FILM IN ENGLAND - UK Film Council - British Film Institute

■ Opportunities for children and young people to participate in film and video
production, especially on a continuing basis, are extremely limited.
Approximately 200 agencies offer this kind of provision but at widely varying
levels of quality, funding and technical provision. The development of digital
production and post-production technologies and of web-based distribution is
likely to massively increase activity levels
■ Production of British films specifically for children has virtually ceased since
the removal of state funding for the Children’s Film Foundation, and
exhibition or broadcasting of non-mainstream films for children is also
virtually non-existent.
Arguably, therefore, the role of the bfi as a key policy adviser to the FILM COUNCIL
(and others) on film and moving image education, and as a provider of standardsetting
services to educational providers in the English regions should be consolidated
and enhanced. However, cash support for local and regional delivery of education
should cease to be routed through the bfi and will be delegated by the FILM COUNCIL
direct to the regions. This will enable each region to determine its own priorities for
film education.
The FILM COUNCIL wants to ensure with its regional partners that education provision
remains a high priority and that it is realistically resourced. Therefore, the FILM
COUNCIL wants to make additional investment to assist regional educational providers,
especially in the non-statutory and voluntary sectors, to achieve a better degree of
organisational stability, to undertake sector development including developing links
with the formal sector, and to fully participate in establishing an integrated regional
planning process.
3.4.4 Cinema Exhibition in the English Regions
As a consequence of the bfi’s developing UK-wide cinema exhibition strategy and its
parallel review of bfi cinema funding, liaison with the exhibition sector was kept ‘light
of touch’ to avoid ‘review overload’. Nevertheless, the interests of regional exhibitors
were extremely well represented at the National and the Regional seminars.
The following points describe the current cinema exhibition landscape and summarise
key structural issues relating to regional exhibition:
■ The renaissance of UK cinema-going in recent years has been fuelled by the
building of new out-of-town multiplex screens. Between 1994 and 1999 UK
cinema screens increased by 40% to 2,758 screens, 1,617 of which are
multiplex screens. Most commercial cinema screens are owned by major
operators such as Odeon, UCI, UGC and Warner Village
■ In recent years, High Street locations have proved unviable for the majors but
changed planning regulations may reverse this trend
■ Whilst there has been an unparalleled growth in multiplex screens, this has not
been matched by an equivalent growth in the range of films available to
multiplex audiences
Film in England
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Consultation