Jeremy Hunt in his infinite wisdom made the sudden and shocking decision to dissolve the UK Film Council. The 75 council members and all affiliates and associates therein received no warning and were given no quarter for negotiation, this is happening. Let me give you an idea of how detrimental to British cinema this course of action will be:
The UK Film Council contributes over 4 billion pounds to the UK's GDP.
Since it started 10 years ago the annual box office gross of British films has risen exponentially, most recently hitting the £1 billion mark for the first time in history.
It supports the best part of 50,000 jobs.
In its lifetime it has contributed £160 million to British cinema.
Films funded by it have cumulatively grossed £800 million worldwide, making £5 for every £1 it initially invested.
It has more or less written the map for public investment in UK film, rather than the old system which relied on private investors and the backbone of Hollywood.
Numerous film societies, independent studios, education programmes and festivals were born out of its charity.
It is largely responsible for the increased distribution of world cinema in the UK.
It is largely responsible for the advent of digital cinema in the UK, which has the most digital screens in the entire of Europe.
A list of films that were made with the help of the UK Film Council:
Bloody Sunday
The Last King of Scotland
Fish Tank
Man on Wire
Brick
The History Boys
Harry Brown
In The Loop
28 Days Later
London to Brighton
This Is England
Nowhere Boy
These films have won awards at Cannes, Berlin, Sundance and hundreds of other festivals worldwide as well as Oscars and BAFTAs, all of them have made 'best films of the decade' list, many of them are listed among the best films ever made.
It is one of the great triumphs of the British film industry and has allowed it to evolve independently of the Hollywood monster.
Now they're getting rid of it. This act by our new 'elected' government is a travosty, they are removing the most essential institution to a profitable industry as a method of cutting the national budget to deal with the recovery from the recession. Yet the bankers, the ones who dropped us in this steaming shit hole to begin with, are being very well looked after and still receiving big fat bonuses on account of their aristocratic, elitist ties with members of the Conservative party. They have made the decision to remove it based on the £3 million spent per year on administration, which is a tiny saving in national terms. The nature of how film-makers in the UK will access funds now is uncertain but in an interview today John O'Connell from the taxpayers alliance said "If a film's going to be profitable in the long run, a canny [private] investor will know that and make a decision accordingly". That statement just sums it up for me, for decades the British film industry was a 3-legged workhouse almost totally reliant on money hungry private investors making no contribution to the UK GDP, seeking only to line their own pockets. Once again, the UK film council is a PROFITABLE success story and the decision to get rid of it is as Martin Spence put it "economically illiterate and culturally philistine". That's a very polite way of defining the decision, I'd call it a fucking cult of personality. We're now privy to a government that will happily run the gauntlet of destroying the UK film industry to protect its wealthy elitist allies, hanging art in the name of raised profit margins for those they really care about, which clearly isn't us, the people studying to join the film industry and more importantly those already involved in it.
The money is still there but without a body to govern its use it now sits in limbo until a new method of funding can be thought of, nothing they do think of will be cheaper or more efficient. I don't think the film industry in this country will die because of this, but it has been severely wounded, numerous film-makers will now attempt to make their name outside of Britain and the great reputation for cinema Britain has been building for the past decade, punctuated by the enormous success of Slumdog Millionaire will take a long time to reattain the reputation it rightfully earned. The final words in the UK Fil Council's intro film are 'if that's what we could do in 10 years, imagine what the future holds'.
I hope Jeremy Hunt is proud of what he has done today.
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