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The UK Film Council (UKFC) was a non-departmental public body set up in 2000 to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It was constituted as a private company limited by…
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Investigate this subjectThe UK Film Council (UKFC) was a non-departmental public body set up in 2000 to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It was constituted as a private company limited by guarantee, owned by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and governed by a board of 15 directors.
The UK Film Council (UKFC) was a non-departmental public body set up in 2000 to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It was constituted as a private company limited by guarantee, owned by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and governed by a board of 15 directors. It was funded from various sources including The National Lottery. John Woodward was the chief executive officer of the UKFC.
In June 2008, the company had 90 full-time members of staff. It distributed more than £160m of lottery money to over 900 films. Lord Puttnam described the council as "a layer of strategic glue that's helped bind the many parts of our disparate industry together."
On 26 July 2010, the government announced that the council would be abolished. Although one of the parties elected into that government had, for some months, promised a bonfire of the Quangos, Woodward said that the decision had been taken with "no notice and no consultation". UKFC closed on 31 March 2011, with many of its functions passing to the British Film Institute.
In 1999, Alan Parker was appointed as the chairman of the Film Council, with Stewart Till as the vice-chairman. Till became chairman after Parker left.
In its own words, the aim of the UKFC was:
To stimulate a competitive, successful and vibrant UK film industry and culture, and to promote the widest possible enjoyment and understanding of cinema throughout the nations and regions of the UK.
The UKFC administered and funded a range of different activities, including:
The Development Fund aimed to broaden the quality, range and ambition of film projects being developed in the UK. With £12 million of Lottery funding to invest over three years, the fund aimed to build a talent-driven home for writers, directors and producers. It helped filmmakers of all experience levels develop their ideas and screenplays into viable feature films, be they fiction, documentary or animation, up until the moment they were ready to get production finance. There were two funding programmes, one for first-time feature filmmakers and one for established filmmakers. The First Feature Film Development Programme aimed to identify and support emerging filmmakers (e.g. screenwriters, writer/directors and writer, director, producer teams) who had not made a feature film or who had not yet had a feature film released theatrically or broadcast on UK television. Awards were made up to £25,000. The fund also offered Signature Awards to help further encourage ambitious and original filmmakers and projects.
Funded films included Jane Campion's Bright Star; Oscar-winning filmmaker Andrea Arnold's second feature Fish Tank; Armando Iannucci's In the Loop; and Sam Taylor Wood's Nowhere Boy, written by Matt Greenhalgh.
The New Cinema Fund supported emerging talent and established filmmakers working outside the mainstream, focusing on innovative writing and gifted directors. The fund had £15 million of Lottery money to invest over three years and funded eight to ten feature films each year. It had a commitment to supporting work from the nations and regions, from black, Asian and other minority ethnic filmmakers and encouraged the use of digital technology in the production, distribution and exhibition of films. It also supported over 100 short films each year through its short film schemes. Four flagship short film schemes operated nationwide: Cinema Extreme (administered by The Bureau); the Completion Fund (administered by Maya Vision International); The Magic Hour (administered by 104 films); and Blank Slate (administered by B3 Media). The remaining short film funding offered by the UK Film Council was administered by the regional screen agencies and the national screen agencies via the Digital Shorts Scheme and Digital Nation (formerly known as Digital Shorts Plus). Features produced by the UKFC New Cinema Fund had an average Metacritic score of over 65.
Films supported by the fund included James Marsh's Oscar-winning Man on Wire; Armando Iannucci's In the Loop (Sundance 2009); Jane Campion's Bright Star; Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank; Dominic Murphy's White Lightnin' (Berlin and Sundance Film Festivals 2009); Sally Potter's Rage (Berlin Competition 2009); Noel Clarke's Adulthood (BAFTA Rising Star); Ken Loach's (Cannes, Palme d'Or); Shane Meadows's This is England (BAFTA, Best British Film); Kevin Macdonald's Touching the Void (BAFTA, Best British Film); Andrea Arnold's Red Road (Cannes, Jury Prize); Paul Andrew Williams's London to Brighton (Edinburgh International Film Festival, Best New Director); Alexis Dos Santos's Unmade Beds (also at Berlin and Sundance 2009); and Duane Hopkins's Better Things (Cannes, Critics' Week).
Source: UK Film Council (CC BY-SA)
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The Premiere Fund invested £8 million of Lottery funding per year into mainstream, commercially driven films encouraging the involvement of British creative talent in a range of films that attracted international audiences.
Funded films included Mike Leigh's award-winning Happy-Go-Lucky; Oliver Gerald McMorrow's Franklyn; Christopher Smith's Triangle; Oliver Parker's Dorian Gray; Stephen Frears's Cheri; Bob Weide's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People; Anand Tucker's And When Did You Last See Your Father?; Julian Jarrold's Brideshead Revisited; Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson's St Trinian's; Rupert Wyatt's The Escapist; Roger Michell's Venus; Vito Rocco's Faintheart; and Gabor Csupo's The Secret of Moonacre.
The Office of the British Film Commissioner worked to ensure that the UK remained an attractive production base for international films. Activities included: encouraging and supporting international films being made in the UK; strengthening the UK's production infrastructure; promoting UK talent and product around the world; working with the UK's Government to ensure that film friendly policies were in place; and reviewing and developing international co-production treaties, allowing the UK to collaborate with other countries
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