British Film Council
The British Film Council is to take on the funding role previously played by the UK Film Council before it was controversially abolished by the Coalition Government in July.
From April 2011, it will be responsible for distributing lottery money to UK-based film-makers.
"The BFI will be the flagship body for the delivery of the UK film policy," said Ed Vaizey, minister for Culture and the Creative Industries.
As well as this, the BFI will be in charge of public funding to support film in the regions as well as focusing on audience development and education.
The institute currently looks after the national film archive, runs education programmes and organises the London Film Festival, among other things.
Full details can be found on the BBC News website.
About Creative England
The Screen England network of regional screen agencies was established by the UK Film Council in 2002 to deliver film culture and nurture talent across the country. Since then, the independent screen agencies have grown and diversified to work across the full range of creative media industries, in many cases attracting significant funding from other sources for a range of projects. Their activity has supported both the ‘screen-related’ sector of film and television, as well as the wider creative industries such as games, digital, new media, design and fashion.
Following the announcement of the abolition of the UK Film Council in July 2010, the Government confirmed continued support for the film and media industry outside of London. The agencies have since been working with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), to decide on the best structure of this support, in order to secure a strong future for the UK’s creative industries.
It has been recognised that a condition of this ongoing support is the re-structuring of the screen agency network to reduce expenditure and overheads, resulting in a more streamlined channel of public funds into the creative sector.
The Government has announced the establishment of Creative England, a new nationwide network based on three key hubs; Creative North, Creative Central and Creative South; which will work with local business networks and sector organisations, to deliver cultural and business-development objectives.
The DCMS has confirmed that Exchequer and Lottery funding will be available to continue out of London film services, including providing a nationwide talent development network, delivering locations services, and supporting exhibition, film festivals and audience development.
The screen agencies will now work together to restructure into the three hubs. There will then be an industry consultation, where responses to the proposed Creative England model will be invited from industry members across the UK.
Vision+Media
In response to Ed Vaizey’s announcement of proposals to form Creative England, Alice Morrison, CEO of Vision+Media, said; “We’re pleased that the new Creative England structure has been decided, and we look forward to working with the other screen agencies to form the three hubs of Creative North, Central and South. We are confident that this new framework will support our local film and screen-related sectors, whilst also delivering for the wider creative industries which we have been engaged with for some time.
“We have already shown in the past eight years that we can generate key economic growth in our local creative sectors by providing the right businesses with targeted support. We look forward to being able to continue this work under the Creative England banner, and will share further details with the industry as they are confirmed in due course.”