24/06/2014 - Individual awards increasing to a maximum of £200,000 per project

Creative England has doubled its production fund from £500,000 to £1 million for 2014/15. Individual awards are increasing to a maximum of £200,000 per project and will now include feature films with budgets of up to £2 million. The organisation is also planning to offer support on pre-sales and UK Tax Credits for certain awarded productions through the Regional Growth Fund. 

Since October 2012, the fund has invested some £650,000 in a range of projects including Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years, his second feature after Weekend [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; Esther May Campbell’s feature debut Light Years [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]; Rob Cannan’s documentary feature The Lovers and the Despot; Jeanie Finlay’s music-based documentary Orion: The Man Who Would Be King; and Peter Middleton and James Spinney’s Notes on Blindness.

Richard Holmes, senior film executive – production at Creative England, said: “We’re immensely proud of the investments we’ve made to date – 45 Years and Light Years are both wonderful examples of high-quality, festival-focused films, and we have seen some equally impressive documentaries. With this increased funding, we want to create more opportunities for filmmakers in what we all know is a tough financial climate for independent film. We also want to encourage filmmakers to come forward with projects that are intended to engage with broader audiences, such as comedies, thrillers and horror. These films are hard to get right, of course, but our production fund is there to take risks and invest in projects that are looking to experiment with innovative financial models.”

The British Film Institute supports the Creative England production fund.