Celebrating Creativity

This month we are launching Be More Leeds, an exclusive event exploring and celebrating the creativity, determination and imagination that is fuelling the Leeds City Region. Learn all about the event, our speakers and exhibitors here.

Film & TV

This summer we have partnered again with Sky to release a series of comedy shorts! Featuring a wealth of talent, including Sharon Horgan, Sheridan Smith, Joe Wilkinson, Morgana Robinson, and Andrew Flintoff, they definitely aren't to be missed!

There have been two wins for Creative England funded and supported films at this year's Edinburgh International Film Festival! I huge congratulations to Francis Lee, whose directorial debut won the Michael Powell Award for Gods Own Country, and Daisy Jacobs won the Best Short Film Awards for The Full Story! Read up on all of Creative England's films which screened at the festival here.

Raising Films, co-founded by CE50 member Hope Dickson Leach, announced this week they will be hosting regular networking events in the Northwest area for parents/carers working in the creative industries. Beginning in Liverpool and then rolling out across Manchester, these events will take place at childcare friendly times. Register your interest here.

Join us next week for ProConnect Manchester - Pitching & Presenting. This four-hour workshop is fully funded by ERDF, and will give you the tools to improve your pitching and presenting techniques. Places are limited so make sure you register in advance!

Next month sees two more events for ERDF funded ProConnect Hertfordshire, two-parter Essential Finance for Freelancers & Networking for Freelancers on the 13th July, and a Crew Networking Evening on the 25th July. Make sure you register in advance!

Games

Our next Gameslab Leeds workshop will be taking place at the end of July in York. Join us on the 31st July to hear from industry experts Gary Townley, Intellectual Property Office, and Debra Cody, DWF LLP, on how to best protect yourself. Learn more here.

Our Games Team will be on hand at Develop in Brighton on the 12th and 13th July to answer your questions about our Games offering, and the support available to games companies in the English regions outside of London. Learn more about our support of Games Developers here.

CE50 company Ustwo Games released a sequel to their hugely popular Monument Valley this month, after the original's impressive 50 million downloads worldwide. Monument Valley 2 sees a mother and child travel through the puzzle world, working together to unlock the next level.

Tech & Digital

iAMDigital is a partnership fund led by Creative England and Nominet Trust. In the last round of funding TuringLab, an edtech organisation and Northcoders, a coding bootcamp received funding awards form the programme. The second round of funding is now open, click here to find out more!

Every business needs quality content, but finding awesome creative freelancers is hard. CE50 company Twine is a marketplace that connects companies to 200,000 creatives freelancers. They have a great offer for SMEs and a Start-up Toolkit of exclusive offers for start-ups, including a free £50 voucher to use on Twine’s platform! Click here to learn more.

Last month saw the close of Barclays Eagle Lab - Flight, an accelerator run by Creative England and Barclays to support creative companies progress and grow. The final event saw each company pitch for an additional investment from Creative England in front of a room of investers.