Have any of you applied for this funding? And been successful?
This is the real headline:
“The revised funding sees £18m a year for the BFI Filmmaking Fund, compared to £25m in 2022/23 for the BFI Film Fund.”
With reduced funding coinciding with the UK Economy being in crisis mode, as inflation rides high, this cut in funding should not come as a surprise. With the economy just, it seems, escaping recession, the UK Film Industry is more and more reliant on external funding for productions, with films for example in the Star Wars Universe and the use of its studios, but this doesn’t helps the Indie Producer looking to finance a feature film.
“One producer observed: “It doesn’t sound unlike the old UK Film Council’s New Cinema Fund and Premiere Fund. There were two clear funds: one was for emerging talent and one was for more commercial films. Everything comes round and round in this industry.””
You could conclude that we British enjoy the bureaucracy of filmmaking more than actual production. This new fund is more about changing the branding than actual substantive changes to help Indie Producers. The UK film funding process has long been a source of much opprobrium from the likes of Ewan McGregor, claiming that those in charge know little about the creative process.
A few years ago now, my company tried to raise funding through Creative England. The first question we were asked was “Who do you have attached to the film?” Why was that the first question? Because they don’t really know how to judge the quality of the project and need someone else to make the decision for them. That’s an interesting position to be in, when you are handling millions of £s of taxpayers money, no?
Any UK Agent would tell you that they don’t allow actors to read scripts for projects that don’t have the money attached. It just causes them too many problems. Creative England didn’t appear to know this detail about the film industry.
Anyway, what are your thoughts about this new fund?
https://www.screendaily.com/news/uk-producers-cautiously-optimistic-abou...
This is circulating this morning. If people were wondering why they never had any success: https://deadline.com/2023/03/bfi-systemic-racism-leaving-neverland-faisa...
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Debbie Elicksen well, that's probably one reason and one case, but there is a wider institutional bureaucratic problem, in that those who manage the funding don't really know how to gauge a script with potential and therefore fall foul of nepotism and the old 'boys' network.