20/08/2009

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: interactive websites; and viral marketing. Distributors will be required to provide audience research information and overall findings of the scheme will be made available to the entire UK distribution sector.

In addition, rights holders can also apply for this funding for incomplete films as long as they prove the intent to distribute theatrically in the UK.

UKFC Head of Distribution and Exhibition Pete Buckingham said, “The UKFC is driving forward new solutions for reaching out to consumers and we want this new process to inspire unique plans to tap into the growing appetite for discovering film online. The Internet is transforming the way we engage with films, and there are real opportunities out there for distributors to use new methods that grab the attention of UK audiences.

“Working over longer lead times, maybe even before a film is completed, means that a film’s cinema release becomes the main event within a bigger buzz that has already fired up the imagination of film fans boosting the size of that film’s potential cinema audience.”

The trial of the new application process will run until March 31, 2010.