The Last Days of the UK Film Council

Based on key players’ testimony and an extensive documented record, this chapter initially discusses the political background to the fraught merger talks between the BFI and the UKFC in 2009-2010, along with the uncertain role of the DCMS. It then turns to consider the shock decision to close the UKFC taken by Conservative ministers in the DCMS serving in the Coalition government elected in May 2010. Various possible reasons for closure are evaluated in considerable detail and the impact on the UKFC is described. The account analyses each of the steps taken by the DCMS to devise a new landscape of film support post-UKFC, with the BFI assuming many functions after extensive negotiation with ministers and civil servants. Next, the BFI’s new turn in film policy is considered. A range of views on the closure decision, both pro and con, is discussed.

Flying Too Close to the Sun?

This chapter investigates how well the Council’s evolutionary development served in enabling it to satisfy the differing constituencies of support that form part of the landscape of film provision. Drawing on original interviews with senior figures from the UKFC and with key industry stakeholders, it assesses the challenges the organisation faced in handling a multiplicity of interest groups, concerns and expectations and how effectively the Council addressed competing economic, industrial and cultural objectives. This chapter also considers how the Council negotiated the various tensions between regional, national, European and international interests in an increasingly transnational film industry.

From ‘Sustainability’ to ‘Competitive Industry’

Although from the moment the Film Council was set up, it was clear that the intention was to found an organisation focused on bringing ‘sustainability’ to the British film industry, the Council gradually retreated from this term in favour of a wider set of priorities and the way in which it articulated its mission also gradually shifted. Drawing on a wealth of original interviews with senior politicians, film executives, independent producers, industry experts and leading filmmakers, this chapter examines the key players, forces and assumptions which drove the Film Council’s agenda, how the weighting of priorities shifted over time and why the Council’s sense of mission changed over its lifetime.

The Creation of the Film Council

This chapter first analyses the two decades of policy development and debate that lay behind the creation of the Film Council. It details the rebirth of interest in film policy and consequent key interventions made by successive Conservative governments after 1979. The Conservatives’ deployment of film tax relief along with their use of the National Lottery as a funding body for film production is described. Next, the New Labour government’s invention of the Film Council in 2000 is considered, noting the diverse policy moves behind this and role of the Film Policy Review Group. The major impact of the creation of the Film Council on the veteran British Film Institute’s status and range of activity is made clear. The chapter highlights how New Labour’s deployment of the dual logics of using expertise and seeking rationalisation together changed the face of film support.

Conclusions

This chapter sets out to show why this study matters and should be of interest beyond the narrow circles of those most usually involved in film policy debate. It asks whether rationalisation of support under the leadership of one body and the weight attached to its work in changing the UK’s film industry is at all realistic. The conclusion is that the UKFC could not possibly have made the UK film industry commercially ‘sustainable’, as originally required. Although this aim was part of changing goals during the UKFC’s decade-long life, it set a frame for ultimately negative evaluation by government. Unified bodies, moreover, have to meet conflicting expectations and cannot satisfy all their constituencies and the UKFC gradually lost some significant wider support. Its closure, however, did not satisfy sound criteria of public policy-making and showed, yet again, that there is no coherent policy for film in the UK.

Why Does Film Policy Matter?

This chapter positions the role and development of UK film policy within the domain of politics and political culture. It highlights the culture-commerce dichotomy that has run through UK film policy for decades. It also highlights the growth of digital and creative economy policy thinking and the positioning of film policy within this discourse. The latter part of the chapter explores international models of film support, contrasting the UK approach with that of France.

Performance against Objectives

This chapter analyses the performance of the UK Film Council in relation to some of its key stated policy objectives and funding schemes and initiatives. As a distinctive organisation with few obvious comparators around the globe, it notes the challenges and limitations of such a task and the difficulties involved in measuring the performance of public bodies more generally. The resultant analysis draws extensively on secondary source statistical data, such as the BFI Statistical Yearbook and the UKFC’s annual reports and reviews. It also focuses on independent assessments by external analysts and internal documentation assessing the effectiveness of policies and interventions. Overall, this chapter examines the Film Council’s efforts to build a competitive film industry, widen choice and promote exports, while also considering its performance as a public body in terms of delivering value for money.

Digital – A Missed Opportunity?

Drawing on both documentation and extensive interviews with key industry and policy players, this chapter analyses the role that the transition to digital played in both the policy thinking and interventional practice of the UKFC. It examines the origins, development and impact of the Digital Screen Network (DSN), which became one of the flagship digital policy initiatives of the UKFC. It documents the conflicting industry views around the impact of the DSN on the UK film distribution sector and highlights the policy complexities that digital posed for the UKFC during its lifetime.

Film Policy in the UK: 1920s–1979

This chapter traces the key moments that have shaped UK film policy from the 1920s through to the end of the 1970s. It outlines the culture and commerce dichotomy that has informed government intervention in to the film market in the UK. It also documents the economic and cultural role that the Hollywood film industry has had in shaping the development of industrial film culture in the UK. The chapter analyses the sporadic and uneven policy intervention of successive UK governments up until the election of the Thatcher Conservative government in 1979.

The Production Funds

This chapter examines how the UK Film Council managed and organised the allocation of public funds for film production, after taking over the administration of Lottery funding from the Arts Council of England and incorporating existing film investment bodies British Screen Finance and the BFI’s Production Department. It outlines how a distinctive model was pursued through the creation of three separate streams led by industry professionals, in the form of the Development, New Cinema and Premiere Funds. Drawing on interviews with the Heads of Funds and key stakeholders from the independent film sector, it traces how the funding schemes developed over two phases while reflecting on the often difficult relationships between fund heads and independent producers in the UK.