Latest in BFI

The British Film Institute, the UK’s lead organization for film, has posted the advert for one of its top jobs: the Director of BFI Film Fund. Scroll down for the full ad. The role, which has been vacant for more than a year after Ben Roberts assumed the role of BFI CEO in late 2019, includes leading on strategic…

Animated feature Kensuke's Kingdom, based on the Michael Morpurgo novel, Terence Davies' Siegfried Sassoon biopic Benediction and the Studiocanal-released Saint Maud were among the films to receive the highest level of support from the British Film Institute's production and distribution funds this year. It was a year…

It seems an obvious point, but it’s worth clarifying that Brexit will likely increase bureaucracy for UK film and TV productions shooting in the EU. Uncertainty remains over the nature of the future relationship between the UK and EU given that the two parties have yet to agree a ‘Brexit deal’. The deadline for that…

EXCLUSIVE: Filming has wrapped in Scotland on under-the-radar UK horror The Origin, starring Chuku Modu (The 100, The Good Doctor), Kit Young (star of Netflix’s upcoming fantasy series Shadow And Bone), Iola Evans (The 100), newcomer Safia Oakley-Green, Arno Lüning and Luna Mwezi (Platzspittzbaby). The Stone Age-set…

The BFI and IWC Schaffhausen today revealed the three filmmakers shortlisted for the annual IWC Schaffhausen Filmmaker Bursary Award, given in association with the UK film organization. The 2020 contenders are Cathy Brady, writer-director of debut feature Wildfire, Aleem Khan, writer-director of debut feature After Lov…

The BFI and BAFTA have joined forces to launch ‘A Screen New Deal – a Route Map to Sustainable Film Production’. The report examines the systemic changes needed within film production in order to reduce carbon emissions to net zero by 2050, in line with UK government legislation. The report focuses on five key areas…

The UK’s DCMS has launched the recruitment process for a new Chair of the BFI. Having served on the BFI Board since 2011, current Chair, Josh Berger, who is also Warner Bros UK President, will have completed the ten year term permissible as a Governor and Chair (since 2016) under the BFI Royal Charter and will step…

The British Film Institute has unveiled details of its £30M ($39M) recovery fund for England's beleaguered independent cinemas, which have been closed since March due to the pandemic. Even though cinemas can now re-open in England, restrictions on capacity and virus safety provisions are an economic barrier and…

Six years ago I wrote a piece titled “All White At The Top,” asking why the UK film industry was painfully bereft of Black, Asian and minority ethnic executives. I drew up a list of more than 75 leading companies in production, sales, exhibition, distribution, post-production, public and private finance, VFX, talent…

Aardman, the Oscar-winning UK animation studio, has inked a deal with Chinese major Tencent that will see its Shaun The Sheep series hosted on the latter's video platform. Shaun is hosted around the world by Netflix, which isn't in China so this latest deal completes the global picture on the franchise. The Chinese…

The British Film Institute has put in place a $620,000 (£500,000) fund to help the country's film sales companies cover costs arising from the pandemic. With film distribution upended, and major markets disrupted and cancelled, this has been a challenging time for the entire industry ecosystem. Business has ticked…

EXCLUSIVE: Oscar-winner Mark Rylance is set to make his big-screen comedy debut in The Fantastic Flitcrofts, a golf movie written by Paddington 2 scribe Simon Farnaby. Bridge Of Spies and Dunkirk actor Rylance will play Maurice Flitcroft, a dreamer and unrelenting optimist, who managed to gain entry to The British…