I won’t condone this, but at the same time, they’ve funded so many pieces of drole its almost untrue.
I’ve (almost) always preferred films that have come up through filmfour to ones funded through the film council.
From what’s listed on Wikipedia the quality of films they funded does seem to have been a bit mixed (although they did fund In The Loop which was excellent). Guess we’ll have to wait and see what they decide to do instead…
I was rather furious when I read this (whether or not all their films are good, scrapping it a- cuts a shedload of jobs and b- makes it increasingly difficult for budding film makers to get anything made). And yet they won’t scrap reality TV? Please!
Not that it will change anything but here’s the petition for anyone wanting to sign:
I think I’ve been leaning towards agreeing with it being axed to be honest. They had 75 staff whose purpose was to distribute £15 million pounds a year. If you approximate the average salary to be about £30,000 that means £2.25 million (15%) of the money intended for independent films was being spent on people deciding where to spend it (and not doing a very good job at times). That’s not even considering the costs of maintaining a large office and other expenses.
It depends a bit on what happens next. They’ve indicated that they still intend to fund British films so I guess its a matter of waiting to see what effect it has on British film making.
The director Chris Atkins, writing in The Times, is in favour of the axing:
“[The UKFC’s] top ten execs all earned more than £100,000 and the UKFC running costs were at one point listed at £7 million a year. Film4 manages to operate with a staff of ten.”
Atkins writes that the Film Council handed over £154,000 to promote the Rolling Stones and Martin Scorsese collaboration Shine a Light. The film of U2’s global ‘Vertigo’ tour, U2 3D, received £164,496.
This comes at the same time as proposals for the TV license to be scrapped. Now think of the great BBC Films recently (An Education comes to mind, as does In the Loop, see wikipedia for a list). Both seeing their budget cut would be very bad for British film.
Ref please!
I’ve only heard of a ThinkTank recommending it, and I didn’t think the Gov wanted the fee changed at all (i.e. its due to remain constant), but I could be misinformed.
I think this is the story Pierre is referring too:
Just some nutty think tank from what I can see.
Well, as the Tories are pretty much bought and paid for by Murdoch- they’re going to try and kill the BBC. (slight exaggeration, write to your mp and tell them you’ll hate them if they cut the licence)
I’ve heard good and bad things from various people about the UKFC, with a suggestion that it should be scrapped and replaced with protectionism in the film industry. (Say 15% of all films shown in UK must be British) This seems fairly reasonable, but won’t happen.
All in all, I’d be happy to see the UKFC be shut if it’s going to be replaced with something better. But it won’t be. 
Another update on this, confirming some of the queries about how badly the money appears to have been spent