Twenty-Three Years In The Frame: Richard Williams In Conversation With Hugh Odling-SmeeTwenty-Three Years In The Frame: Richard Williams In Conversation With Hugh Odling-Smee
Nerve Centre, 7-8 Magazine Street, Derry~Londonderry
Few people have shaped the story of film and television in Northern Ireland as much as Richard Williams.
Richard became Chief Executive of Northern Ireland Screen in 2003, when the sector was small and still finding its feet. Over the 23 years since, it has grown into an internationally recognised centre for production, creativity and homegrown talent.
Ahead of his departure in December, Foyle Film Festival celebrates this remarkable tenure. Richard will look back at the development of the Paint Hall studios at Titanic Quarter, which became home to Game of Thrones for eight seasons and transformed the screen sector in Northern Ireland. He will talk about the work to make Northern Ireland a competitive place to make large-scale TV drama, and about the local stories and talent that have reached audiences around the world, from Hunger to An Irish Goodbye and from Derry Girls to Blue Lights. Richard will also reflect on overseeing the development and expansion of the Northern Ireland Screen Digital Film Archive, which has opened up the region’s rich moving-image heritage to everyone.
Richard will look ahead to the challenges facing the screen industry here and the opportunities still to come. These range from Studio Ulster and Belfast Stories to Northern Ireland Screen’s plans for an all-island co-funding partnership with Screen Ireland, and a dedicated BBC drama strategy for Northern Ireland, once the BBC Charter is renewed. The conversation is hosted by Hugh Odling-Smee, Film Hub NI.
MEET RICHARD WILLIAMS
Under Richard’s leadership, Northern Ireland Screen developed the Paint Hall at Titanic Quarter as a film studio which became the home of HBO’s Game of Thrones for eight seasons. And more recently partnered with Belfast Harbour Commission in the development of Belfast Harbour Studios, a purpose-built studio complex, and Studio Ulster, Europe’s largest virtual production studio.
Under his leadership, Northern Ireland Screen supports film, TV drama, animation, factual/ entertainment, and interactive content, contributing to award-winning productions including HBO’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Universal’s How to Train Your Dragon, the Oscar®-winning shorts The Shore and An Irish Goodbye, BAFTA-winning Kneecap, Emmy® Award-winning Derry Girls, Camera D’Or winning Hunger, and BAFTA winner and Oscar® nominated Boogaloo and Graham. He was awarded an OBE in 2019 for services to the screen industry.
Meet Hugh Odling-Smee.
Born and raised in Belfast, Hugh Odling-Smee has been the Manager of Film Hub NI since 2013, based at the Queen’s Film Theatre, supporting the development of the independent cinema sector in Northern Ireland and leading nationally on areas such as Screen Heritage for the BFI Film Audience Network.
Hugh has a long pedigree of presenting and interpreting the cultural and social history of Northern Ireland in film, theatre and literature across the last 25 years. As an arts manager, Hugh led the Theatre and Performing Arts Archive at the Linen Hall Library, was Creative Producer of Kabosh Theatre Company and was the first coordinator of the Belfast Book Festival.
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