06/10/2006

After a gloomy 2005, due to uncertainties over film tax incentives, the UK film industry seems to be on the road to recovery, according to figures just published by the UK Film Council for the first half of 2006: all figures are up, with a remarkable 76% increase in total production spending, from £276m for the first half of 2005 to £486.3m for the same period this year.

The best news for the UK film industry is that US studios are back. All the main studios – Pinewood, Shepperton, Ealing, Leavesden, Elstree and Three Mills – were buzzing with activity from big Hollywood productions, such as Casino Royal, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix and Stardust, contributing to a 71% increase in inward investment (which refers to a feature film more than 50% financed from outside the UK, where the production is location non-specific or is attached to the UK because of its infrastructure).

There was also a significant rise (+78%) in UK spending, from £55.3m to £98.5m, with seven more films produced during that period (23) for a total value of £113.3m. The most prominent UK films were Working Title’s Bean 2, The Golden Age, Hot Fuzz and Atonement, as well as Kenneth Branagh’s The Magic Flute [+see also:
trailer
film profile].

In terms of co-production, the picture was “mixed”. Thirty co-productions began shooting in the first quarter of 2006 (with UK spending equal to £72.6m) to qualify for the more attractive old tax incentives – based on the total budget of the film and not, according to the new tax relief, on a proportion of UK spend for films that started filming on or after April 1, 2006.

However, only six films started filming during the second quarter (with a UK expenditure of £8.5m). The downward trend, in particular for minority UK co-productions, will certainly continue in the second half of 2006.

Major co-productions that started filming during the first half of 2006 include Olivier Dahan’s Edith Piaf biopic La vie en rose, majority co-produced by Legend Film in France; Tony Mitchell’s The Flood, co-produced with South Africa and Canada; and Richard Attenborough’s Closing the Ring, a UK/Ireland co-production.