The British film institute was established in 1933 to encourage developments in the British film industry, and it promotes and preserves television and film making in Britain. The BFI uses funds provided by the National lottery in order to encourage film production, distribution and education. In addition to this it is also sponsored by the department for digital, media culture and sport and is partially funded under the British film institute act of 1949.
In addition to any grants that may be made by the Privy Council to the British Film Institute out of the Cinematograph Fund established under the [22 & 23 Geo. 5. c. 51.] Sunday Entertainments Act, 1932, the Treasury may from time to time make grants to that Institute of such amounts as they think fit out of moneys provided by Parliament.
The BFI was initially a private company, although it has received public money throughout its history, from the privy council and treasury until 1965 and through various other departments since then.
The institute was reformed in 1948 following the Radcliffe report, which led to control of educational film production being passed to the National Committee for visual arts in education and the BFS assumed control over promoting production. From 1952 to 2000, the BFI provided funding for new and experimental films makers through the BFI production board.
The BFI runs the BFI Southbank and the BFI IMAX cinemas’, which are both located near the river Thames in London. The IMAX cinema has the largest cinema screen in the UK and shows popular recent releases and films that showcase its technology, such as 3D screenings and 11,600 watts of digital surround sound. The Southbank cinema shows films from all over the world, particularly critically acclaimed historical and specialised films that may otherwise not get a showing. The BFI also distributes archival and cultural cinema to other venues- over 800 a year throughout the UK, and many others worldwide.
The BFI also offers several educational initiatives to support the education of fil and media studies throughout the UK. In late 2012, the BFI received funding from the department of education to create the BFI Film academy network for people age 16-25.
The BFI have produced and distributed various films, including PRIDE (2014), the riot club (2014), Mr turner (2014) and cold war (2018), all of which saw success with both box office and critics alike.
In order to apply for the BFI development fund:
-applications must be made by a producer who is a different person to the writer and if there is one director
-they are unable to provide funding for projects without a producer, and they should consider the BFI early development fund
In addition to this they prioritise work that:
-is made by filmmakers in the early stages of their careers
- has cultural relevance or progressive ideas/ ideology
-takes risks in both form and content
- recognises the quality of differences in perspectives, talent and recruitment
- originated by filmmakers outside of London and South East England
The BFI has worked with several governmental and non-governmental organisations to preserve the British film industry, including the BBC, the national lottery, the UKFC and the department for culture media and sport.
The BFI’S collaboration with the BBC produced various television programmes, such as the lost world of Tibet, the lost world of Mitchell and Kenyon and the lost world of Friese-Greene, which were aired on BBC using footage from the BFI national archive.
The BFI national archive is a sect of the BFI and is one of the largest archives in the world. It was first founded as the national film library in 1935 and its first curator was Ernest Lindgren, who was a British writer and archivist. The job of the BFI national archive is to collects, restores, preserves and shares the films and television programmes that have helped shape and record British life and culture since the development of the cine film in the late 19th century.
The BFI looks after one of the largest and most important collections of film and television in the world. Its teams of experts ensure that the collection is preserved and developed for future generations and made widely accessible to today’s audiences.
One of the key restorations made in recent years was the Mitchell and Kenyon collection, which were found to be the largest surviving collection of early non-fiction actuality films in the world. The restoration of these films gave historians a more detailed look into Edwardian era Britain, and are considered a highly valuable source.
In order to qualify for the UK’s creative sector tax reliefs, all films, animation and television programmes or video games must be certified as British through the cultural test or qualify as an official co-production.
The unit offers advice on qualification under the cultural tests, the UK’s bi-lateral co-production agreements and the European Convention on Cinematographic Co-production. This is needed in order to access and be eligible for the BFI’s tax relief programme.
Film tax relief is available if:
- It either passes the cultural test or is qualified as a co-production
- They are intended for theatrical release
- Have a minimum UK core spend requirement of at least 10%, including those made under official co-production treaties
Tax relief is available on qualifying UK production expenditure on the lower of either 80% of total core expenditure or the actual UK core expenditure incurred. There is no cap on the amount which can be claimed. The film production company responsible for the film needs to be within the UK Corporation Tax net.
In order to claim tax relief on high end television (HETV) it must:
-qualify as British by either passing the cultural test or as a co-production
-be intended for broadcast (this includes the internet)
-be a drama, comedy or documentary
-ensure at least 10% of the core expenditure takes place in the UK
-ensure the average core expenditure per hour of slot length is at least £1 million (pro-rata)
- ensure the slot length for the programme is more than 30 minutes
-be made by a television company within the UK corporation tax net.
There is a minimum spend requirement for qualifying production expenditure which is different depending on which tax relief you require.
Films, HETV, animation and children’s television must have at least 10% of costs spent on UK qualifying production expenditure.
Video games must have at least 25% of costs spent on UK or EAA state qualifying production expenditure.
UK qualifying production expenditure is defined as expenditure incurred on production activities which take place within the UK including pre-production, principal photography, animation shooting, designing and producing and post-production, irrespective of the nationality of the persons carrying out the activity, and for video games this carries out to the EEA state qualifying expenditure.
HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) definition of UK spend introduces the concept of where a good or service is “used or consumed” in the UK.
If a good or service is used or consumed in the UK, expenditure is treated as UK expenditure under the rules set out in the clauses of the Finance Bill. If they are used or consumed outside the UK, they do not count as UK expenditure.
Between April 2011 and March 2015, the BFI awarded £128,831,288 to various projects.
The BFI awards national lottery funding to projects to cultivate a rich film culture within the UK, investing in film production, education, audience development and market intelligence and research.
The BFI are currently getting ready to launch their screen culture 2033, their new ten-year plan that sets out how they grant access to their programmes, screen culture and jobs. This sets out how they will use their unique and valuable collections, cultural and educational programmes, their policy and research work with a new BFI national lottery strategy 2023-2033 and the BFI national lottery funding plan 2023-2026 in order to build and develop a diverse and accessible screen culture that benefits society and contributes to the UK economy.
The BFI national lottery strategy sets a goal from April 2023 to March 2033, in which they will develop a series of funding plans that will guide the BFI national lottery over the ten-year period and will detail the specific funds and programmes they will use to deliver the strategy which will span shorter periods of time, such as the BFI national lottery funding plan that will run from 2023 to 2026.
Under the national lottery etc. act of 1993, proceeds from the national lottery are split between several good causes, which include the arts, sport, national heritage and many more. The BFI acts as the UK’s distributor for the national lottery good cause funding for film. The BFI also invest money from the government in addition to the national lottery funding for them to achieve their aims and goals regarding films.
Under the national lottery etc. act of 1993, it sets the terms for how the BFI award national lottery funding, and it must meet a set of requirements depending on the media type.
The available funding for the 2023-2026 funding plan is an estimated £45 million a year, which is 10% lower than previous years, so it is more important that every investment made will deliver impact for the UK public.
They will only ever invest where there is clear evidence of need, lack of sufficient funding, and relevance for the British public. They have historically focused on funding independent films, taking steps to support XR during the BFI2022 strategy period. They deliver funding for projects that meet their three principles.
A. Equity, inclusion, and diversity.
This is about ensuring everyone can develop a relationship with screen culture regardless of background experience.
Representation in the UK film scene has long been unequal, and so every penny of BFI funding will work to ensure that that balance is rectified. Funding can help create a world where people no matter their background, can create, develop, and make a living off screen culture. Funding can help us move toward a world in which everyone has the chance to experience, create and make a living from screen culture. This includes people of all ages, religions or beliefs, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, working class backgrounds, as well as disabled people, those with a longstanding physical or mental condition, and those identifying as D/deaf or neurodivergent. Funding can help support parity of access to the screen sectors for underrepresented groups. In this respect, we will work in line with the disability community’s mantra, “Nothing About Us Without Us”:
Focusing on equity recognises that different people have varying accessibility needs and face different barriers when it comes to engaging with the screen sector, and then supports them to overcome them. Funding programmes and projects will have to consider how they work to accommodate the full spectrum of people’s needs. This will help make sure that everyone can meaningfully encounter, create, and work in film and the moving image.
Focusing on diversity will make sure programmes work to engage people from the widest possible range of backgrounds to gain a unique number of perspectives on any one issue.
Focusing on inclusion will make sure that beneficiaries of funding have quality of experience. It will ensure that projects consider how they make people feel safe and supported, and that their voice is heard, regardless of their background, characteristics, or accessibility needs.