What is your opinion on the UK government's decision to close down the UK Film Council (UKFC)?
Firstly, I'd like to note that it's always tragic when people lose jobs. More than 25 people had already been made unemployed at the UKFC prior to the elections - and this irreversible decision by the government means there will be more redundancies - maybe another 75.This is never pleasant and finding work in the climate that is currently prevalent in the UK will not be easy.
The UK Film Council has been for the last ten years a robustly funded, fully staffed, solidly backed "public" institution. Its mission is not to create, but to administrate the distribution of money raised via the UK Lottery and HMRC Revenues. I believe this administration has spent most of its annual budget over the years. Some of those decisions have been welcomed, others not. It's the nature of the beast. The bureaucracy of spending public funds is one which needs tight fiduciary control. This was very much in place. However, the UK Film Council has now been abolished.
What seems to be emerging as a replacement is a blend of British Film Institute, Arts Council of Great Britain and broadcasters as possible gatekeepers. If this is the case, then we need to take steps to make sure that there is fairness and accountability in the best possible sense to build a strong, sustainable industry. As well as making sure we maintain our lottery and HMRC tax credit funding, we must also look to our European partners for serious collaboration and engagement.
How do you think a future UK film organisation could perhaps play a different-and better- role?
Going forward, the new organisation will need to be one which respects its constituents, and empathises in a critical way with the problems that the industry is facing. Clearly in this particular case, the government looked at the overheads of 25 percent of total budget at UKFC and found that there was unhappiness with its performance among its grass roots constituents -- and thought we all have to make some savings. The majority of UKFC films in production now are already backed by Film 4 or the BBC so hopefully it will not be catastrophic and the good thing is it gives us a chance to look at what we really need going forward.
The new organisation/gatekeepers will hopefully have the same amount of lottery and tax based funding. These individual ‘gatekeepers' would need to change every three years to give everyone a chance, and there should be a commission for example like in Germany to advise future gatekeepers. Support from government for international trade and marketing would be welcome in the form of the German Export Union. In short the UK needs to look at its European partners for support and understanding in these difficult times and not west to the US. Culturally, creatively and commercially our ‘special relationship' is with Europe, not America.
What effect will the abolition of the UKFC have on your own activities?
The effect of the closure of the UK Film Council will be minimal to us. Film and Music Entertainment is, according to the UK Film Council's Annual Statistical Yearbook 2010 the number one production house in the country. We have over the last ten years created a vertically and horizontally integrated full service production company that is sustainable and profitable. We have done this largely outside of the public subsidy world.
What projects do you have with Nordic partners?
We are currently in discussions with a number of Scandinavian film makers to co-produce a variety of films. We are working with Monster Film in Norway and The Little Film Company in the US to put together Hans Petter Moland's next film Elephant; as well as in advanced negotiations to join Zik Zak Filmworks' production Volcano by Runar Runarsson. We are also working closely with Egil Odegard from Norway's Filmhuset on a project called The Great, written by Brock Norman Brock and directed by Peder Norlund and Lords of Chaos directed by Sion Sono. With Anna Maria Karlsdottir's Icelandic production company and Norway Filmhuset, we're also collaborating on My Own Private Oslo, which is about to start shooting in Reykjavik.
*Over the last ten years, the UKFC has invested over £160m of Lottery funding into more than 900 films such as The Constant Gardener, The Last King of Scotland and Streetdance 3-D. Within the distribution sector, the film organisation's P&A Fund (with an annual budget of £2m) supported the release of Scandinavian films like Jar City, Let the Right One In and Flame & Citron.