27 April 2013

S4C Chief Executive, Ian Jones, has praised the work of Wales’ creative industries after the Channel’s programmes picked up four of the main awards at the 2013 Celtic Media Festival. The international three day event was this year held in Swansea, and drew to a close on Friday evening.

The Festival’s awards (Bronze Torc) honour excellence in film, television, radio and digital media and celebrate the unique languages and cultures of the Celtic nations on screen and in the broadcasting industry.

The first to win a Bronze Torc was Jonathan: Pencampwriaeth Y Chwe Gwlad 2012 (Avanti) in the Entertainment category on the event's first day. On the second day, Gwaith/Cartref (Fiction Factory) won the Best Drama award. On Friday, the final day of the festival, Gwlad yr Astra Gwyn (Rondo) won the Young People category and Tai Bach y Byd (Cwmni Da) won best Factual Series.

S4C Chief Executive, Ian Jones, said, "Welcoming the Celtic Media Festival to Wales this year was an opportunity to show the wealth of talent there is in Wales and in our creative industries in the field of broadcasting on television, radio and on digital platforms. There has been a buzz about the event with interesting and important discussions taking place between industry representatives from across western Europe and beyond.

"It has been a very successful festival for S4C and for Wales as we received many of the main awards. It is proof that S4C does provide content of the highest standard and that we are breaking new grounds internationally. It's an honour to accept the praise of our peers in the Celtic countries. Congratulations to everyone who were nominated for the Festival's prestigious awards and especially to the winners who can be very proud of their Bronze Torcs."

The festival was held in Swansea on 24 to 26 April. As well as distributing awards, the event also held a series of interesting sessions on different aspects of the media industry, with S4C and Wales' creative industries at the heart of the activities.

Among the lively session was a discussion about the international success of drama, with Birger Larsen (The Killing, Murder), Darach Mac Con Iomaire (Corp + Anam), Tone Rønning (Lilyhammer) and Gethin Scourfield who discussed the exciting S4C co-production Y Gwyll Hinterland which is set to be sold to an international market.

S4C Director of Content, Dafydd Rhys, took part in a panel discussion about the methods of gauging viewers' reactions to programmes. Pobol y Cwm was also discussed as part of a session on Soap Operas and the series' Executive Producer, Ynyr Williams of BBC Cymru Wales, talked about the online spin-off PyC which was shown recently on the S4C website.

Among the guest speakers were Director of BBC Cymru Wales, Rhodri Talfan Davies, and Ron Jones head of Tinopolis production company. Also Guto Harri, Director of Communications at News International, talked about his career, and Peter Devlin, a Hollywood sound engineer held a session with the students who attended the event.

Ends