Top Level Review Of UK Film Announced

The UK's policy on film is set for a major shake-up after the Government announced that it is launching a complete re-examination of the existing national policy.

At the end of May it was revealed that the former Culture Secretary Chris Smith will chair an eight-strong panel of industry experts including Oscar-winning actor and writer Julian Fellowes.

The panel will look across the UK film industry considering development and production, distribution and exhibition, and inward investment. It is expected to report its findings later this year.

The review aims to identify the best ways to support successful business models that allow the UK film industry to contribute to economic growth, nurture talent and engage with UK audiences.

Creative Industries Minister Ed Vaizey said: "This has been an excellent year for British film at the awards ceremonies and we can be really proud of this.

"But this success masks the underlying problems that the industry continues to face.

"British film making is still not as profitable as it should be for British film makers and there remain significant challenges in getting productions off the ground," he said.

"Though many issues are rightly for the industry to resolve, the Government can play a big part in helping to make things better," he said, noting that Chris Smith will "bring the different branches of the industry together to identify what the key problems are and then look at how these can be tackled".

Lord Smith commented: "We want to hear from the industry, from film-makers, from experts, from audiences, and from all who have a contribution to make to the debate. Getting the right framework of policy in place for supporting British film is the challenge we are aiming to address."

He said that the panel would include representatives from the new board of the British Film Institute (BFI), which recently became the lead body for the delivery of film policy in the UK.

The BFI will be responsible for setting and implementing detailed delivery plans within the new policy framework, which will be driven by the challenge to make the best use of the increased Lottery funding which will become available after the 2012 Olympic Games.

Lottery money for British film is already set to increase by about 60% by 2014, to around £43m a year.

(BMcC/GK)