Celebrating Women in the Screen and TV Industry – International Women’s Day

On Tuesday 8 March – International Women’s Day – the University of South Wales (USW) will celebrate women in the screen and TV industry, welcoming some of the sector’s most successful individuals.

The panel discussion and Q&A will be held at USW’s Cardiff Campus from 11am to 12noon, and will celebrate the achievements of – and discuss the challenges facing – women working within Wales’ film and screen industry.

Panellists include:

• Amanda Rees, Director of Platforms, S4C
• Allison Dowzell, Managing Director, Screen Alliance Wales
• Loretta Preece, Series Producer, Casualty 
• Ruth McElroy, Professor of Creative Industries, USW

The event, held as part of USW’s Tomorrow Matters series, will include a light lunch and networking opportunities. To register your place, visit the USW website.

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We asked the panellists what International Women’s Day means to them.

Amanda Rees: “A chance to think of, remember and celebrate all the women who, through their positive actions and sacrifices – public and private, big and small – made all of our personal and collective successes possible."

Allison Dowzell: “I think we need International Women’s Day more than ever, and to quote Ntozake Shange; “where there is a woman, there is magic!” Because, let’s face it, we all have to be magicians juggling our lives!”

Loretta Preece: “International Woman's Day is a chance to reflect on how far women have come but also an important opportunity to consider areas where there is still more work to be done. Enormous strides have been made especially in the television industry but issues remain around childcare, sexual harassment and the menopause.

“The message is especially poignant for me this year, since I lost my mum to cancer in August 2021. She was the greatest role model who taught me that opportunity, tenacity, resilience and kindness were the four pillars upon which every woman can build her success.”

About the panellists

Amanda Rees, Director of Platforms, S4C

An industry leader and recent graduate of a Masters in Business and Organisational Psychology, Amanda is currently S4C’s Director of Platforms, leading the broadcaster’s strategic transformation from linear to digital first video service provider. For five years prior, until December 2021, Amanda was Creative Director of Content at S4C where she led a team of twelve commissioners and schedulers, broadcasting over 2,400 original hours of programming a year. As a member of S4C’s unitary board, management team and commercial board advisor, Amanda has been a key influencer of decision making at the channel. Responsible for an £83 million annual content spend during her tenure as Director of Content, Amanda has strong commercial and financial skills and is an adept and confident public speaker who excels at negotiating creative, business and political relationships. A transformational leader and strategic thinker who enjoys analytically planned outcomes, Amanda is also fleet of foot and considers change management to be one of her core strengths.

Prior to joining S4C in 2016 Amanda ran her own production company, TiFiNi Ltd which specialised in making special access films on controversial but important subject matters such as adoption parties (Finding Mum and Dad for C4, Grierson and Broadcast Award nominated) and the dangers of unregulated social media (Revenge Porn for C4). Born and raised in the Gwendraeth Valley, the granddaughter of a miner and daughter of a tinplate worker Amanda is a passionate advocate of social inclusion and diversity. She is also a huge dog lover, lapsed musician, keen but inexact cook, wife to Clive and step-mum to four children, Leo, Harry, Jake and Louise.

Allison Dowzell, Managing Director, Screen Alliance Wales

Allison began her working life with the BBC’s London based Outside Broadcast Department in London focusing primarily on sports programmes, drama and light entertainment. Allison then moved on to the Samuelson Group at Pinewood Studios working with renowned film makers facilitating feature films and major TV productions. Relocating to Wales, Allison went on to establish Wales Screen the organisation responsible for promoting Wales as a location for film & Television production and attracting inward investment that would have significant economic impact.

In February 2018, Allison was offered the opportunity of heading up Screen Alliance Wales (SAW) a stand-alone philanthropic company based in the renowned Wolf Studios Wales. SAW was created by Bad Wolf as the company’s founders recognised that Wales needed an organisation to educate, train and promote TV crew and infrastructure throughout Wales. SAW is the gateway between the industry and its workforce. It grows and promotes the talent, crew and services of the TV and Film Industry in Wales. SAW is unique to Wales and is quickly becoming the industry standard in promoting the complete supply chain from one single place. SAW is not led by the public sector it is created by the industry for the industry and it will be a powerful advocate of the crews, facilities and the talent that it represents.

Loretta Preece, Series Producer, Casualty  

BAFTA winning Series Producer Loretta has more than 20 years of experience in television and has worked on a range of shows including Casualty, Doctors, The Coroner and Belonging, in varied roles including story producer, producer, script editor and writer.

She has been the Series Producer of Casualty since 2019 and is the only Series Producer in Casualty’s history to have won the hat-trick of the BAFTA, the RTS and the Broadcast award.

Under her stewardship, Casualty has received particular acclaim for the portrayal of disability on screen and a hard-hitting episode about how the coronavirus affected NHS emergency departments. Loretta is also a working mum of three girls.

Ruth McElroy, Professor of Creative Industries, USW

Ruth McElroy is Professor of Creative Industries and Faculty Head of Research. She is co-director with Professor Lisa Lewis of the Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations.

In public life, Ruth McElroy is Chair of Ffilm Cymru Wales and Co-Director of Clwstwr.

She is a member of Ofcom’s Advisory Committee Wales, and helps inform media policy through her membership of the Institute of Welsh Affairs Media Policy Group.

Ruth's main research interests are in film and TV studies, media policy and cultural identity with a particular interest in minority-language media.