17/06/2005

The lottery-funded UK Film Council (UK FC) has been asked by the UK government to review the film policy of British films to see what can be done to develop an integrated strategy for the local film industry.

In a speech given yesterday at the London Institute for Public Policy Research, the newly-appointed Creative Industries Minister James Purnell praised the work achieved by the UK FC so far but also said that they could not ‘sit back’, hence the need for what he described as an ‘MOT for film policy’.
“The Film Council has been a great success”, stressed the UK Minister. "If it didn’t exist, it would have to be invented. All film producers have flops, but the Film Council’s most successful films speak for themselves, whether it’s Gosford Park or Vera Drake [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Touching The Void [+see also:
trailer
film profile] or Bloody Sunday [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. For every pound invested, three have been generated at the box office.”
“But we cannot sit back”, he continued, “and John Woodward (Chief executive officer of the UK FC) will therefore be leading a review to consider four key issues: how do we attract big budget films to the UK, how do we support UK production, how do we improve distribution and should we do more for cultural film?”

Also commenting on the need to reinforce the UK film industry and protect its assets, James Purnell MP said that more should be done to tackle film piracy, and that the public broadcaster BBC should play a bigger role in funding British films and supporting the creativity of British industry. The UK Minister speech came as a response to criticism from many UK film professionals, and in particular Michael Kuhn, producer and former president of PolyGram Entertainment who during a PACT (a producers' trade-union) conference last month called for a ‘reform of the UK FC’.