It has been a Monday of changing news. Early in the morning we heard that Jeremy Hunt was to make an announcement at 2.30pm abolishing the UK Film Council as of 2012 as part of DCMS’ helping to shoulder the burden of budget cuts.
But during culture questions, the situation became less clear cut, with Mr Hunt saying this was not absolutely final and asking for people to voice their opinions. (5th paragraph down).
The Film Council actually set us up 8 years ago and we have been funded by it since then to deliver support to talent development, production and audience development in the Northwest. And we are proud of all the people, organisations and their work that we have supported in that time.
Nationally, the UK Film Council has done a great job, raising the profile of British film, making investments into production, encouraging the take up digital screens, and through people like us, funding the grass roots that strive so hard to get film out there. We think that one of the biggest achievements is that, through its intervention, UK Film Council, opened up film to people who might not have had a chance to work in it before.
We don’t want to see that foundation destroyed and that work lost.
What we want for the future is to keep supporting great British film (like 2009's Nowhere Boy, pictured), and we want to bring it into the main body of the creative and digital sector and not keep it separate.
We believe that creative and digital companies here are going to grow exponentially over the next five years, and that they have a huge amount to contribute to the wider UK economy. Film can and should be a part of that.
We'll add our voice to the discussion and debate, and in the mean time, we'll continue to deliver our support to the Film business.
