DirectorsDigest—Thursday29January2026

In the news this week, the Edinburgh TV Foundation announces its first tranche of Class Confident organizations, the Creative Diversity Network launches a new and improved iteration of its Diamond diversity monitoring system, and the 2026 EE BAFTA Film Awards nominations are unveiled.

Read about it in this week’s Digest.

News

•  Doc Society, FACT and the BFI have selected 10 projects for the Future Proof Development Lab, a UK-Denmark programme for non-fiction works dealing with new technologies in an age of misinformation. (Screen Daily)

•  Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 silent feature The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog has become possibly the first classic movie to be reframed as a microdrama. (Deadline)

•  The BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Paramount and major UK production groups are the Edinburgh TV Foundation’s first tranche of Class Confident organizations, a movement aiming to remove barriers for people from working class backgrounds to get into and stay in the TV industry.  (Deadline)

•  The BBC is reshuffling its Creative Diversity team following a major HR restructure. (Broadcast)

•  Women in Film and TV announces its 2026 Four Nations Mentoring Scheme cohort, a scheme which offers opportunities to accelerate careers for mid-career women working in film, television and creative media. (Televisual)

•  The JETS Initiative 2026 has announced the selected participants for its 10th anniversary edition, including five projects from the UK. (WEP Films)

•  Bafta heads Jane Millichip and Sara Putt are satisfied with the impact of voting interventions in key film categories, following the announcement of its Film Awards nominations. (Screen Daily)

•  The Creative Diversity Network has announced the launch of a new and improved iteration of its Diamond diversity monitoring system, which is used across the UK television industry to measure representation on and off screen. (CDN)

Director Interviews

•  Director Kirk Jones on I Swear: “When people ask me why there are no other recognizable names at the front of the film ... I say the film was financed in a very, very unique way, which gave me total and complete freedom over the script, the casting shoot, everything.’’ (Deadline)

Opinion

•  The BBC’s outgoing director general Tim Davie says BBC faces ‘profound jeopardy’ without funding overhaul and indicates support for update to licence-fee model as part of wider changes.

Awards

•  The nominations for the 2026 EE BAFTA Film Awards have been unveiled. Congratulations to all those nominated across the two directing categories, including member Yorgos Lanthimos!