Neil Calloway looks at new guidelines for British films…
It’s been a quiet week for film industry news, but it’s entirely possible that you missed the fact that the British Film Institute Film Fund is being revamped to be more inclusive. The Film Fund, which distributes National Lottery money to film projects, is a vital part of filmmaking in Britain. Without it, independent British films wouldn’t get made.
It’s a common argument; one I’ve made myself in the past, that the British entertainment industry is dominated by privately educated people from London and the South East, and these new Film Fund guidelines and changes are hoping to rectify that imbalance.
It can’t have escaped the attention of anyone remotely interested in film that there seems to be something wrong with power held by a few individuals who may or may not abuse their position for personal gain. Spreading money around the country with regional film offices, and targets for diversity in film-makers who receive support (when I say support I mean cold, hard, cash) from the Film Fund.
It’s important to note the distinction between targets and quotas – the Film Fund’s aim is to represent the make up of the UK in casts and crew, not impose top down, iron cast rules on films, that might themselves lead to discrimination and at the very least cause a tabloid stir. It really shouldn’t be too hard to find as many women who want to make films as men, or make sure one in five of them is not white, or a handful out of every hundred have a disability or identify as LGBTQ. It shouldn’t be, but that’s the way it has been until now.
Truth be told, the new targets could go further, at least when it comes to funding films outside London; they aim for only a quarter of the money to go to the regional funds, when really it should be much, much more – most people live outside London, most people want to see films that reflect their lives rather than some Richard Curtis rubbish that doesn’t even reflect the lives of people in London.
The Film Fund is also attempting to keep up with the times by making it easier for films that may not get theatrical distribution get funding – in the age of Netflix it’s surely better to support something that will get seen by people all over the country – or all over the world even – in their own homes rather than something critically acclaimed but that only played for a week in three cinemas in London.
All these initiatives are a step in the right direction, but it’s entirely possible that by the time they are up and running new guidelines will be implemented to satisfy whatever is flavour of the month then. Until then, this might just work and give hope to people neglected by British film. Instead of getting excited because they’re shooting the new Star Wars movie here, we might be able to come up with our film that’s just as good.
Neil Calloway is a pub quiz extraordinaire and Top Gun obsessive. Check back here every Sunday for future instalments.
