UK Film Council Chairman Sir Alan Parker CBE today outlined plans to build a sustainable and growing UK film industry, delivering more international successes such as the Bond series, The Full Monty, Bridget Jones's Diary, and recent Lottery-funded hit Gosford Park.
The plan, which will require action by both UK Government and industry, will involve promoting the UK as an international film centre by using incentives to encourage the distribution of more UK films at home and abroad, use Lottery money to grow UK creative and technical talent and skills and support cultural production, and encourage investment via world-class infrastructure of studios and production facilities and services.
In a speech to an audience of film industry and Government representatives at the British Academy for Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) in London, Sir Alan praised the talent with the UK film industry before outlining a strategy which aims to:
· improve distribution of UK films at home and abroad using a review of the current 100% tax write-off for a film's first year production expenditure, which is due to expire in July 2005 to create a fiscal policy to give film distributors (both independents and Americans) an incentive to invest in and acquire UK films;
· provide the UK with the best-equipped, most highly-skilled and flexible film workforce in the world in areas ranging from script development, through to production, post-production, distribution and exhibition. This would be funded by Lottery money from the FILM COUNCIL, the industry itself (with the possibility of tying a contribution to industry training to the availability of any future tax break) and by Government funding;
· ensure the UK offers infrastructure including state-of-the-art studios and post-production companies, complemented by outstanding service companies servicing the global film business. This will include
- revising the definition of a British film to reflect the fact that actual production increasingly will take place in countries with a lower cost base.
- encouraging greater UK involvement in international film production by creating strategic alliances with new territories outside Europe which are already playing host to big-budget productions, ensuring the involvement of UK companies technicians and craftspeople.
- strengthening our traditional links with the US industry at every level; encouraging them to continue to invest in production here in order to develop our infrastructure to the benefit of jobs and skills.
- encouraging financial bridges with Europe's major film companies across the continent, and bringing additional investment into the UK, and increasing influence on policy at the European Commission.
- examining the case for incentives for private sector investment in high-tech businesses
Sir Alan said that despite outstanding individual talents and successes such as Chariots of Fire, Gandhi, Trainspotting and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, over the last 20 years of the UK film industry had been dogged by the lack of sustainable film finance and distribution companies big enough to compete on an international scale.
Sir Alan said that without investment of Lottery money and the tax breaks brought in by the current Government there would be little or no film production in the UK, but existing incentives were not designed to improve the distribution of British films, which is crucial for continued success.
Addressing the problem of the lack of investment by UK broadcasters in the domestic film industry, which was highlighted by the recent Parliamentary Committee studying the Government's Communications Bill, was also essential, said Sir Alan.
Sir Alan said the UK's current strengths included its wealth of creative and artistic talent as well as world-class costumiers, camera companies, and digital post-production houses which had been a magnet for inward investment. In the age of global communication via the internet the English language was an undoubted asset.
Stating that the lessons of the past had shown that encouraging film production alone would not create a sustainable and growing UK industry, Sir Alan outlined a three pronged strategy to support creativity and industry, and establish the UK's place as an international film centre.
Sir Alan said, "We can never be the biggest film industry in the world, but we should be right up near the top of the league, not permanently hovering in the relegation zone.
"The UK film industry is not in need of quick fixes and band-aids if we are to succeed on the world stage. It needs nothing less than radical re-invention.
"We need to abandon forever the "little England" vision of a UK industry comprised of small British film companies delivering parochial British films. That, I suspect, is what many people think of when they talk of a "sustainable" British film industry. Well, it's time for a reality check. That "British" film industry never existed, and in the brutal age of global capitalism, it never will.
"We need distribution-led companies to carve out a British share of the $60 billion world market and we can't do this simply by staying at home.
"We need cinemas in the UK and abroad to show not just American blockbusters, but films made in the UK with stories for and about ourselves.
"Last week the Government published its response to the Joint Committee on the Communications Bill, in which it accepted that the broadcasters should play a positive role in the development of UK film. The FILM COUNCIL will pursue this vigorously.
"In the immediate future, we are going to have to compete on the basis of skills, even more so than costs, so we need to rapidly expand the quality of our skills base because it is the life-force that will protect the UK's ability to make films.
"The Film Council intends to put together a coherent training strategy for film, organised at the centre, but delivered at colleges and training establishments all around the country. We need a robust infrastructure that will enable us to make those films here and also compete in the world marketplace.
"Around the world, investment is pouring into new film studios from India to South Korea, from Australia to Thailand, and dozens of other Governments are dreaming up new tax incentives seemingly month-by-month in an effort to attract big-budget Hollywood movies. The world is suddenly a much more competitive place.
"We need to continue to attract inward investment and film production into the UK, and to encourage greater UK involvement in international film production, ensuring that UK talent - technicians and craftspeople - work on these films.
"We are at a crossroads. The tide is turning and we can't sit here like cultural Canutes. We can retreat back to 'Little England'. Or we can mount a sustained assault on wider horizons. The choice is there for all of us."
