Tag Archives: uk film council

Hands off British film, Mr Cameron | Peter Bradshaw | Comment is free | The Guardian

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Peter Bradshaw is on form as he writes about David Cameron’s statement that lottery funding should be directed towards mainstream films:

The sheer audacity is staggering. He says he wants to “build on the incredible success of recent years”, but one of his administration’s most sensational acts of party political grandstanding and spite was to cancel the UK Film Council – a creation of the Labour years – just when it was delivering not merely critically admired work but precisely those commercial hits of the kind Cameron professes to yearn for.

Could there be any better example of the classy, Brit-heritage smash than The King’s Speech, a film which would not have existed without the UK Film Council’s support? And yet just when this movie’s producers were taking their Oscars away in a wheelbarrow, the Film Council was in the process of being wound up. It was the equivalent of David Cameron rushing on to the field at the final whistle of 2003 Rugby World Cup, calling for silence, and announcing that the coaching system was all wrong, and Clive Woodward and Jonny Wilkinson should be given their P45s right away.

I suspect Cameron now realises the UK Film Council move was one of his government’s silliest blunders. It wasn’t broke – so he broke it. Now he’s returning to the fray, with some choice rhetoric about getting our British movie industry to up its game to rival Hollywood, a rhetoric he has learned from the Blair-Brown administration which, in fact, really did care about boosting cinema.

But it’s not just a case of taking the “commercial”-looking projects and throwing money at them for higher returns. It doesn’t work like that. Producing movies – any kind of movies – is a gamble. As the great screenwriter William Goldman said: nobody knows anything. The UK Film Council got it pretty wrong in the early years of its existence in chasing, and being seen to chase, commercial hits. It resulted in some embarrassing dross, chiefly about mockney gangsters.

Are we destined to go through this again? The UK Film Council was not perfect, and it certainly had its critics, but its successes were coming through the pipeline because it was always keen on self-scrutiny and research, always trying to get the balance between supporting crowd-pleasers and critical darlings. Because these go together, and the distinction is never clear in any case.

The challenge is to make good films, and to make as many as possible and to raise the statistical likelihood of success as high as possible. It may sound naive, but not as naive as this implied image of hearty commercial films starved of cash by lefty arthouse conspirators.

via Hands off British film, Mr Cameron | Peter Bradshaw | Comment is free | The Guardian.

Fade out from the UK Film Council … to the British Film Institute | Film | guardian.co.uk

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The UK Film Council has now been wound down:

31 March was the final official day of business at the UKFC’s offices in Little Portland Street, London, and 38 former Film Council staff today find themselves working for the British Film Institute, which will take over many of the abolished body’s functions. Others, including the office of the British Film Commissioner, have been transferred to regional agency Film London, which will oversee the task of promoting the UK as a film-making destination.

Fade out from the UK Film Council … to the British Film Institute | Film | guardian.co.uk.

Jeremy Hunt’s UK Film Council plan criticised by audit office | Media | guardian.co.uk

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The National Audit Office has criticised the Culture Secretary’s decision to close the UK Film Council for failing to properly calculate how much it will cost to shut down.

The UK Film Council has an annual administration budget of around £3m, which Hunt has said would be better spent directly on making films. Its wind-down cost, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, amounts to £11.3m.

Ironically, the success of The King’s Speech should bring in enough money to shut the UKFC down. Jeremy Hunt must be delighted.

via Jeremy Hunt’s UK Film Council plan criticised by audit office | Media | guardian.co.uk.

Oscars 2011: We have the success, but what now for British film? | Film | The Guardian

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Excellent piece on the future of British film – particularly relevant for AS Film students.

Inevitably, The King’s Speech is a focal point:

Part of the staggering UK box-office success of the film is down to the smart way it has hoovered up the grey pound. People who have not been to the cinema in 10 or 20 or even 30 years have been moved to go to see this film they have read about. Older people are generally marginalised or patronised by the movies, so this is an interesting development. It is not a demographic that is going to download pirate copies or even rent DVDs: an old-fashioned visit to the cinema is specifically what they have in mind. And hearing-aid users who find live theatre uncongenial are pleasantly surprised to find that cinemas are not the ratty old fleapits they remember, but rather plush places with crisp and booming Sensurround sound. Going to the pictures may be a habit they now wish to revive, and that’ll be down to The King’s Speech.

via Oscars 2011: We have the success, but what now for British film? | Film | The Guardian.

BBC News – Money spent on UK film production ‘up in 2010′

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Spending on filmmaking in the UK was up last year at £1.15 billion. However, nearly £929 million of this was foreign money.

A record amount of £1.15 billion was spent making 119 films last year – an 8% rise on 2009′s £1.07 billion spend.

International film-makers spent more money than ever in the UK last year, pouring almost £929 million into the production of 28 films.

The figures “highlight the importance of a strong film sector”, said the UK Film Council’s Tim Cagney.

via BBC News – Money spent on UK film production ‘up in 2010′.

UK and Irish box office records broken in 2010 | Film | guardian.co.uk

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New figures show cinema takings are above £1 billion for the second year in a row, but UK production and UK investment are both down.

Toy Story 3, Alice in Wonderland and the penultimate Harry Potter film made 2010 a record-breaking year for UK and Ireland cinema, with box office takings up 2% to £1.076bn.

2010 was the second successive year that total receipts topped the £1bn mark.

Investment in new UK film production also hit a new high, up 8% to £1.155bn. But the total number of films being made in the UK fell to 119 from 144 in 2009, and the number of domestic UK features fell from 83 to 72. Domestic UK film investment was at its lowest level since 2007.

via UK and Irish box office records broken in 2010 | Film | guardian.co.uk.

The British film industry: What’s holding it back? – By Esther Bintliff – Slate Magazine

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This article by Ester Bintliff is very useful for AS Film students looking at FM2 Section A, considering questions of what type of film industry we should have in the UK – exactly what we were talking about in class this week:

While the U.K. has a long cinematic tradition, world-class facilities and a glut of homegrown talent, it has yet to develop a self-sustaining domestic film industry. Instead, the sector relies on grants, lottery funding and the investment of Hollywood studios that choose to shoot in the U.K., lured by a tax break worth about £100m a year.

At the heart of this is a simple question of scale: that of the North American continent versus a small island. But there is another issue: should film, straddling the commercial and cultural worlds, be subsidized for its artistic value, or left to commercial producers?

Comparisons are made with the highly successful French industry, which is much more self-sufficient than the UK’s:

France is often cited as an example of a successful homegrown film industry. The French long ago made peace with the idea that government would help generously, not just with funding, worth €540 million in 2009, but also via regulation. Commercial television broadcasters, for instance, must invest a certain amount of their own revenue in film production each year. Canal Plus invested €165 million in 2009 alone. Broadcasters must also help out with distribution: 40 percent of the films they show must be original French-language works. The result is that in 2009, of the €1.1 billion invested in film production in France, the majority—€892 million—was French investment.

The British film industry: What’s holding it back? – By Esther Bintliff – Slate Magazine.

Death of the BFI « Research into film

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Exhaustively detailed account of the implications of the BFI/UKFC announcement this week:

So what did we learn on Monday?

  • The government does not have any original ideas for film policy, and has simply implemented Labour’s plan from last year with a different name.
  • There is a lack of detail about the justification for the reform of the UK’s film institutions.
  • The UK Film Council and the BFI will not exist by this time next year. An institution called the ‘British Film Institute’ will exist, but it will be completely different to the one we have now.
  • The savings to be made by reconstituting the BFI in the manner proposed are small (if any) and will not be passed on to the taxpayer, despite the fact that this was the ostensible purpose behind the abolition of the UK Film Council.

via Death of the BFI « Research into film.

More Harry Potter or another Another Year? The BFI must decide | Film | guardian.co.uk

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AS Film students will need to form an opinion on what kind of films should benefit from the funding previously handed out by the UK Film Council. Should the UK industry concentrate on critical hits such as Fish Tank, or on commercial ones such as Harry Potter? This Guardian blog post provides some points to consider, as well as looking at how the BFI will take to its new role.

More Harry Potter or another Another Year? The BFI must decide | Film | guardian.co.uk.