VFX and post lead the way for BAME talent

The VFX, post-production and animation industries have a significantly higher percentage of workers from a diverse ethnic background than the wider film and TV industry.

In VFX, people of colour make up 19% of the workforce, according to research of more than 1,150 workers by trade body UK Screen Alliance in conjunction with Animation UK and Access:VFX.

For workers in animation, BAME representation is 14%, while in post-production it is 18%.

All three sectors exceed or meet the 14% UK average for people of colour in the working-age population. These sectors surpass figures published by Directors UK, which revealed only 2.3% of UK television is made by directors from BAME backgrounds.

While the report reveals encouraging overall BAME representation, it also shows that people of colour are not as well represented in creative artist jobs and occupy only 8% of senior management roles.

The report shows that the representation of women in VFX is well below parity at 33%, but in animation it is 51%.

Of the report’s respondents, 12% identified as having at least one physical disability, mental or neurological condition, with 6.5% having dyslexia.

UK Screen said that while there has been significant improvement in some respects, there are areas where action is still required.

Explaining the findings of the survey, UK Screen chief executive Neil Hatton said: “There’s a skills shortage and therefore a strong commercial imperative to discover latent talent from all communities. The recruitment focus in VFX, post and animation is firmly on skill and potential. It is quite rightly less about ‘who you know’ as the gateway to getting a job.”

The full report is available to download at https://www.ukscreenalliance.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/UK-Screen-Alliance-Inclusion-Diversity-in-UK-VFX-Animation-and-Post-Production-2019.pdf