TWU20: Two Weeks To Go, First Sessions Announced!

With two weeks to go until the digital edition of This Way Up 2020 on 1-3 December, we're working to prepare our programme, speakers and online platform where you’ll be able to network, re-watch sessions and more. You’ll be joining over 400 delegates from across the exhibition industry to reflect on the changes and challenges of the year and to share new, collaborative ways of thinking and working in our sector.

We're excited to share a selection of session highlights from this year's programme below.

Questions? Get in touch!

TWU20: Session Highlights

BFI CEO Ben Roberts will deliver an opening talk on the state of play in the cinema exhibition industry; addressing the challenges of this year but also celebrating the achievements and progress made across the sector as we look towards 2021.

Diversifying British Film Culture

Chaired by Gower Street Box Office Analyst Delphine Lievens, this panel aims to discuss and examine Black-led films that are produced and released theatrically in the UK and the barriers that prevent them from achieving box office success.

The panel is made up of representatives from production, distribution and exhibition. How can our sectors collaborate to actively promote better representation within the workforce, and UK film culture more widely?

Pandemic Cinema: Tales from the Archive

What was the response of the cinema industry to previous pandemics? BFI Curator Bryony Dixon will give an illustrated talk documenting the reactions to pandemic during the 1918/19 Spanish Flu pandemic, on-screen and off - with clips from the BFI Archive.

Hosted by Andy Robson, Screen Heritage Producer, Film Hub North.

Reframing Recruitment

The focus on diversity and inclusion in recruitment is not new, but the urgency surrounding the inequalities at play across society have been further exposed as a result of COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement.

What can we learn from organisations who have approached recruitment in new ways? What other factors might help remove barriers for people from all walks of life to work and flourish in our sector?

Showroom Cinema's Programme Manager Mikaela Smith joins Unlimited Senior Producer Jo Verrant and the TWU Development Forum's Reba Martin on the panel.

Film Freelancing in 2020

A conversation about freelancing in film exhibition, with representatives from Dial F for Freelancer, Excluded UK and Museum Freelance.

They’ll be discussing the support available, comparative data from heritage and museums, and inviting those in the sector to help develop a new code of conduct for film freelancers. On the panel are Jo Taylor, Sonali Joshi, Christina Lister and Anna Kime.