UK Film Council Seeking Views On Policy And Funding

The UK Film Council is seeking views on its policy and funding priorities over the next three years in a consultation document published today - Film in the Digital Age.
Film in the Digital Age looks back on the work of the UK Film Council over the past six years and outlines a number of possible initiatives from April 2007-March 2010 if extra funding is secured.
These include:

• Digital Film Club for Schools – to create a National Schools Film Club network that offers films to schools across the UK and maximises opportunities for the enjoyment and understanding of film by young people.
• Screenwriting skills – a new programme to facilitate the exchange of knowledge and skills between writers working in film, theatre and television.
• Digital Screen expansion - to help ensure that universities and other educational organisations and venues have access to digital equipment to improve their level of access to film.
• Small Capital Fund – to support the modernisation and refurbishment of cinemas so that they can better serve their local communities.
• UK Co-production Fund – to support European co-productions which aim to deliver cultural value to audiences but which will not be financed solely by the market
• ‘Experimental’ Production Fund – to support singular and experimental directorial and artistic talent which operates outside the commercial parameters of the British film industry
• UK-wide film archives investment – to help make national and regional moving image archives accessible to all citizens, maximising the public value of the archives and joining up storage, preservation and access
• 2012 Olympic film fund – to fund a programme that promotes citizenship, internationalism, diversity and inclusion as part of the cultural programme of the 2012 Olympics.

To date, the UK Film Council’s Development, Premiere and New Cinema Funds have supported over 100 feature films, 300 short films and 400 script development projects. An estimated 34 million people have seen these films in UK cinemas with many receiving international critical acclaim.
£45 million from the National Lottery has been invested in film productions resulting in worldwide revenues of £410 million.
The deadline for responses to the consultation is Monday 5 February 2007.
For further information visit www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk (DS)