UK film industry review leads to unsurprising government response

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Although it’s too early to judge, the government’s initial response to the nationwide review into the UK film industry has been entirely predictable thus far.

Earlier this year, a huge review was undertaken to assess the state of the UK film industry. In the months since the survey was conducted, Film Stories has been privy to the odd noise of dissatisfaction from UK producers with regards to the way the survey referenced the struggling independent sector in favour of other areas.

Given that the UK already possesses a thriving reputation as an international film hub, perhaps it’s no surprise then that when the government publicly responded to the commissioned investigation, UK chancellor Jeremy Hunt didn’t mention the independent sector at all.

Instead, his focus was largely on how to further boost the tax credit system for the UK’s booming VFX industry to ensure it is competitive with other countries.

The BFI has also been given a boost in funding, but only so that it can speed up certification of ‘cultural tests’, which in practice can often mean certifying international (read: Hollywood) films as ‘British’ productions so they qualify for tax relief.

In fact, as far as the reporting that we’ve seen indicates, Mr Hunt neglected to mention the struggling independent sector at all.

That was left to BFI chief, Ben Roberts who said this: “We continue to work on the significant challenges being faced by UK independent film, which is not only a fundamental part of UK screen culture but also essential to the ongoing success of the wider UK industry.”

Nice words, but they aren’t the government commitment that many were hoping for.

Whilst it’s too early to make a summative judgement, the lack of commitment thus far to improving the state of the independent sector is depressingly predictable. We certainly haven’t seen anything yet resembling the called-for tax-relief boost that would apply specifically to small-scale British films, or the requested cash boosts for funders of UK film such as Film4 that have seen their real-terms funding reserves fall by some 30% due to inflation.

Perhaps somebody should sit the chancellor down and make him watch Polite Society or Scrapper. Maybe that would change his mind as to the potential that our indie sector could offer. Honesty though, we doubt it.

Screen Daily