Rowan Woods is stepping down as creative director of The Edinburgh TV Festival after two years in the role.
The former BFI London Film Festival exec is stepping away to concentrate on new projects, with the TV Foundation, Edinburgh TV Festival’s umbrella organisation, looking to recruit her replacement in the new year.
During her tenure, Woods has overseen a series of prestigious industry speakers including Shonda Rhimes, Michael Sheen, James Graham, Jack Rooke, will.i.am, Carol Vorderman, Lenny Henry and Tina Fey.
In her two years, Woods has been instrumental in reshaping the annual event, overhauling the way it compiled its programme with the removal of the advisory committee for the most recent festival.
Instead, this year’s festival opened the editorial agenda with open calls for session ideas and producers and a series of open town hall meetings with the industry.
The most recent festival also unveiled close-door exec sessions for the first time, with the likes of Anne Mensah, Fozia Khan and Jane Turton. It also saw the festival offer an uncapped number of bursary passes to working class creatives for those who are eligible as well as an unlimited number of access passes available for deaf, disabled and neurodivergent delegates.
In a further major shake-up last month, the TV Festival launched a process inviting UK cities to bid to host the festival from 2027 onwards, raising the prospect of moving the 50-year-old event out of the Scottish capital for the first time.
“After two successful years reshaping the curatorial approach, making it more open and inclusive and delivering a landmark 50th edition, I’m moving on to new challenges,” said Woods.
“It’s been such a privilege to work alongside advisory chairs Harj [Chhokar] and Jane [Tranter], the wider industry and our brilliant Festival team.
“Having put a bow on the last 50 years, I’m excited to see the Festival move into its next chapter as it looks towards the next 50 years.”
Chief executive of the TV Foundation and TV Festival Campbell Glennie said he was “proud of the work Rowan has done with the Festival team and partners over the last two years, to deliver some impressive, impactful and very noisy sessions as well as the 50th edition of the agenda setting MacTaggart Lecture.
”We wish Rowan the best and are excited for the next stage of her career.”
Prior to joining Edinburgh Woods served as head of episodic and series programme for the BFI London Film Festival and was responsible for launching and running the BFI’s TV-facing programme since 2021. The former BBC Film development executive has also done stints as an acquisitions consultant for Shudder/AMC Networks and as film programme manager for international festivals at British Council.
A version of this story first appeared on Screen’s sister site, Broadcast.
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