we set up an EDI Working Group made up of three trustees and several staff members to meet regularly and move this work forward. Currently, the Working Group is looking at how to expand our plan with a more intersectional approach, as well as how to integrate specific EDI goals into broader team objectives.
Programming Charter
Our Programming Charter is designed to increase the number of films by Black, Asian and ethnically diverse filmmakers screened by cinemas in our ICO programming network. It works by flagging suitable titles early on and leveraging financial and marketing support from distributors direct to venues to maximise their audience development potential.
In March 2023, we offered limited financial support to pilot venues around the release of British director Raine Allen Miller’s London-set romantic comedy, Rye Lane. They used the support to engage their local communities in different ways, including working with local partners to curate special screening events and running paid social media advertising campaigns that built on existing audience data. All pilot venues saw stronger box office results than those that did not benefit from support.
In the next financial year, we hope to support six titles in this way, partnering with distributors to leverage financial support direct to venues as part of their overall campaign plans.
Updating demographic data for our current staff and Board of Trustees
In April 2023 we surveyed our staff and Board of Trustees for their demographic data again. Download the information.