What we fund
Nurturing film talent, assisting our industry and celebrating film culture
Film production and development
Our Film Fund is a new unified production and development fund dedicated to British filmmaking.
We will support filmmakers in the UK who are emerging or world-class and are capable of creating distinctive and entertaining work. We have £15 million a year to invest across the development, production and completion of feature films. Being supported by the UK Film Council means more than just being given funding. It means that your project can be assisted at every step of the journey by our team, who can offer advice and practical help with many aspects of developing and producing your film.
We welcome applications for all kinds of film – from commercial mainstream to experimental, from genre movies to personal stories, from documentaries to animation to live-action fiction.
For more information on making an application click here.
Film distribution and export
We want to widen the choice of films shown at UK cinemas. Our Prints and Advertising Fund provides £2 million a year to support the distribution of films that might otherwise not be shown widely, among them, A Prophet, Broken Embraces, Let the Right One In, The Curse of the Golden Flower, Volver and Tell No-One.
Our Export Development team provides access to funding to help to sell and support British films, products and services around the world.
Cinema
To help make going to the pictures an even better experience we've invested in 240 digital cinema screens across the UK. We also provide improvement grants to independent cinemas and fund the Independent Cinema Office and the British Federation of Film Societies.
Film education, culture and archives
We promote knowledge about film through a range of funding schemes, including our Archive Fund, First Light and FILMCLUB.
Festivals and audience support schemes
Stimulating greater audience choice is one of our four key aims and supporting film festivals is a great way to do this. We fund the BFI London Film Festival and the Edinburgh International Film Festival as well as regional festivals across the UK. We also fund findanyfilm.com – one of the UK's leading websites for film fans looking to watch, buy, download or rent great films.
Skills
We provide £3.25 million a year to Skillset to support a national film skills and training strategy.
National and regional film
We provide around £6.3 million a year to national and regional film bodies, supporting their efforts to build a clear film strategy and provide financial support for a wide range of film related activities.
