Supporting UK Film
BFI PLAN 2017-2022
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BFI2022 Supporting UK Film
The BFI’s role is to look to the future. That’s exactly what we have been doing over the last year by listening carefully to really valuable feedback and learning from thousands of people across the UK, at roadshows, roundtables and through our online survey. Thank you for being involved. As some great futurists have put it: smart people don’t predict the future, they shape it.
We are excited to present here our five-year plan which builds on Film Forever, our previous strategy. It is designed to help shape the BFI’s next chapter for film, television, animation and the moving image generally, so we can seize all the opportunities, expected and unexpected, artistic and economic, that this dynamic arena offers.
We are keenly aware that our contribution is a relatively modest part of the overall landscape. Our role is one of enabler, investing where we can most make a difference and where we can be a supportive catalyst for change. We will always choose to do this in partnership, and we would like to thank our key partners who have worked so hard with us to shape this next chapter.
Today filmmakers are drawn to experimenting across a whole new array of screens and technologies and across the non-linear, interactive world. The opportunity for the BFI to support risk taking to influence this artistic evolution has never been so exciting. This broadening of cultural focus will be visible in all we do, as we set out in the next five years to inspire excellence, to ignite creativity, and to expand and deepen enjoyment of the moving image for all of us.
The BFI’s cultural programme is the foundation of all our work, enriched through partnering with the other great film centres across the UK and abroad. In this strategy we will be advocating harder than ever for film to be central to all our cultural lives, and contributing culturally to the places where we live; empowering the next generation of creative people; and being at the forefront of international cultural diplomacy.
Film, television, animation, and the moving image are thriving, and after nearly a decade of growth and critical success, this isn’t a flash in the pan. The UK is the destination of choice because we can boast a proven outstanding skilled workforce with a solid international reputation for getting the job done. Confidence can be measured by the private sector capital investments in new infrastructure across the UK from London to Yorkshire to Northern Ireland. The sustained Government commitment to the sector, not least through the screen sector tax reliefs, ensures
INTRODUCTION
Josh Berger – Chair, BFI
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INTRODUCTION
the UK’s competitiveness as a business destination. Together film, animation, television and games make a significant contribution to the economy. But we cannot afford to be complacent. There is growing international competition, and in the post-referendum world we know we have to up our game to sustain and grow further the UK’s position. There is overwhelming evidence of our creativity capturing global attention. From Ken Loach and Andrea Arnold being feted at Cannes, through films such as Bridget Jones’s Baby capturing the hearts and minds of audiences worldwide. While recognising the successes, we are aware that British film’s future is a complex one of great potential but also many challenges. For many UK filmmakers it can feel like tough going. There are genuine questions for us to consider about how independent British film can be supported to take advantage of its creative success to scale up and better compete in what should be an age of opportunity. Future economic value will come from more and better UK content being created, owned and then exported by UK businesses.
We see it as a central purpose to work with the Government, PACT, FDA, UKCA and others to take every opportunity to ensure a stronger future for UK filmmakers.
And there are risks. A recent BFI taskforce found significant obstacles for those who choose to pursue a career in the film industry, and diversity in the workforce is poor. So we are missing out on the talent and creative potential of a great number of young people that we really need for the future.
Creating opportunity will be the key focus across every single layer of the BFI’s activity in this next period as we want it to be easy for everyone to participate, no matter what their background, gender, race, age, disability, sexual orientation or geographic location. We will be launching, with Creative Skillset, a new ten-year skills framework with recommendations that tackle the double imperative of diversity and future skills needs. In the case of skills, social mobility will be of paramount importance. It is our intention to work with all producers active in the UK to create the right conditions so that every production in the UK can voluntarily adopt the BFI Diversity Standards.
For the sector to really flourish, we need to recognise and promote the wealth of talent and creativity from across the whole of the UK, in addition to London. We plan to support further the other emerging centres that have the commitment, leadership and ambition to develop into creative screen clusters of international influence. Our aim is that by the end of this strategy some 25 per cent of our production funding will be devolved to these clusters. We are also creating a new pilot Enterprise Fund providing repayable working capital for small and medium-sized enterprises working in the riskier areas of innovation across the screen industries.
During our UK-wide roadshows, there was a constant call, particularly in England, for greater BFI visibility and for the BFI to advocate more effectively on devolved and regional issues. During Film Forever our work with partners in the Film Audience Network, such as Home in Manchester, Watershed in Bristol, Chapter in Cardiff and Queens Film Theatre in Belfast, has been particularly important. In this strategy we
will be devolving more decision-making and funding to key partners in this network and working with them to strengthen the BFI presence outside London.
Globally, the screen industries are evolving at speed, with exciting new markets emerging. The international sales and distribution sector is in the midst of huge disruption and change. We know that ensuring the best possible outcome for film following the upheaval of the European referendum will be a major priority for the BFI, one which will entail new resource and expertise, as well as renewed energy to flourish in markets outside the EU.
We are ambitious for the future and want to show the world that the UK means business. British film and television are celebrated the world over and deserve a national home, now more than ever. Every other major art form has its own place, and the BFI now has a stunning opportunity, having acquired a site, to create a national film centre. This new film centre will embody our optimism, confidence and excitement about the UK’s leading role in the future of film, at home and abroad. It will create a place that inspires the next generation of filmmakers and audiences, where everyone can discover and explore the magic and wonder of film – past, present and future. The UK is currently enjoying an explosion of creativity and, with its film centre ambitions, the BFI is poised to take advantage of all this potential.
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INTRODUCTION
WHAT WE MEAN BY ‘FILM’
Our aim is to inspire excellence across the range, depth and diversity of the moving image, in ways that pique and support creativity, can augment experience, enrich cultural context, and create contemporary relevance.Filmmakers and creatives are leading the development of the art form across high-end television, 3D and virtual reality, while simultaneously,
in a digitally dominated world, others are fighting for the artistic freedom to continue working with original analogue materials.
Those working in video games are seeking to evolve the grammar of filmmaking to push the boundaries of the moving image into the interactive world.
For the future, (and throughout this strategy) ’film’ will mean anything that tells a story, expresses an idea or evokes an emotion through the
art of the moving image, whilst honouring the platform for which the work was intended.
We will support the continued experimentation, innovation and development of the art of the moving image, whether for the big or small screen, whether delivered in a linear or interactive form. We will introduce greater flexibility in our funding criteria to encourage innovation in moving image. We will expand further the sphere of our cultural programme and the expertise of those who deliver it.
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INTRODUCTION
WHAT WE MEAN
BY DIVERSITY
Diversity is good for creativity, supports economic growth, taps into under-served audiences and makes good business sense.
That’s why our definition of diversity is to recognise and acknowledge the quality and value of difference. We believe that in order to have a healthy, world-class, and resilient film culture and industry we need to showcase, invest in and present the best talent we have in the UK. This means that diversity needs to sit at the heart of our decision-making. We want to make it easy for everyone to engage with film and the moving image, no matter what their gender, race, age, disability, sexual orientation, social background or geographic location. The BFI is committed to promoting a wider range of voices in British film, both in front of and behind the camera. We believe this is an industry-wide challenge and an industry-wide responsibility, and the introduction of the BFI Diversity Standards was an important early initiative that signalled our commitment to achieving real change.
True diversity means a film culture that stretches across the UK in a meaningful way – and that’s far from where we are today. We can be proud of the internationally recognised expertise in our capital city. But when voices from all the regions and Nations of the UK are not properly represented, that is detrimental to UK film as a whole.
In this strategy we will do all we can to bring forward the next generation of British talent, to spread opportunity where it might not exist, to make career progression as easy as possible and to make sure doors are opened where they might appear closed. We will be asking all our funded partners to work with us to advocate hard for the BFI Diversity Standards to be adopted and celebrated across the whole industry. Alongside Creative Skillset, we will lead an overhaul of skills and training, working with Government, the devolved administrations and industry for a proper professional skills framework that has the specific aim of removing barriers. Our Black Star programme is a demonstration of how we will curate our cultural programmes to influence a change in perspective.
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INTRODUCTION
WHAT WE MEAN BY
UK-WIDE OPPORTUNITY
This strategy makes a major commitment to devolving more decision-making and funding opportunities to the English regions and the Nations. During our UK-wide roadshows, there was frequent call for the BFI to be more directly involved, to add support at a local level and advocate more effectively on devolved and regional issues.While London is – and will remain – one of the most successful global centres, the greatest opportunity and imperative for the future is to focus on supporting the development of additional internationally ambitious, economic and cultural centres across the whole of the UK. We anticipate that our Creative Clusters Challenge fund will lead to the identification of one or two priority international clusters for the future,
and we commit to working with partners, including the Local Enterprise Partnerships, with specific incentivisation funding to support production, skills, enterprise and business development.
We will be passing greater devolution of decision-making and funding to our partners across the Film Audience Network, using the existing infrastructure to keep overheads as efficient as possible. We will also be working with them to increase the number of funding access points for future filmmakers, who naturally congregate around these cultural hubs, as well as working more directly with locally based production companies so that their professional ears and eyes can better augment opportunity across the UK.
We introduce a new funding initiative providing repayable working capital to support enterprise and higher risk innovation projects in
smaller companies working across the screen industries. The British Film Commission will lead on developing a new UK-wide strategy for film and screen production services to include and encourage individual city screen agencies alongside the services in the Nations, as part of our ambition that the UK is the best place in the world to make film. We want to be more visible across the UK, working with our partners to advocate for film, television and moving image culture to be at the heart of the new devolved strategies and funding plans, as well as shouting louder about their achievements in Westminster. To do this we commit to BFI personnel across England, and closer working with LEPs, education institutions, councils and creative agencies in each of the Nations. There will also be trustee positions on the BFI board reserved for individuals who bring a particular understanding of film in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
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BFI2022 Supporting UK Film
This plan builds on our previous strategy, Film Forever, and is shaped by all that we have heard during our UK-wide consultation. It focuses on the future, rises to embrace and support the fast-evolving technological creative arena and the new post-referendum opportunities and challenges.
We focus on the future of this great art form and our plan is arranged in three sections: Future talent, Future learning and skills and Future audiences.
The strategy is underpinned by a wider interpretation of film to embrace new forms; a sustained commitment to diversity; and a series of new initiatives devolving more decision-making and funding to create more opportunity across the English regions and the Nations.
We are keenly aware that our contribution is a relatively modest part of the overall landscape. Our role is one of enabler, investing where we can most make a difference and where we can be a supportive catalyst for change. We will always choose to do this in partnership.
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QUICK READ
Here are our headline initiatives:
Future talent
We will:
• For the first time, support work across different platforms and lengths to encourage creative filmmaking that expands the possibilities of storytelling and form.
• By 2022, devolve 25 per cent of all BFI production funding to decision-makers based outside London.
• Launch a new model for fast funding to fully finance low-budget and debut films, with greater support for distributors to build audiences for early careers and risky work.
• Create a clearer progression path and gateways to accessing support for ambitious emerging filmmakers, including regional BFI NETWORK talent executives based in key cultural venues within the BFI Film Audience Network in England.
• Pilot a new £10 million Enterprise Fund providing repayable working capital for innovative projects in smaller companies working across the screen industries.
Future learning and skills
We will:
• Commit to a major new ten-year skills strategy with Creative Skillset to deliver a clearly signposted, industry-backed and adequately funded professional skills framework. To future-proof continued growth in the UK’s flourishing film sector, the strategy will focus on creating new opportunities for thousands of individuals from all backgrounds from across the UK. • Commit to working with all producers active in the UK to create
the right conditions so that every production in the UK can voluntarily adopt the BFI Diversity Standards.
• Develop a well-evidenced manifesto for film in the classroom, in partnership with Into Film, demonstrating the educational and cultural importance of the art of film and its role in inspiring the next generation of a creative workforce.
• Ensure that the BFI’s board and senior decision-making teams are representative of the UK population.
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QUICK READ
Future audiences
We will:
• Grow the engagement of 16-30 year olds with British independent and specialised film across all BFI activities by 2022, ensuring audience-facing activity prioritises and encourages this demographic, who are making the decisions that will inform their film tastes for a lifetime.
• Work with key partners to lead a major initiative to preserve and digitise an estimated 100,000 of our most at-risk, British TV programmes (including early children’s programming, little-seen dramas, regional programmes, the beginnings of breakfast television) currently held on obsolete video formats and in danger of being lost if not digitised within a five-to-six-year window.
• Present major cultural programmes including:. • A year-long focus on India in 2017 .
• An ongoing exploration of British film, looking particularly at Britishness through the experience of dual heritage filmmakers and audiences, for example Black British and British Asian.
• Year-round programming celebrating the representation of women, including a season spotlighting the work of trail-blazing women writers and directors, including Kathryn Bigelow, and a focus on ‘girlfriends’, looking at the dynamics of female friendships on screen.
• Create new 35mm film prints of 100 of the great classics of British and international cinema, bringing the films to cinema audiences on big screens as the filmmakers intended.
• Launch in 2017 the largest public searchable, interactive database dedicated to British feature films released in the UK. This includes over 100 years of data on the nearly 10,000 film titles (growing weekly) released, complete with gender data. In the strategy period we will work towards a dataset relating to ethnic diversity in UK film.
International leadership
for UK film
We will:
Increase the International Fund to lead a refreshed and strengthened International Strategy in partnership with the British Film Commission and the Department for International Trade, informed by research and business intelligence, to navigate the challenges and seize the global opportunities for UK film post EU referendum.
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BFI2022 Supporting UK Film
Great filmmaking can change lives. Through stories from now, and from other times and other cultures, we learn to think differently and understand each other better. Great filmmaking is about revealing things we don’t yet know, seeing the world in new ways, enriching our lives and making a vital contribution to our wellbeing.
People in the UK love film and television. We want people to embrace and value the rich and diverse range of great filmmaking that the BFI stands for. Our aim is that by 2022, industry, policy-makers, and the public alike will understand and champion the cultural value of film, and will be mobilised to advocate for that value in the UK. We believe that everyone, everywhere in the UK, should have the opportunity to enjoy and learn from the richest and most diverse range of great British and international filmmaking, past, present and future. This is central to our goal of encouraging ambition in filmmakers, and curiosity and hunger in audiences. In the next five years we will have a specific focus on increasing opportunities for those aged 16-30 to engage with great filmmaking, so that they can learn and grow from those experiences, whether as audiences or as aspiring filmmakers themselves.
Feature films are made for the big screen, and ensuring they can be seen as intended – as a shared experience – is core to our vision. But we intend ‘film’ to signify excellence and innovation in all kinds of moving image making, regardless of production process, recording medium, or distribution channel. Groundbreaking works which challenge assumptions, which experiment with subject matter, narrative, or style, have always been a part of the BFI offer. In the next five years we are set to embrace new and emerging forms of the moving image within our programming and conservation plans.
Only a small handful of countries worldwide are able to offer the breadth and depth of cultural programming that the BFI and our partners present to audiences. However, the UK lacks a national and international centre for film which could celebrate and give a voice to this extraordinary art form. Our aspiration is to address this during the lifetime of the strategy with plans to be unveiled next year for a new home for the BFI.
FUTURE
AUDIENCES
Great filmmaking for audiences
everywhere
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BFI2022 Supporting UK Film
We have three objectives to deliver great filmmaking to audiences across the UK:
1. To offer a rich
cultural programme
The BFI leads the way in discovering the riches of world cinema and of the significant and pivotal British stories past and present. We will create new materials for some of the greatest films from the history of cinema, films which would otherwise no longer be available to today’s audiences. We will curate programmes from our own rich film and television heritage to draw in new audiences in the UK and beyond. We will tell new stories of how the arts of film, television and the moving image have developed worldwide. And we will offer an unmatched diversity of public programme.
What will we do?
In the next period, our priorities are: British Stories
• We will work with rights holders and significant archival collections to create unprecedented public access to our television heritage, one of the richest collections in British culture.
• In a period of potential upheaval in what it means to be British, we will explore Britishness, in particular focusing on Black British and Asian British filmmakers and audiences.
• We will celebrate British directors and other creative talents, finding
new stories to tell and new ways of examining their work – for example developing programmes from immigrant filmmakers who made Britain their home, from Korda to Kubrick.
• We will mark the 50th anniversary of the legalisation of
homosexuality in the UK, not only with our annual BFI Flare festival but with the digitisation and launch on BFI Player of a major new collection of LGBT filmmaking made in the UK.
• We will continue our year-round programming devoted to women and film – now developing out from women directors to look at a range of creative roles and representation on screen.
• The riches of British animation will be an ongoing focus in our programme – we will make available a comprehensive history of British animation featuring 275 films from the 19th century to the present day.
World cinema
• We will deliver a rich and thought-provoking programme of contemporary and historical world cinema, with a major retrospective celebrating the centenary of Ingmar Bergman, and an immediate focus on Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Claude Chabrol. In 2017 we have a major focus on India, with not only a year-long programme in the UK but complementary programmes in India. Blockbusters
• Building on the success of our UK-wide partnership programmes – such as our Gothic, Sci-Fi, Love and Black Star blockbusters – we plan to sustain and develop further this widely popular annual programming showpiece with a range of projects which we believe will engage new UK-wide and especially 16-30 audiences.
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FUTURE AUDIENCES
Wider moving image
• We will build on our Digital Futures and LFF Connects programmes, connecting audiences with new kinds of moving image experimentation, and hosting a conversation about new ways of thinking and talking about what is ‘film’.
• We will collect new kinds of moving image works to develop the collections of the BFI National Archive.
Skills and knowledge
• We will build on the BFI’s internationally recognised expertise in preservation and documentation, developing an ‘Archive Futures’ programme to share expertise and skills with international colleagues.
• We aim to develop a more diverse curatorial, editorial and programming workforce in the BFI, which reflects the UK population.
• We also aim to develop an appropriately skilled workforce, able to curate across a wider cultural terrain.
Research and data
• We will further build our research and evidence base to strengthen the case for the value of film.
2. To engage young
audiences across the UK
and keep them for life
Never before has film had such breadth and range, and never before have there been so many ways to watch it. As the landscape for film, television and the moving image evolves and expands, the BFI will work with partners to ensure that all audiences have the opportunity to enjoy a diverse range of culturally rich material, both in venues and on demand.
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FUTURE AUDIENCES
However, our audience development strategy will have a distinctive and unifying focus that all our partners, stakeholders and the public can understand, support and help us deliver: a focus on 16-30 year olds. This group holds the key to the future of film culture, as well as to the continued economic growth of the screen industries. As screens proliferate and moving image becomes the predominant way that young people interact with the world and each other, there is a clear need to encourage cultural curiosity and risk-taking among this group.
Audiences at this age are making an increasing number of independent choices and building the tastes that will inform their behaviour for the rest of their lives. It’s crucial that we reach out to them on their terms and where they gather, and offer an opportunity for them to see themselves, their heritage and their future. This focus reaches right across into our strategy for education, skills and filmmaking, acknowledging that much of this audience group watches films in commercial cinemas and online.
We also take this opportunity to refocus our audience-facing investments to maximise the impact that they make at a national and regional level. We will ensure that a diversity of film culture is readily available to audiences across the UK, both in venues and on demand.
What will we do?
• We will develop a simpler, more accessible and responsive Audience Fund, able to support distributors, exhibitors, festivals, national and touring programmes, multi-year projects and strategic partners. The fund will take a more flexible approach to help build audiences for commercially risky projects regardless of the partner and the platform, with a particular focus on strategies to develop the 16-30 year-old audience.
• We will pass more responsibility to a more strategic Film Audience Network – encompassing eight Film Hubs in Scotland, Northern
Ireland, Wales, South West England, South East England, Greater London, a unified Film Hub North and a newly created Film Hub Midlands. The Film Hubs will each carry a strategic lead role and have direct responsibility for more of our Lottery funds to support local distribution strategies, festivals, education activity and key programmes.
• We will lead an audience engagement and data-gathering initiative, in particular to create an understanding of the 16-30 year-old audience’s tastes and viewing habits across commercial, independent and supported cinemas and online platforms, including BFI Player, which can be used for targeted campaigns to encourage this group to explore a wider and more diverse range of film.
• We will make significantly more of our cultural programme central to the BFI Player + service, specifically recognising the growing importance of subscription VOD among the 16-30 year-old audience.
3. To ensure that everyone,
everywhere in the UK will
be able to enjoy more of the
UK’s moving image heritage
There have been over 20 million views of newly available archive material through our Britain on Film programme since it launched, through BFI Player and on social networks. The BFI National Archive is the only national archive with a complete, searchable online database. Anything not immediately and freely available can be made available if paid for on demand. We have eight mediatheques situated in public venues around the UK where hours of archival material can be enjoyed for free. We are also one of the busiest archives in the world with over 60 per cent of our overall cultural programme drawn from our collections. Nevertheless, there is still a perception that it is difficult to access the collections. As well as increasing the amount of material available across the UK, we also aim to engage audiences more effectively by explaining the skills and expertise behind the story of film archiving and preservation, and how to access the UK’s collections.
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FUTURE AUDIENCES
Our work on understanding the data behind British filmmaking – the UK Filmography – will become an essential research and evidence tool on every feature film made in the UK. When linked to data from television and other creative industry sources it will give a longitudinal picture which can inform public policy and funding and create a foundation for understanding diversity both on screen and behind the camera.
What are our priorities and what will we do?
• We will develop and lead a focused effort with our partners to digitise the most at-risk video collections, most of which are television heritage. This will ensure that up to 100,000 of our unique British television programmes – including major one-off dramas and documentaries, children’s television and the birth of breakfast television – currently held on obsolete video formats and in danger of being lost in the next five to six years, will be safeguarded for future generations to enjoy. The digitisation should eventually release costly storage space to allow resources to be reinvested in public activities.
• We will work with key partners and with Government to explore extended collective licensing to facilitate this mass digitisation, and we will increase UK-wide access to the national collections by building on the BFI Player digital infrastructure, developing a ‘walled garden’ and other copyright solutions to reach people in educational institutions and public libraries across the UK. • We will renew the BFI Collecting Policy to include the broadest
range of significant moving image works, also undertaking an options study on statutory deposit and present recommendations to Government.
• We will explore with other collections and rights holders ways to reduce costs and opportunities for commercial partnerships to generate more income.
• We will enrich the data in the newly created UK Filmography, by 2022 creating a detailed picture of gender and ethnic diversity behind and in front of the camera in key roles within British film. Making available this fully searchable data we believe will be of inestimable use to researchers, policy-makers and funders, providing a benchmark from which to track change.
• We will lead on the development of solutions for the long-term sustainability of significant regional archive collections in the UK. • In the next five years we will make film prints and DCPs for at
least 100 of the great classics of British and international cinema, bringing the films to cinema audiences on big screens in exactly the way the filmmakers intended. Without this initiative, the master materials we hold safely in sub-zero storage will never be seen as intended.
• The BFI holds one of the richest collections in the world of film- and television-related materials. Most of these are paper collections, which cannot be easily accessed. Some of the materials are too fragile to be moved at all. We will digitise and make available collections of the posters, designs, press books, annotated scripts and other materials that form a key part of the nation’s heritage.
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Young people are the most intensive users of moving image. Every nine days, as much moving image is uploaded to YouTube as the BBC has broadcast in its entire history. Such an explosion in creation and self-distribution provides a fertile arena for the future of education. The young have the clearest vision of where screen-based communication, entertainment, knowledge and learning will fit into their lives.
Our ambition is to create clear progression paths, both for future audiences as they develop a passion for film, and for talented young people who will be the future of our film industry.
Film Forever marked a significant step in film education. For the first time a substantial Lottery investment was made to create Into Film, now a successful organisation that delivers a programme of film-related activities for five to 19 year olds. We also led programmes to offer audiences a wider cultural programme, including film heritage freely available on the BFI Player for greater choice online.
Now that these initiatives are maturing, we have the opportunity to map together education, learning, and skills development across all our funded partners and start to look at how our UK-wide venue partners, BFI Player and other online partnerships can become more relevant to young people, our future audiences.
This is against a backdrop in which arts and culture have lost ground in the curriculum, especially in England. The increased focus on science, technology and maths – including a narrower scope for the study of English – has squeezed out time for the arts. Last year the Warwick Commission described the resulting inequality in access to culture as ‘bad for business and bad for society’.
This is at a time when the film and screen industries in the UK were punching well above their weight. Between 2009 and 2013, employment in the core UK film sector grew by 21.6 per cent. This may have substantially outpaced the economy-wide increase of three per cent, but will be difficult to sustain without skills development across many key professions. And this must start in the classroom.
The growth in the film economy underlines the value of continued support for Into Film’s early career awareness programmes and the imperative need to sustain the Department for Education-backed BFI Film Academy programme for talented 16-19 year olds. However, it is imperative that the arts, including film, are celebrated and explored
FUTURE
LEARNING
AND SKILLS
Giving everyone the educational
opportunity to build a lifelong
BFI2022 Supporting UK Film FUTURE LEARNING AND SKILLS
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in formal education. Without this grounding for all, it will be difficult to strengthen links to a professional training framework that will ensure the industry is being provided with a workforce equipped with relevant skills. Film, of all the arts, is highly relevant to modern society.
These are core issues for the BFI, and we have organised our education and skills objectives around the following three themes:
1. Reaching out to the next
generation of audiences by
building on the success of
Into Film, and forging new
partnerships
Into Film has built strong foundations for this next phase of our audience development strategy, particularly with the network of nearly 10,000 active film clubs and with an unparalleled geographic and socio-economic reach. Sustaining its work remains a priority.
For decades museums and galleries across the UK have offered world-leading programmes that bring our culture and heritage to different audiences. Imaginative examples of film and film heritage being used in a compelling and educative way do exist across our partners and at the BFI, but they remain fragmented. In an era where the very audience we seek to work with is already willingly conversant with the moving image, we aspire to create programmes around our culture and heritage which can deepen their love and understanding of film in all its diversity. We know that taking part in making a film – offering a hands-on experience – in the context of watching great examples of how the masters of cinema have achieved it, is a fast-track route that many young people find particularly inspiring. Our proposal is a new approach to hands-on filmmaking and learning opportunities in venues, complemented by initiatives which reach into the online world – the natural environment for young people.
This will be a joint venture, across all of Into Film’s clubs, the Film Audience Network, key exhibitors, the Regional Film Archives, our colleagues from the Nations and the BFI, among others – pooling
resources and learning, syndicating our plans, and collectively boosting impact across the UK.
What will we do?
• We will support Into Film to bring a more curated approach to its programming, introduce new digital delivery methods, and mobilise its valuable army of club volunteers.
• We will work with our partners to develop new in-venue educational programmes for young people across the UK, based on British contemporary film and heritage. • We will develop a set of ‘learning journeys’ through film
culture which add up, over time, to a comprehensive online cultural ‘curriculum’.
BFI2022 Supporting UK Film FUTURE LEARNING AND SKILLS
17
2. We will advocate for the
value of film in education –
and by extension, the public
perception of film as an
art form
We will initiate a major evidence-based demonstration of the value of film and moving image in the classroom. We will energise educational experts, teachers, filmmakers, and especially parents, to lead a strong and constructive engagement with policy-makers.
The evidence in favour of film in education, both as an art form in its own right and as a conduit for learning for many other subjects, continues to grow. Film education’s contribution to individual attainment, confidence, teamworking, and technical and practical skills, is hard to ignore. Nor should we forget the power of school-based guidance to raise awareness of the multitude of careers in the media industry.
We will also align our advocacy with the arguments of Livingstone and Hope, in their influential report Next Gen, that success in the digital creative sector is dependent on a cross-curricular approach that combines art, design and programming. The case for transforming the core curriculum from STEM (science, technology and maths) to STEAM (including the arts) remains compelling. Film, we will demonstrate, is the art form with the rich technical and scientific background that, along with gaming, can achieve that transformation.
What will we do?
• We will convene an expert leadership group, working with Into Film, to help run pilot schemes, gather more evidence in favour of the study of film, and develop a manifesto for film in the classroom.
• We will work closely with subject teaching associations and education policy-makers to strengthen opportunities to teach film as an art form. • We will improve access to curated film and television collections for
all education institutions, by working in partnership with broadcasters and rights holders.
3. Leading, alongside
Creative Skillset, on
the development of a
professional skills framework
for new entrants and
employees in the creative
screen industries
The UK film and screen industries are of huge economic value and cultural benefit, yet an important study being undertaken by the BFI, to be launched in the new year, shows that rapid growth and technological change are contributing to serious skills challenges and labour shortages, and threatening the continued prosperity of the sector. Our aim is on the development of a unified, clearly signposted, industry-backed and adequately funded professional skills framework for new entrants and employees in the creative screen industries
The evidence reveals ongoing, and in some cases worsening, challenges around diversity. There was clear consensus from multiple consultations that a lack of diversity was the biggest challenge facing the sector. Those from less advantaged backgrounds experienced significant barriers to entering and progressing in the industry. An analysis of higher and further education reveals a large potential supply of available skills. That this exists at the same time as skills shortages within the industry suggests a mismatch between skills needed by employers and the skills provided by the education system. The delivery of the needed changes will require collaboration between the education sector, LEPs, and the industry, with the full support of the Government and the devolved administrations, and very careful consideration given to how the Technical Education Reform and new Apprenticeship Levy model can best be leveraged to ensure the industry has the skills it needs.
BFI2022 Supporting UK Film 18
FUTURE LEARNING AND SKILLS
To take a wider view of that future, we set up, with Creative Skillset, a high-level industry steering board and commissioned:
• An overview of the workforce and skills issues in the film and screen industries.
• An analysis of the skills challenges facing the film and screen industries from expert consultation.
• An analysis of current skills provision and audit of future skills needs to help us understand and meet this challenge. • Strategic objectives and priority actions to address the findings.
What will we do?
The audit identified three programmes of change:
Overhaul the Film Skills Infrastructure
In order to build a pipeline of talent to support growth we will:
• Create a single coherent source of high quality careers information for the screen industry, developed by employers, used by learners, and embedded within national careers resources and education. • Work with CS to refresh the training accreditation scheme so that
employers know where to recruit.
• Explore the opportunities for the introduction of specific training centres of excellence for film and screen skills.
• Work with Government and industry to ensure that the new post-16 technical education system develops knowledge and skills that are valued in the screen industries.
• Support the industry in the development of New Apprenticeship Standards and pilot an Apprenticeship Training Agency. • Invest in a regular programme of market insight research.
Driving Diversity
A lack of diversity was universally cited as one of the biggest challenges, with unified commitment to delivering a step-change in the make-up of the film industry. The BFI Diversity Standards is the first initiative of its kind to make funding conditional on improved diversity, and in the future we will:
• Work with producers active in the UK to create the right conditions so that all UK productions can voluntarily adopt the Diversity Standards.
• Devise and support interventions that increase the diversity of the workforce, including establishing ongoing support initiatives to help individuals navigate and progress their careers.
• Build on and further professionalise the DfE-backed BFI Film Academy, continuing to ensure that our participants are from a range of diverse backgrounds.
• Work closely with partners within the industry, and also make new relationships with specialist diversity partners, to help us drive and lead change.
Continued Professional Development
Skills shortages were found at many levels and grades within the industry. The importance of increasing skill levels throughout an individual’s career has proven impacts on productivity and growth, which is good for film as well as for the economy. It is important that we enable more businesses and workers to invest in training and boost their skills. We will:
• Develop a unified scheme to ensure working professionals know where to find quality industry-endorsed training.
• Support the development of a leadership programme for the screen industries
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BFI2022 Supporting UK Film
A wave of adventurous filmmakers has led to a fresh cultural vibrancy in British cinema.
As filmmakers and audiences continue to make fewer distinctions between film, television and other digital media (such as games, online video, virtual reality), we need to ensure our funds remain relevant, responsive and adaptable. This is vital if we are to remain effective as the lead public funder of film and take advantage of creative and commercial opportunities in the changing audience landscape across film, television and digital content.
There are challenges. The combination of a cautious UK distribution sector and declining values from the international presales market, and limited public film funds, is placing greater pressure on our funds, particularly in the areas of supporting new filmmakers, experimental and documentary film, and ambitious, visionary cinema such as High-Rise, Under the Skin, and American Honey.
In the first year of this strategy we will work closely with PACT, UKCA and the FDA on a deeper investigation into the health of British independent film so that we can contribute towards improving conditions for its long-term future. We will continue to promote our Locked Box initiatives across development and production, which have already enabled many producers to make investment decisions with creative autonomy. There is also a growing urgency to address barriers in the film industry around inclusion and opportunity that are limiting the industry’s creative potential and cultural relevance. Underrepresentation across the board needs to be addressed, along with the persistent imbalance of filmmakers and producers based in London and the South East, and the broader socio-economic factors inhibiting access for talent and audiences.
Given the relative limitations of our funds, we will target our resources where we can make most impact and deliver the greatest long-term benefit to the industry and audiences. In the next five years, we will focus our work in these key areas – across live-action fiction, animation and documentaries:
• Support during the early careers of a range of ambitious filmmakers.
• Support for films with a strong cultural or progressive impact.
FUTURE
TALENT
Supporting creative and influential
filmmakers whose work is admired
throughout the world
BFI2022 Supporting UK Film 20
FUTURE TALENT
• Projects that take risks in form and content, where the more commercial sector cannot.
• Projects that recognise the quality of difference in perspective, talent and recruitment.
• An increase in the number of active projects and filmmakers outside London and the South East.
1. A new flexibility in our
approach to funding around
form and platform, to
support a broader range
of innovation, work, talent,
and audiences
We will always respect the primacy of the platform for which the filmmaker has created their work, but we want to properly engage with changes in how filmmakers make, and audiences watch, films and to encourage filmmaking in different forms and for a variety of platforms.
What will we do?
We will update our eligibility criteria – specifically around length of work and the expectations of a theatrical release. We will do this by de-restricting our funds in ways that allow us to support certain non-theatrical, episodic, hour-long or other non-feature-length work, a greater variety of animation and digital work, and narrative filmmaking on other platforms, including immersive and interactive work.
We know this is an important evolution of our funding, presenting a radical new approach to how we fund. We will ensure it is thoroughly explored and tested with care.
21 BFI2022 Supporting UK Film
FUTURE TALENT
2. Giving energy and
creative confidence
to early and risky work
With limited other public and commercial funding available to back new and ambitious voices, projects from first-time filmmakers and other more commercially risky work are stalling at the finance stage. Similarly, the expectation of a traditional theatrical release for these projects is setting many of them up for failure, when another route to audiences might make more sense for a project. Development time, financing costs and extensive delivery requirements are in many cases inflating budgets beyond their likely value.
What will we do?
We will establish a fast, full-financing model for debut and lower budget films, which can be delivered entirely through Lottery, or in partnerships. This finance model will be available for ready projects where alternative sources of upfront financing are limited – to secure cast, crew and schedule – and which can be partly replaced if the producers attract other finance prior to production. It will also allow a revenue-sharing structure with producers, which encourages talent and crew participation.
We will also increase our support for a challenged independent distribution sector so that it can continue to partner with us with
confidence, and in particular to introduce and establish new filmmakers. Our additional support for distributors will include a move to non-recoupable grants for higher risk projects such as first features and lower budget work; more flexible support for cross-platform work; a provision for overhead fees in supported budgets; opportunities for distributors to work with us as strategic partners; additional local distribution support through FAN; and a budgeted allocation of basic distribution support in debut and low budget productions funded by the Film Fund. We will also continue to chair the VPF (Virtual Print Fee) Task Group through the final stages of VPF recoupment and exit strategy.
BFI2022 Supporting UK Film 22
FUTURE TALENT
3. An emphasis on UK-wide
talent development through
a wider BFI NETWORK
Delivered through a network of funded partners, we established the BFI NETWORK to provide specific focus and support for talent development, and increase the number of filmmakers and projects supported outside London.
Considering the need for greater diversity in decision-making roles, we are growing the NETWORK to provide a tiered talent programme with a greater number of quality access points for funding and support, and we are working with more partners UK-wide and creating stronger regional talent bases.
What will we do?
The NETWORK will offer more outreach and clearer progression paths
for rising filmmakers, from early shorts through to feature development. In England, there will be a new role for the FAN Hubs: housing NETWORK talent executives to identify and support filmmakers making early shorts or developing ideas for longer-form work. They will build talent and partner relationships at a regional level, ranging from the BFI Film Academies to our Vision Award producers, and will be able to take a broader approach to talent, form and platform in a new partnership we are developing with Arts Council England. We will work with the national screen agencies on programmes which best mirror this approach. The NETWORK website has the potential to help us reach talent that might otherwise be limited by financial and geographical barriers, and we will introduce a new commissioning fund for short-form work, to help us engage with a breadth of filmmakers, writers and animators who are already making and showing us their work.
Other UK-wide support will include funds to set up and run an internationally recognised, world-class talent lab that welcomes and nurtures the best new voices and ideas; a year-round online partnership with BAFTA to support networking and professional development
across the UK and online; and key moments in the NETWORK calendar – such as NETWORK@LFF and the NETWORK Weekender – for developing writers, directors and producers to come together, network with peers and learn from professionals. We will continue to help Creative England on iFeatures, an intensive development model for low-budget first features, as part of our talent development programme. We will resume the direct development of first features within the Film Fund, across script and proof of concepts.
In order for us to help sustain more talent outside of London in the future, we know we need more screen businesses to develop, as part of a wider ecology of creative centres throughout the country and across the fields of film, television, games, animation and the platforms and technologies that support them.
We will work with Creative England, drawing on its expertise in supporting enterprise, to model options for how best to expand support for innovative high-risk projects in screen businesses with a pilot Enterprise Fund.
BFI2022 Supporting UK Film 23
FUTURE TALENT
4. Supporting the growth of
independent film production
beyond London, through the
introduction of BFI Regional
Production funds
A combination of declining access to finance and limited opportunities through the European structural funds, and the greater pressure on our funds across a broad range of material, suggests to us that a new model of Lottery investment is needed in order that we can focus on helping to develop the best work from filmmakers early in their career and increasing the level of production activity outside London.
What will we do?
By 2022, we want to have established a small number of BFI Regional Production funds, which will invest matched Lottery production funding with clear requirements around supporting regional talent, skills and infrastructure outside London.
We expect that these funds – a 25 per cent target of our overall production funding by 2022 – will sit within emerging creative clusters where there is already a developing film, television and wider screen industry, and investments will be made with a combined cultural and commercial approach. All our funds will continue to support development and production across the UK.
We will also be seeking one or more partners, with access to finance and distribution strategies, who can help us deliver our investments and support for documentary films, to open up this important area of filmmaking to other voices.
FUTURE TALENT
24 BFI2022 Supporting UK Film
INTERNATIONAL
STRATEGY
Across the world, screen industries are evolving at speed as exciting new markets emerge. The international sales and distribution sector is in the midst of huge disruption and change. The market value of international presales is in decline and emerging platforms such as Netflix are challenging the familiar models. In the UK we must keep pace with the competition, growing our skills base, supporting our homegrown filmmakers and film businesses, and building more international collaborations through cultural diplomacy.
Whilst the global markets evolve around us, we must also bring our industry together to deliver the best possible outcomes from the UK’s negotiation to leave the EU, working with Government to ensure the right conditions are in place for future growth.
1. Ensuring a globally
competitive UK film industry
Following the decision of the UK to leave the EU, the BFI has been active in bringing together the screen sectors, analysing development in the UK and internationally, and talking to Government. We expect, in this next period, to be working closely with ministers across DCMS, the Department for Exiting the European Union and the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy to ensure that the screen industries are proactively represented at every level of negotiating the new world order.
What will we do?
• Increase the BFI’s in-house expertise on international trade, in order to effectively advise Government and support industry in the development of future trade deals.
• Deliver a research programme that continually assesses and benchmarks the international competitiveness of the UK’s regulatory and funding environment for production.
• Strongly support Government in the development and delivery of a new industrial strategy for the creative industries, ensuring the high growth potential of the screen industries is recognised as a vital element for increasing UK productivity.
• Deliver the best possible outcome for the screen sectors through the negotiation for the UK to leave the EU.
• Sustain strong partnership working within Europe to benefit UK screen sectors through working with our European Film Agency counterparts on active EU policy negotiations and making the case for the UK’s continued membership of Creative Europe.
• Put in place a new advocacy plan for the European Parliament, in order to ensure key MEPs understand the value that the UK screen sectors bring to the rest of Europe.
BFI2022 Supporting UK Film 25
FUTURE TALENT
2. Ensuring inward
investment remains a huge
success story for the UK
economy
Inward investment is a fundamental part of the UK film economy and continues to grow due to the success of the UK film and high-end television tax reliefs, the emerging games and animation reliefs, a highly skilled workforce, world-class talent and infrastructure.
Moving forward, our inward investment strategies need to reflect the entire suite of the screen tax reliefs, and the UK-wide opportunities for economic growth that this suite provides. The challenge of such unprecedented high levels of international production is to grow sufficient capacity of infrastructure and skills. A number of new studio spaces are in development around the UK, and the BFI’s Creative Clusters Challenge fund will support the longer-term development of a number of internationally recognised creative screen clusters, in addition to London, and ensure future capacity for new international film and television production.
What will we do?
• Increase the BFI’s international fund to better support the anticipated requirements of a post-referendum world, including a strengthened British Film Commission.
• Commission a review of UK production infrastructure, including studio space, to establish priorities for investment.
• Commission a review of screen production services, leading to a new UK-wide strategy which makes the most of the UK’s infrastructure and makes it as easy as possible to attract productions.
BFI2022 Supporting UK Film 26
FUTURE TALENT
3. Increasing international
promotion and export of UK
film, talent, skills and culture
Export of UK film, talent, skills and culture is vital to the future of our industry and as a key member of the Creative Industries Council, we are determined to play our part in supporting the Government’s ambitious export targets for the creative industries.
Our support to industry for exporting activity is well received, but we want to do more to help industry capitalise on opportunities in the future, which means making our funding more flexible and reactive.
We believe a strong network of partnerships will be key to promoting the value of the UK’s world-class film talent. We know that our international cultural exchange activities reap strong rewards for the UK, such as the UK’s co-production treaty with China. We will develop our relationships with our partners, such as the British Council and BAFTA, to support the development of markets for the UK in key territories.
What will we do?
• Review the qualifying spend and contribution limits of our existing and highly valued Film Export Fund, to provide a better level of support to companies who are promoting and selling UK film internationally.
• Offer selective support to independent UK producers who do not have the resources to pursue international financing and co-production partnerships, in particular when windows of opportunity, such as an awards nomination or festival invite, occur. • Ensure that UK organisations and Government work together
to maximise resources and impact at key international screen markets.
• Work with Film Export UK to gather and interpret the data necessary to develop better-targeted export strategies.
• In the US, we will work with Government departments and the Great campaign, BFC LA, British Council, BAFTA LA/NY and the British Consul to maximise talent promotion opportunities. • In China, to further activate the co-production treaty potential, we
will work with UK Government departments, the Government of the People’s Republic of China, British Council, and local Chinese partners to deliver an audience development initiative, aimed at younger Chinese audiences with an international outlook. • We will seek to ensure that the BFI’s cultural programme is central
to all major UK diplomacy missions, increasing understanding of British film culture worldwide through international touring programmes.
• We will further develop and grow the BFI London Film Festival as a showcase and launch platform for great British and world filmmaking, as a meeting place for filmmakers and industry leaders in film, television and the moving image, and as a high-profile platform for new thought, leadership, debate and discussion. • While the BFI concentrates on diversity, we welcome the lead from
BAFTA to take over leadership on environmental sustainability, ensuring increased adoption of the internationally leading environmental objectives across the UK film industry.
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BFI2022 Supporting UK Film
The BFI is a charity. The income available to us to deliver our charitable activities comes from the following sources:
• Government Grant in Aid (primarily DCMS with some project-specific funding from DfE).
• National Lottery funds designated for film (including return on investments).
• Income earned by the BFI. • Sponsorship and philanthropy.
Self-generated
income
Income generated by the BFI represents nearly 30 per cent of the total annual funds available to us. It is the most significant contributor to safeguarding the BFI National Archive, increasing knowledge and access, and delivering the BFI’s cultural programme in cinemas and online.
The BFI has a good record of increasing its self-generated income, which is crucial to helping us deliver our overall strategy. We have set ourselves the extremely challenging target of 20 per cent growth in income over the next five years. Our growth plans will involve greater commercialisation of the BFI’s estate and expansion of other commercial activities.
Sponsorship and philanthropy form a cornerstone of our self-generated income. In addition to the need to significantly increase our fundraising revenue, this period will see the launch of an ambitious capital fundraising campaign to build a new home for the BFI. With the support of a mobilised and committed International Development Council and board of governors, we intend to: grow income from trusts and foundations; increase revenue from individual donors through the patrons scheme and other philanthropy schemes; and sustain revenue from corporate sponsors.
Government
funding
Grant in Aid for BFI activities is confirmed annually. Following the Government Spending Review in 2015 we have an indication of our funding until March 2020. However, it is not confirmed and may change. DfE funding for BFI Film Academies is confirmed annually. The BFI Film Academy programme is essential to our skills development initiative and we will be working with DfE to seek commitment to the programme beyond March 2017.
Lottery funding
Lottery funding is made up of: • Income from Lottery ticket sales.
• Return on investments made in film productions and interest on funds on deposit.
• Release of BFI Lottery reserves.
Lottery income is dependent on National Lottery ticket sales now and in the future. Given the recent volatility in income and the scale of our reserves, the BFI cannot guarantee that it will be able to fully support all proposed Lottery-funded programmes over the course of the 2022 strategy period. To help provide greater financial certainty for our strategic plans, the BFI has increased its reserve of Lottery funds as a buffer against shortfalls in income.
FI
NAN
C
IA
L
PL
A
N
BFI2022 Supporting UK Film 28
FINANCIAL PLAN
Proposed budget 2017-22
Table 1 – We have set a five-year budget of £488.8m
to support our three strategic priorities as follows:
2017-22 2017-22
£m
Lottery £m Non-Lottery* £m Total £m Lottery £m Non-Lottery* £m Total
1. Future audiences 3. Future talent
Film Audience Network Fund 15.0 0.0 15.0 Support for Filmmakers
Audience Development Fund 28.3 2.5 30.8 BFI Production Fund 79.5 0.0 79.5
Film Heritage 13.5 0.0 13.5 Development Fund 12.5 0.0 12.5
BFI Cultural Programme 0.0 179.5 179.5 Talent Development and ifeatures 12.5 0.0 12.5
Total Future audiences 56.8 182.0 238.8 Total Support for Filmmakers 104.5 0.0 104.5
Business Support
2. Future learning and skills Vision Awards 4.0 0.0 4.0
Learning International Fund 10.0 0.6 10.6
Into Film 24.0 0.0 24.0 Enterprise Fund 10.0 0.0 10.0
Film Audience Network Fund 1.0 0.0 1.0 National Cluster Growth Fund 2.0 0.0 2.0
BFI Education – Venue based learning 0.0 5.0 5.0 British Certification and Tax Relief 0.0 2.5 2.5
Total Education 25.0 5.0 30.0 Location services 0.0 4.0 4.0
Skills Creative Europe Desk 0.0 2.5 2.5
Skills 17.5 0.0 17.5 Total Business Support 26.0 9.6 35.6
BFI Film Academies 2.5 5.0 7.5 Total Future talent 130.5 9.6 140.1
National Cluster Growth Fund 3.5 0.0 3.5
Total Skills 23.5 5.0 28.5 4. Leadership, research, certification and delivery
Total Future learning and skills 48.5 10.0 58.5 Research 3.0 0.0 3.0 Leadership and Delivery 28.8 19.6 48.4
Total 31.8 19.6 51.4
Total
Investment 267.6 221.2 488.8
* In addition to the above the BFI administers £4.0m Grant-in-Aid funding, part of the Good Friday agreement, given to Northern Ireland Screen for programming in Irish and Ulster Scots
BFI2022 Supporting UK Film 29
FINANCIAL PLAN
£51.4m
4. Leadership, research,
certification and delivery
Proposed budget 2017-22
The charts below set out how the budgeted
income supports investment for the period
to 2022 (also see Table 1).
£238.8m
1. Future audiences
£140.1m
3. Future talent
£58.5m
2. Future learning and skills
Lottery £56.8m Lottery £130.5m Lottery £31.8m Lottery £48.5m DCMS GIA BFI £45.2m DCMS GIA BFI £8.1m DCMS £17.2m DCMS GIA BFI £4.2m BFI earned income £136.8m BFI earned income
£1.5m BFI earned income
£2.4m BFI earned income £10.8m Dfe Grant-in-Aid £5.0m