“A Future For British Film: It begins with the audience” - Report of the Film Policy Review Survey

24 Jan 2012

The film policy review panel established by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in May last year and chaired by Lord Chris Smith, has published its findings.

The review includes 56 recommendations for the Government, British Film Institute and industry, some of which are summarised below. The Government and the BFI are due to respond to the panel’s recommendations by the end of spring 2012.

Objectives of the Review

The panel was asked to identify barriers to growth in the British film industry with the principal objectives being to:

Provide greater coherence and consistency in the UK film industry
Determine how best to set policy directions for the increased Lottery funding
Identify ways to develop and retain UK talent
Increase audience demand for film, including independent British film.

Some Key Recommendations

As soon as possible the Government and Ofcom should implement the provisions in the Digital Economy Act designed to significantly reduce online infringement of copyright. The film industry should work closely with the Intellectual Property Office, Ofcom and the proposed BFI research and knowledge function to ensure that evidence on the levels and impacts of copyright infringement and theft on industry is as robust as possible. (Recommendation 9)

The current practice of the BFI supporting the recoupment of Film Tax Relief as producer equity continues, but that this producer equity should recoup pro-rata and pari-passu with BFI Lottery investment. (Recommendation 25)

BFI, with industry partners should explore developing and launching a British film ‘brand’ – raising awareness and expectation – to build a stronger and more compelling proposition for British film at home and abroad. Suggestion of an annual ‘British film week’ across the UK, possibly supported by an ongoing series of British film days. (Recommendation 2)

BFI should co-ordinate a new unified offer for film education which brings together making, seeing and learning about film in an easy and accessible offer. This would be available in every school across the UK. It would be supported by an online platform or ‘one-stop destination’ to explore and enjoy film, giving easy access to learning materials, resources and information. (Recommendation 7)

Government should continue to facilitate the partnership work of content creators, ISPs and others to tackle websites which permit or promote copyright infringement. (Recommendation 11)

When the Government implements any of the recommendations of the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property and Growth it should ensure that film industry concerns about proposals, including the Digital Copyright Exchange and new copyright exceptions, are addressed. (Recommendation 12)

Studios, third party consolidators and exhibitors should aim to find a new Virtual Print Fee model that puts the independent distributor in an economic position which is as good as or better than the 35mm model. One option for achieving this might be to encourage a mechanism that gets rid of the repeat fees incurred each time a print moves between cinemas. (Recommendation 13)

Government should introduce legislation making it a criminal offence to record films shown in cinemas. (Recommendation 16)

BFI should introduce a funding mechanism to enable recycling successfully returned development funding back to companies that achieved that success, to be reinvested in further development activity. (Recommendation 20)

BFI should make allowance for development funding that recognises the unique challenges of animation development. (Recommendation 21)

To encourage producers and distributors to work together from the initial stages of financing of a film, BFI should create Joint Venture Lottery funding to be accessed by partnerships between producers and distributors. (Recommendation 23)

Market testing (test screenings and audience research) should be encouraged by the BFI where appropriate and should be funded by marginal increases in individual Lottery awards.(Recommendation 24)

All recouped funding (tax relief as producer equity, the additional BFI producer equity corridor (PEC) and Joint Venture funding) from BFI-supported projects should be held in trust by the BFI. It would be available for reinvestment in future filmmaking activity by the producer (except for a percentage to incentivise and reward success as outlined in Recommendation 30). (Recommendation 27)

A reasonable percentage share of the BFI producer equity corridor (PEC) and of the recoupment of any Joint Venture funding from BFI-supported projects should be accessible by the directors, writers and producers as fair reward and incentive for success, in accordance with agreements to be reached between WGGB, DUK and PACT together with the BFI. (Recommendation 30)

Government should initiate immediate discussions with each of the major broadcasters – the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and BSkyB – with the aim of agreeing a Memorandum of Understanding with each broadcaster setting out its agreed commitments to support British film. Should this approach prove unproductive, then the Government should look at legislative solutions, including new film-related licence requirements to be implemented in the new Communications Act. (Recommendation 32)

Develop a co-production strategy that will seek to best exploit the opportunities for UK film. The Panel has been made aware of the call from industry for the Government to reconsider its position with regards to the tax regime for co-production. The Panel recommends that the Government continues to monitor the effectiveness of the tax incentive in relation to co-production, in particular in regard to the issue of ‘used or consumed’. (Recommendation 37)

BFI should require that any beneficiary of Lottery production or skills funding should, where practicable, have a scheme in place to guarantee investment in new and diverse talent. (Recommendation 46)

BFI should secure new public and private partnerships to unlock resources to digitise and exhibit British film heritage. This will include ensuring availability in all educational institutions in the UK. The potential for partnership funding for this purpose should be actively explored with museums and libraries, Arts Council England and its equivalents in the Nations, the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and local private investors; and the necessary copyright mechanisms for ensuring that the archive can be readily disseminated should be explored with Government. (Recommendation 49)

The BFI National Archive, in association with other National and Regional Archives, should develop a UK Register of British film. (Recommendation 50)

The Panel has noted that only statutory legal deposit for all films certified as British by the certification authority will guarantee that our heritage is preserved. To ensure that all such films can be acquired by the BFI National Archive, the Panel recommends that consideration be given to such a legal deposit provision. (Recommendation 52)

A copy of the review can be found on the DCMS website.