With this year, and the strikes that have been happening, it was super important for me to stay in the industry somehow and really connect with people in new ways that I hadn’t tried before, so Connect came at the perfect time for me.
Celine Davies, Storyboard Artist and BAFTA Connect Member
BAFTA Connect is our discounted membership tier for emerging and mid-level creatives currently working across the screen industries, providing them with access to an invaluable network of industry professionals and full BAFTA members.
We began BAFTA Connect in 2022 as part of our ongoing mission to support the future creative leaders of the film, games and TV industries. Connect membership is open to emerging and mid-level creatives working in Film, Games and TV, and is designed to support a diverse range of promising individuals to build consistent and sustained careers in their chosen craft specialism. The purpose of the membership is also to help tackle ongoing crew shortages and skills gaps in the industry, and in 2023 we launched the Directory; a list of Connect members sorted by specialism to facilitate introductions between them and the wider BAFTA membership.
Our 2,000-plus Connect members enjoy a programme of workshops, forums and events, as well as structured peer-to-peer networking and full-day conferences, all designed to help them develop their craft and understanding of the industry landscape and best practices within it. In 2023, we welcomed almost 900 new practitioners into BAFTA through our BAFTA Connect membership, supporting and engaging with those who make up the future of our industry.
Through monthly Games Connect Socials and other networking events, our Games Connect have built a thriving community to help their already impressive careers flourish. At some events, such as our sessions on adapting games worlds for TV, Connect members were able to network with professionals from other screen industries, opening doors and igniting new potential collaborations. Connect member Jake Gaule, a composer in games who attended our event in Bristol, said: “I know a lot of composers and people in games already, but because the BAFTA network is wider than that… [I’ve] met people that I wouldn’t have through the usual routes of networking… There’s been a real variety… [I’ve had] the opportunity to meet people at different levels and to learn from them".
