Country Focus: UK
by Cineuropa
01/10/2010 - Articles, interviews, news, analysis on the UK audiovisual sector.
Country profile: United Kingdom
International Film Guide 2012: United Kingdom
A survey of the film culture and output in the UK published by the International Film Guide.
UK - Facts and Figures 2008-2009
UK Film Council Group and Lottery Annual Report and Financial Statement
British audiences grow
Over two thirds of UK adults go to the cinema, an increase of over 10% from 2001, according to data released by analytical company TGI. The figures state that in 2010 67% of British adults will visit the cinema, compared to 64% last year and 55% in 2001. The TGI report states that the cause for the increase is that the films being released have gone beyond its core youth audience, with the pattern for cinema visits amongst 15-24 year olds remaining at 80%. The proportion of 35-44 year olds...
Pact outlines future without UKFC
Pact, the UK trade body for independent film producers, has outlined proposals for a British film industry without the UK Film Council (UKFC). The body says the three crucial functions of the UKFC – the administration of the tax credit, encouraging inward production and the distribution of funds into development and production of British films – should go to existing public bodies. They suggest that the administration of the tax credit should return to a Government department, such as the...
UKFC drama intensifies
The ongoing dispute between the UK Film Council (UKFC) and the British Government has come to a head with Ed Vaizey, the Minister for culture, communications and creative industries, accusing the film funding body of lobbying to stay in existence. In a curt letter addressed to UKFC CEO John Woodward, released to a London newspaper, Vaizey demanded to know whether or not the film body was guilty of squandering public money on campaigning against its closure. Vaizey also wanted to know whether...
Northern Ireland Screen contributes £22m to local economy
At a time when the UK film industry is facing an uncertain future comes the cheering news that Northern Ireland Screen, the development agency for the screen industries in the region, has returned £22m to the local economy at a ratio of 5.5:1. The agency’s annual report for 2009/10 reveals that this stellar return comes from a production investment of just £3.9m. However, in keeping with the UK’s image as America’s satellite 51st state, more than half of these returns have come from...
UK Film Council to be abolished
The UK film industry has gone into shock with Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s announcement today that the UK Film Council is to be abolished. A statement from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said the sweeping changes in the arts sector include “abolishing the UK Film Council and establishing a direct and less bureaucratic relationship with the British Film Institute. This would support front-line services while ensuring greater value for money. Government and Lottery...
British film industry bucks recession
The UK film industry defied the recession in 2009, recording box office collections of £944m, attracting production investment of £957m and admissions of 174m, according to latest statistics published today by the UK Film Council’s Research and Statistics Unit. Internationally, the UK share of the global market was 7% (collecting $2bn), with the top three UK films grossing almost $1.5 billion together (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Slumdog Millionaire and Sherlock Holmes)....
Mixed fortunes for UK film industry in 2009 - Film Production Report 2009
The UK film industry is weathering the recession well, with record box office figures, record inward investment, and UK independent films at their most popular for a decade. But challenges remain for the financing of domestic production and co-production. Read the report.
2009 best in seven years
The recession seems to have sent British and Irish punters flocking to the cinemas as 2009 figures released by the Cinema Exhibitors’ Association (CEA) reveal. The year was the best for UK cinemas since 2002, with 173,461,335 admissions, a 5.6% increase on 2008. Box office receipts for UK and Ireland crossed £1bn for the first time ever at £1,054,351,651 (the UK-only figure being £943,750,158) after a year when the attractions of 3D cinema increasingly made their presence felt. By the end of...
UKDFG to be separate legal entity
The UK Digital Funding Group (UKDFG) will be set up as a separate legal entity, thereby allowing it to consolidate negotiations to attract revenue funding in the form of Virtual Print Fees. The UKDFG was established in 2009 to negotiate financial support for small and medium-sized UK cinema operators to convert to digital cinema technology and comprises 500 independent screens. These cinemas will become shareholders in the new company, which will be owned and run by the exhibitors themselves...
Blu-ray helps video weather 2009 recession
Thanks to a 123% rise in Blu-ray disc sales to 8.4 million units in 2009, compared to 2008, video home entertainment weathered the recession with December sales even rising by 1.8%, according to new figures released by the British Video Association (BVA). The industry has, however, taken a dent thanks to retailers Woolworths and Zavvi shutting down. As BVA Director General Lavinia Carey says, “DVD sales are down 5.6% due to several factors, including the effects of copyright theft and the...
Optimum restoration for British classics
Optimum Releasing and StudioCanal have joined hands with Pinewood Studios to restore and preserve StudioCanal’s 1400 strong British Library Archive. First up will be restorations of Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom, Robert Hamer’s Kind Hearts and Coronets and Lionel Jeffries’ The Railway Children, each of which will be subsequently re-released theatrically and made available in Bluray/DVD. Optimum Releasing has now taken over management of the Archive, which has been housed in Pinewood for 20...
Till seals Icon deal
After more than a year of negotiations, a process that began in September 2008, former UK Film Council Chairman and industry veteran Stewart Till has finalised the deal to acquire Mel Gibson and Bruce Davey’s Icon Group’s UK operations. Till’s company, Stadium Entertainment, backed by American industrialist Len Blavatnik’s Access Industries, will now have control over sales company Icon Entertainment International and the Majestic Films & Television library. The Icon brand name will be...
Woolley, Richards, Wilkerson join Film London Board
BAFTA-winning producer Stephen Woolley, Vue Cinemas CEO Timothy Richards and Target Media Group CEO Rob Wilkerson have been appointed to the Film London Board. Woolley produced The Crying Game, which won him the BAFTA Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film, shared with director Neil Jordan. He has also produced The End of the Affair, Mona Lisa and Scandal and has just completed shooting Nigel Cole’s We Want Sex, starring Sally Hawkins, Rosamund Pike, Miranda Richardson and Bob Hoskins....
Pitt, Newbegin take reins at Screen England
Ruth Pitt has taken on the newly created position of Screen England Executive Director and John Newbegin is the organisation’s first independent chair. Screen England is an umbrella body comprising the nation’s nine Regional Screen Agencies (RSAs). Pitt, who brings vast experience in the film sector with her, will prioritise implementing the ambitious vision of the Government’s Digital Britain report. Pitt said, “Digital Britain demonstrates how dramatically the media landscape is changing....
UKFC funding boost for Internet marketing
The UK Film Council’s (UKFC) Prints and Advertising Fund has launched a Digital Innovation in Distribution scheme that will allow distributors to apply for funding at an earlier stage to develop digital and online tools for marketing films. Five successful applicants will receive awards up to £30,000 each. The awards are meant for creating digital assets like clips, trailers, podcasts and stills; developing social media elements such as blogs, widgets and social networking profiles:...
Documentary funding reaches Tipping Point
A unique funding scheme to enable the making of documentary films with a social conscience has been launched in the UK. The Tipping Point Film Fund (TPFF), supported by retail chain The Co-operative, will follow the model of “crowd funding”, where independent filmmakers can tap into their networks for funding and extend it by canvassing independent film-goers and online social networks and garner monies through a mixture of regular and on-off donations and some major donors. TPFF Co-Founder...
Clinging to the Euro-Bar for Cultural Integrity: Activism and CSR in an Economic Downturn
The working paper explores issues in British broadcasting and economic challenges and the role and impact of U.K. NGO activists on the policy level.
UK cinemas raising access awareness
UK cinemas will screen a new ad aimed at increasing audience awareness of audio described and subtitled screenings from the end of May. This is in accordance with the Cinema Exhibitors’ Association’s (CEA) Best Practice Guidelines for the Provision of Services to Disabled Customers and the Employment of Disabled People publication. By end 2008, around 300 UK cinemas had provided subtitled and audio described films for people with hearing or sight disabilities. And currently, there are more...
Admissions show 7.5% growth
In spite of dwindling production and the recession, film-going remains a favourite activity for British consumers, as evidenced by cinema admissions rising by 7.5% in the first quarter of 2009, compared to the same period in 2008. In all, cinema operators sold 41.4 million tickets from January-March 2009, a figure fuelled by the phenomenal success of Slumdog Millionaire. The rise in cinema attendance is likely to increase, given the slew of potential blockbusters due to release in the summer...
HMV, Artificial Eye marry retail and cinema
Leading UK DVD retailer HMV and distributor and exhibitor Curzon Artificial Eye have joined hands for a pioneering new concept called hmvcurzon which will use HMV stores’ non-trading space to operate up to three screens with a combined total of over 200 screens. This unique cinema can be accessed through the HMV store during operating hours and will have its own entrance after trading hours. The scheme will pilot at the HMV’s Wimbledon, London branch in autumn 2009 with more venues to follow...
UKFC spearheads digital push with £5 million fund
The UK Film Council (UKFC) along with the Technology Strategy Board and the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills has announced a new £5 million funding programme to drive digital innovation. Titled ‘Accessing and Commercialising Content in a Digitally Networked World’ the funding will support new business models and services that maximise revenue streams for content creators and rights holders. The UKFC will joint fund successful film related applications with up to £1 million...
£614 m bonanza possible for UK economy
A report quantifying the benefits of anti-piracy legislation has concluded that a few simple steps could lead to UK economic output increasing by £614m, protect thousands of film industry jobs and create a further 7,900 jobs in the wider economy. Great Expectations: A report on the economic opportunities for the UK film sector, published by Oxford Economics and commissioned by Respect for Film, says that new laws could bring additional gross revenues of £268m to the audio-visual industry,...
Britain considers Digital Rights Agency
The British Government is thinking of setting up a Digital Rights Agency and has asked creators, commercial rights-holders and consumer groups to respond by March 30 to a discussion paper that looks at how it could fight illegal online file-sharing and piracy. Issues raised in the paper published by the Intellectual Property Office include: How to educate and change consumer behaviour towards copyright material; How to support industry efforts in developing new and attractive legal ways for...
Pathé, Warner Bros announce alliance
Pathé and Warner Bros. Entertainment UK (WBEUK) have announced a strategic alliance in the UK, effective from 13th April, that will see WBEUK distribute Pathé’s films in the UK and Ireland. The companies will also look at co-production opportunities. The companies are already working together on big-budget Kipling adaptation The Jungle Book, the John Downer directed test shoot of which is currently in post-production. Pathé UK will now concentrate on producing a slate of four to five English...
British government to tackle online piracy
The UK government has taken its first concrete steps to curb rampant online film piracy as set out in a wide reaching interim report with film industry benefits titled Digital Britain, produced by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform. Under the terms of the report, future legislation will ensure that Internet service providers will have to warn their subscribers who are downloading film content illegally that they are...
2008 UK Film Council Statistical Yearbook
The UK Film Council has published the 2008 Statistical Yearbook. This yearbook, the sixth they have published, is a rich source of industry data and analysis on film in the UK, drawn from a range of reputable suppliers and detailing the full value chain for film. See the 2008 Statistical Yearbook: 2008 UK Film Council Statistical Yearbook
The UK market for film on VOD (May 2008)
"VoD - which licences for which markets?" is the theme of the 2008 European Audiovisual Observatory Afternoon in Cannes. A workshop, that has become a key part of the Cannes Film Festival. This year, the Observatory offered a practical and analytical approach to the VoD market in Europe. David Steele, Head of the Research and Statistics Unit of the UK Film Council, gave an overview of the UK VoD market including the issues which need to be solved so that the market may develop. See the...
Film on UK television 2007 (March 2008)
The UK Film Council produced a report on "Film on UK television". A research explaining in detail how television gives more access to film than ever with well over a third of audiences coming from multi-channel television. Almost 6,000 different films were screened on television as a whole in 2007, offering something for all tastes. See the report: (328 kb) Film on UK television 2007
UK theatrical results 2007 - (March 2008)
Theatrical data relates to the commercial release of feature films in cinemas in the UK and overseas and shows which films have been most successful, the genre of films on release, the success of UK films and the trends in film distribution. The UK Film Council's Research and Statistics Unit provides market information to market participants and evidence for the development of policy and strategy. See the report: (328 kb) UK theatrical results 2007
A Qualitative Study of Avid Cinema-goers - (Novermber 2007)
The UK Film Council’s Distribution and Exhibition Department has two primary functions; to help ensure that UK cinema audiences have access to the widest possible range of films at cinemas UK wide and to encourage audiences to increase their propensity to view less mainstream films. The department recognised that a greater understanding of the cinema audience is a necessary condition for unfolding strategies to develop new audiences for less mainstream films and encouraging audiences to be...
UK - The Regional Film Funds (March 2005)
The Regional Film Funds As the central and main public funding body for film in the UK, The UK Film Council plays an important role in supporting regional film activity. It invests £7.5M Lottery money a year via the Regional Investment Fund for England (RIFE) into nine self-governing English screen agencies. But there are also three national screen agencies for Wales (Sgrin Cymru Wales), Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland Film and Television Commission - NIFTC ) and Scotland (Scottish...
UK - Conclusions of Government report on the state of the British film industry (October 2003)
A government commission has published a report on the state of the British film industry. Here are its conclusions. Politicians support tax incentives On September 18, a UK government think tank published its comprehensive report on the state of the British film industry aimed at addressing the challenges facing the industry within the highly competitive international marketplace, and identifying where public support could be increased. The inquiry came to the same conclusions as those put...
UK, look at the state of health of the British film industry and its future (Feb 2003)
2002 was another recession year for a traditionally cyclical industry, but it's not all doom and gloom. A look at the state of health of the British film industry and its future prospects. Slower but still going strong “We had the boom and now we’ve got a bust. Sound familiar?” Alan Parker made the blunt remark during his November 2002 speech to British film industry professionals when he presented the Film Council’s vision of the future of the British film industry. His words reflect the...
UK - Market situation (October 2002)
The market status quo Just five ago, London was a buzzing hub for deal-makers of high-profile commercial films and smaller art-house specialists, and well able to rival Los Angeles as a vital centre for the international sales of independent films. But with the turmoil in the world economy following 11/9, the collapse of the German Neuer Markt and uncertainties over pay-TV in Europe, the UK sales force – just like independent sales companies the world over - has lost a good deal of its...
