£273 million boost for the UK film industry

MILLIONS of pounds of lottery money will be used to boost the film industry as part of a five-year plan to increase audiences and find new talent.

A network of “film hubs” linked to schools, clubs and cinemas will be set up across the country and digital equipment will be installed in 1,000 community centres and village halls so they can show the latest films.

The plans also include setting up an academy to train new talent, more money for production and development, and a proposal to digitise thousands of films from the archives of the British Film Institute (BFI).

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The BFI plan, called New Horizons for UK Film, was unveiled yesterday in response to former culture secretary Lord Smith’s government-commissioned review of the industry. It states an expected £273 million of lottery money will be pumped into the industry between this year and 2017. It also calls for financial support for cinemas “to access a wider range of films to broaden audience choice out of London”.

Money will be spent bringing film into schools for pupils aged between five and 19, and making “film and filmmaking … part of their education”, as well as setting up an academy to “spot and nurture talent”.

BFI director Amanda Nevill said: “The model we have in our heads is more like the National Youth Theatre, so we are really, really unashamedly going out there to try and find those talented people right at the start, giving them the opportunity to have a go at it for two reasons: one is they can then determine whether or not they really want to pursue a career of it, and secondly it gives us an opportunity much earlier on of finding talented writers, talented voices.”

She added: “We know from research that if as a child you regularly get to see film, you are three times as likely to be a regular film consumer as you get older.”