Audience Development Officer

Audience Development Officer
Contract: Fixed Term contract, until 20th December 2024
Location: On site Belfast, UK
Hours: 5 days a week, full time
Salary: £25,000 (GBP) per annum, pro-rata

About the organisation

Our client is the UK’s leading charity for film in education and the community. They provide screen industry careers information and advice, support young filmmakers, and bring the power of moving image storytelling into classroom teaching.

The charity also runs the annual Into Film Festival which enables more than 400,000 pupils to visit the cinema for free, and their Film Awards - the UK’s leading showcase for young filmmaking talent.

The core I programme is free for UK state schools, colleges and other youth settings, thanks to support from the BFI, awarding National Lottery good cause funding, and through other key funders including Cinema First and Northern Ireland Screen.

The charity vision - Film enriches the life of every child and young person.

The charity mission - To inspire and support young people to learn, and to realise their creative, cultural and career aspirations, through film and the moving image.

The charity operates a hybrid working policy with offices in London, Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh and Salford. They are open to flexible working and offer staff a health plan.

Role Summary

The Audience Development Officer will work on the year-round activities designed to encourage and incentivise cinema-going to ensure young people become the paying audience of the future. This role will support multiple pieces of work, recruiting independent cinemas to participate in the the charity's Film Festival; supporting the summer screenings programme logistics; festival programming, uploading, preparing for and supporting the public-facing elements of the festival; and leading the bookings team, and supporting the festival logistics.

Responsibilities Include:

• Liaising with independent cinemas, signing them up to participate in the festival, working on further exhibitor recruitment waves, looking for interesting venues and ensuring all of their details are up to date, e.g. screen technical information, capacities, accessibility, preferred slots & times, staff contact details and uploading this information to the relevant planning documents.
• Working with colleagues on the summer screenings programme - prepping the event listings, looking at target data, liaising with participating exhibitors.
• Contributing to festival programming: ensuring the planning documents are up to date with exhibitors and slots, updated capacities, tech & contact details, and then supporting the programming of films and events.
• Maintaining good relationships with all film industry stakeholders (e.g. film exhibition, distribution & print movement).
• Contributing to regular cross-team meetings, working with various colleagues towards the successful completion of Summer Screenings and the festival programmes along with supporting the preparation of the 2025 spring programme.
• Supporting the festival team in ensuring that the events booking website is updated and all programming, images, education resources and other documents are accurately uploaded.
• Line-managing the temporary Festival bookings team, problem-solving and responding to various enquiries, predominantly from educators .
• As bookings team lead, escalating issues as they arise and liaising with the Audience Development Coordinator and Festival Director in resolving all problems.

The Role will also involve:

• Keeping up to date and accurate records of audience development work and partnerships activity in the CRM (Salesforce), pulling reports, and ensuring all data relating to audience development work is stored in a GDPR compliant manner.

General Responsibilities:

• Commitment to quality internally and in all dealings with the public, members, teachers, children and young people, partners, funders, supporters etc.
• Contribute to long term planning to ensure growth in line with demand and resources
• Contribute to the regular monitoring and evaluation of the charity's work
• Commitment to equality of opportunity in line with Equal Opportunities Policy
• Any other reasonable duties assigned by the organisation

Person Specification:

Essential:

• Knowledge/experience of film festivals and cinema programmes
• Experience of a box office/customer facing role in an administrative capacity
• Excellent administration skills
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills and a confidence to engage with stakeholders at all levels
• Excellent attention to detail and used to working to tight deadlines on a large project or event
• Computer literate and confident with database use
• The ability to work autonomously, in a highly organised manner, with good time management skills.
• The ability to work calmly under pressure, remaining professional at all times
• Knowledge of Safeguarding and Child Protection issues and a commitment to implementing a rigorous approach to this

Desirable:

• Familiarity with Salesforce CRM software
• A passion and keen interest in film, festivals and/or education.
• Familiarity with Microsoft Office

Closing: 9:00am, 11th Apr 2024 BST

Interested?

To apply, please click the apply button. You will be taken to a simple CHM Recruit form where you can find out more information and complete your application by following the instructions.

All employees regularly working with children are required to undertake and maintain enhanced DBS clearance (and/or Access NI check or Disclosure Scotland check, depending on working location), acquired at the charity's expense; employment is dependent upon this.

No agencies please.