EXCLUSIVE– A heavyweight line-up of talent is assembling for Brit comedy feature Mindhorn. Written by Julian Barratt and Simon Farnaby of cult fave The Mighty Boosh, and directed by award-winning theatre director Sean Foley (The Play What I Wrote) who makes his feature debut here, Mindhorn is produced by Jack…

The British Film Institute‘s Film Fund is the largest public film fund in the UK. Per annum, it invests over £27M ($46.2M) into development, production, international sales and distribution and supports about 30 new films each year. Now, it’s getting serious about diversity and will require movies meet a list of…

After agreeing in principle to support the conclusion of a co-production treaty last December, the UK and China have finally put pen to paper. British Culture Minister Ed Vaizey and Vice Minister Tong Gang of state authority SAPPRFT signed the pact in Beijing today. The treaty, which is subject to ratification, is…

The British Film Institute created a pilot scheme in January to give a leg up to UK films premiering at Sundance with a view to helping them attract theatrical distribution in the U.S. The program has now been extended to five films in selection at the upcoming SXSW Festival which runs March 7-16. The BFI is making up…

Documentary Makers To Pitch BFI For Funding The BFI Film Fund will dish out funding to documentaries via twice-yearly public pitch sessions, in London and at Sheffield Doc/Fest. Documentarians will pitch ideas to a panel of senior execs “from within the BFI Film Fund and wider documentary funding community”, with…

The British Film Institute has earmarked up to £2.5M ($4M) of Lottery funding for its Vision Awards initiative through 2015. The grants will provide up to £200K over two years to a maximum of 15 production companies for investment in slate development. The project is part of the BFI’s recently launched five-year Film F…

Joe Utichi contributes to Deadline’s UK coverage In a keynote at the Film Production Finance Market in London this morning, BFI Film Fund director Ben Roberts talked about plans for better cooperation with international partners, providing extra coin for minority co-productions and establishing development/production…

Davis joined the British Film Institute in April last year as senior executive of international for the Film Fund. In an expanded role, she’ll become head of international, leading the org’s ambitions for UK film abroad. New duties will include oversight of all international activity at the BFI including inward…