A major new entertainment industry event is being developed for Edinburgh which aims to connect Scottish talent, Fringe discoveries and new creative ideas with television and film commissioners from around the world.
The initiative will launch with a pilot during Edinburgh’s August festivals in 2027, bringing broadcasters, streaming platforms, producers, publishers, performers and other figures from the international creative industries together in the capital.
Plans were announced by Culture Secretary Màiri McAllan on Thursday, 27 August, at an event attended by Baby Reindeer creator Richard Gadd.
The Edinburgh TV Festival, which has brought senior figures from the British television industry to the capital for more than 50 years, is moving to Greater Manchester from 2027.
Rather than attempting simply to recreate the existing television festival, Screen Scotland and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society are developing a broader event built around Edinburgh’s unusual concentration of performers, writers, filmmakers, comedians, producers and audiences every August.
One of its central aims will be to help new talent and intellectual property discovered in Edinburgh reach commissioners around the world.
That could mean creating more opportunities for a successful Fringe show, Scottish writer, comedian or other creative project to make the leap into television or film.
Richard Gadd developed Baby Reindeer from the one-man stage show he performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2019. Fleabag creator Phoebe Waller-Bridge was discovered by the TV industry while performing their shows in the city during August.
It was subsequently adapted into the Netflix series which became an international hit and won major awards.
Gadd attended Thursday night’s announcement and spoke about Edinburgh’s importance as a place where new talent can be discovered, ambitious work can be tested and careers can progress. Screen Scotland said the changing relationship between different forms of entertainment was central to its thinking.
Ideas and talent increasingly move between theatre, comedy, books, podcasts, television and film, while the biggest streaming platforms are constantly looking for stories and creators capable of reaching international audiences.
The new Edinburgh event is intended to exploit the fact that many of those ideas and creators are already gathered in one city every August.
Independent consultant Rowan Woods has been appointed to develop the initiative. Woods is a former creative director of the Edinburgh TV Festival and has worked across film and television for organisations including BBC Film, the BFI London Film Festival and the British Council. She currently works with the Berlin International Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival.
Over the coming months she will work with Screen Scotland, the Fringe Society and a wider advisory group to consult festivals, venues, broadcasters, streaming platforms, producers, publishers and content creators. That process will determine exactly what the event looks like, including its dates, venues, programme and participants.
Consultation is expected to finish in early spring 2027 before the first pilot event takes place in August. The project will build on Screen Fringe, the existing partnership between Screen Scotland and the Fringe Society which helps hundreds of film and television executives navigate the enormous Edinburgh Fringe programme.
The initiative provides executives with show recommendations, industry networking, introductions to talent and information about writers, performers and stories which could potentially transfer from stage to screen. Screen Fringe is expected to continue alongside the new event.
Screen Scotland director David Smith said Edinburgh had a unique ability to bring together the people and ideas capable of shaping the future of the creative industries.
He said: “Every August, the city becomes a remarkable meeting place for talent from around the world, alongside audiences, producers, commissioners, artists and creative thinkers.”
Smith said the opportunity was to build on that concentration of talent and create something “new, ambitious and genuinely distinctive for the global industry”.
Fringe Society chief executive Tony Lankester said there was already strong demand from the international screen and creative industries to connect with the talent appearing in Edinburgh.
She described the city as a “global hotbed of emerging talent” where new voices and stories are discovered.
A second new fixture will also begin in 2027. Screen Scotland is establishing an annual Lynda Myles Debate, named after the former Edinburgh International Film Festival director who co-created the event which eventually became the Edinburgh Television Festival in 1976.
Myles later worked as a BBC drama commissioning editor and Columbia Pictures executive and produced films including The Commitments. The debate is intended to restore an annual Edinburgh forum for major discussion about the future of television, film and the wider media industry.