In November 2022 the Independent Cinema Office (ICO) team started a series of in-depth meetings to discuss the existing Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) plan and commitments, what has worked well and what can be improved or expanded on. Discussions also included what new ideas or areas need to be added to make the plan more intersectional and comprehensive. All ICO staff, trustees and board members were invited to be part of these discussions. This series of meetings is due to run until early 2023, after which our renewed and updated EDI commitments will be shared.
Programming Charter
We have been continuing the development of the Programming Charter, focussing on increasing the number of films by Black, Asian and ethnically diverse filmmakers across our venue network, and supporting them to increase audiences for those films through meaningful events and partnership work. To do this, we have a working group of four venues of varying size, capacity and location, that feedback on our progress, and share their own work, best practice and the challenges they’re facing. Taking on the learnings from the past year, we will continue to highlight all titles by Black, Asian and ethnically diverse directors to our cinema network, and negotiate with distributors for more flexibility and marketing support for these titles. Through this, we aim to increase the likelihood venues will book these titles on a more frequent basis and increase their confidence in those bookings.