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Is there a British Film Industry ?
Did you know that most of the films released in the UK are made by ONLY four studios: Disney (US), Universal (US), Warner Bros (US) and Pathé (France).
The UK box office is made up of around 84% American, 12% French, 3% British and only 1% the rest of the film world. Click here for this week's UK film release schedule That means the British Film Industry needs to control at least a quarter of the UK market to really have a fruitful existence.
Why isn't there many homegrown films ? The reason - a film needs to qualifiy as British if 70% of the production cost is spent in the UK.
So, obviously that must mean that the British Film Industry doesn't exist!!!
Whoever keeps telling you that it does... Then I will spell it out LOUD and clearly:
It hasn't existed for over 30 years! Now, let me explain the myth. The solution was a levy, named after Treasury official Sir Wilfrid Eady, in which a proportion of the ticket price was to be pooled—half to be retained by exhibitors (ie, effectively a rebate on the tax) and half to be divided among qualifying 'British' films in proportion to UK box office revenue, with no obligation to invest in further production. The Finance Bill 1950 made the changes in the Entertainments tax. The levy was collected by HM Customs & Excise and administered by the British Film Fund Agency. In other words, it meant: In exchange for access to the UK film market, foreign distributors paid the British government a small cut of their income from selling their films to the UK cinema audience. This was called benign tax, so if their films flopped they would lose next to nothing and if a box office success they would profit more than make a loss from the levy. All the money collected were handed over to the British film industry. Although the finance from the levy was not much it helped keep the industry healthy, until constant pressures from the US government in the early Seventies. So, the demise of the British film industry began and the Eady Levy was finally abolished in 1985 in favour of a combined system of private and state funding. It makes sense huh! Now, if there is nothing giving back from the major players, how can an industry like this really survive and nurture the homegrown talent. The public demand to see more British films is clearly stronger by the growth of short film nights happening almost every week at a screen near you!
The British film industry will be back. It has been a long time. If you are a filmmaker, just keep making your films (no matter what format, length or budget) and get them screened anywhere, as the explosion of the independent UK film scene may wake up the TV companies to invest more heavily and for the government to bring in a levy to secure the future of the next generation of British filmmakers to lay the foundations on a now-defunct industry!
Researched and written by Duncan Isaac © Copyright Film Academy 2005 *
* YOU ARE ONLY FREE TO COPY AND USE THIS ARTICLE BY CREDITING THE AUTHOR AND IF PUBLISHED ANYWHERE LET US KNOW BY CONTACTING HERE
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