The Film Distributors’ Association (FDA) represents the interests of film distributors in the UK and Ireland. Its membership ranges from Hollywood studios to independent operators and is responsible for 99% of all films released theatrically in the territory.
In collaboration with the FDA and UKCA, and in association with the BDA (British Deaf Association), Paramount Pictures UK are bringing priority captioned screenings to cinemas across the country with the aim of changing the relationship between cinema and the c.18 million people in the UK who are registered deaf, deafened and hard-of-hearing.[1] A ‘captioned’ screening features an on-screen transcription of a film’s audio elements including speech and other sounds.
The partnership aims to increase the number of captioned shows programmed in cinemas and for those shows to occur at a mix of times across the week. In addition to the planned screenings, venue staff will be given deaf awareness training as well as being taught introductory BSL (British Sign Language) in order to better engage with deaf, deafened and hard-of-hearing customers. Training sessions for cinema staff are already underway across the country, delivered by BDA’s experienced coaches and Celebrity BDA Ambassador Yvonne Cobb – BBC Morning Live’s ‘The Deaf Chef’.
Beginning with the launch of the highly anticipated animated feature Transformers One on October 10, Paramount Pictures UK will offer ‘caption only’ screenings of its new releases at participating cinemas the day before they arrive on national release. The initiative will also apply to all subsequent Paramount releases in the territory including horror sequel Smile 2, epic action drama Gladiator II, family adventure Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and next year’s The Smurfs Movie.
In support of the enterprise, Andy Leyshon, Chief Executive FDA, commented:
‘We should all be striving to improve accessibility and enhance the audience experience in cinemas, and this initiative from Paramount is a great further step forward that will hopefully lead to a much better offer in this area as we progress. We also know that there is a general increase in audiences choosing to watch captioned content either on mobile devices or at home watching TV/PVOD or SVOD content – 61 percent of 18–24-year-olds and 13 percent of 50–64-year-olds[2] equating to over a quarter of the population – suggesting that captioned shows are now more likely to be accepted by general audiences, not just the deaf community.’
Phil Clapp, Chief Executive UKCA, said:
‘Our joint goal is to make the cinema experience even more accessible for deaf audiences, from the moment guests enter the cinema to the moment they leave, and for all cinemas to be a place that the deaf community knows it can rely on.’
John Fletcher, VP & Managing Director Paramount Pictures UK, also commented:
‘We know that cinemas are already working to improve the experience for their deaf community, which is fantastic, but we felt that more could be done and we want to work with our exhibitor partners to achieve this.’
Yvonne Cobb, BDA Ambassador, added:
‘The deaf community wants to enjoy the cinema, wants to trust this environment, and wants to enjoy new cinema releases. All we need to do is make a few simple changes to accommodate them.’
Jaz Mann, Head of Community for BDA – who led on the initiative with Paramount – said:
‘It’s such a rarity for us to be first to see films, before hearing people! Congratulations to Paramount on leading by example – hopefully other distributors will follow their lead!’
Further information on the BDA can be found on their website.
Listings for accessible screenings across the UK can be found at Your Local Cinema and Accessible Screenings UK.
For details of upcoming releases in the UK and Ireland head over to the FDA Release Schedule.
————————————————————————————
- [1] Royal National Institute for Deaf People ‘Not 12 million, but 18 million: why the number of people classed as having hearing loss in the UK has increased’ RNI:D (10 June 2024) https://rnid.org.uk/2024/06/why-the-number-of-people-with-hearing-loss-has-increased/
- [2] You Gov ‘When watching TV shows or movies in your native language, do you generally prefer to have the subtitles on or off?’ (23 February 2023) https://yougov.co.uk/topics/entertainment/survey-results/daily/2023/02/24/9a34f/3