MUMBAI: The British Film Institute has unveiled a three-pronged assault on driving the UK film industry forward over the next five years with almost $800 million rattling its pockets from the lottery, the government and substantial earned income.
Unveiling its long-looking plan for the first time since taking up the bulk of the public funding duties for movies from the now-closed dow U.K. Film Council in 2011,the organisation noted the headline figure "sounded a lot" but wasn‘t that much spread across its ambitions.
Entitled "Film Forever: Supporting UK Film 2012-2017," the BFI‘s plans include pledging $52 million per year to British film and filmmaking, $71.3 million each year for education and audience development and pumping $16 million annually into film heritage projects such as digital restoration of the BFI‘s archives.
BFI chairman and former BBC director general Greg Dyke said one of his main ambitions with the plans was to ensure the organisation was no longer referred to in certain circles as the London Film Institute.
The BFI has pledged "more money for the production and development of U.K. films."
The cash available will rise annually to ?24 million ($38.7 million) by 2017, "with new opportunities for filmmakers working in documentary and animation and a greater focus on development."
The BFI aims to develop a "new talent network to discover, grow and nurture new voices and stories all over the U.K." and has remodeled the old prints and advertising fund - renaming it the distribution fund - to try and reflect the myriad ways digital distribution has thrown up.