Further to July’s announcement by the UK’s Department of Culture, Media and Sport that the UK Film Council is to be dissolved, more details about the alternative structure have been announced today.
The UK Government has decided to make the British Film Institute the Lottery distributor for film in the UK. All Lottery-funded activity, together with some Grant-in-Aid activity, that has until now resided in the UK Film Council will transfer to the BFI. Reaffirming its commitment to the current Film Tax Relief, the UK Government has decided that inward investment work will transfer to Film London in a public/private partnership with the Production Guild, UK Screen, Pinewood Shepperton Studios and others in the industry.
A number of important areas of film activity which are currently funded by the UK Film Council – including film exports, research, statistics and market intelligence, work on intellectual property and combating film theft, co-production support and diversity initiatives – have not been mentioned in the DCMS announcement today. All current Lottery activities and schemes will continue through 2011/12 at the BFI.
Tim Cagney, Managing Director of the UK Film Council said that he wanted to “..recognise the outstanding professionalism and commitment to the film industry that the UK Film Council staff have shown throughout this incredibly difficult and uncertain time for us all. ”