As we sadly announced on Monday that the Government is killing off the UK Film Council.
Founded in 2000, the UK Film Council was tasked by the then Labour administration "to stimulate a competitive, successful and vibrant UK film industry and culture."
One of its key roles was to fund both commercial and niche projects with Lottery money and a major early coup was a £2 stake in Gosford Park, showing that the Film Council had an eye for a great film.
While the investment was sound (hell, Robert Altman hiring just about the entire British acting community), it was the Oscar for Julian Fellowes' screenplay that provided the bigger symbol.
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Comments
Hadouken76
Jul 27th 2010, 13:51
It would of lasted longer if the greedy fuggwits in charge hadnt of awarded themselves £150,000 salarys while the rest o the nation were countin thier pennies. Bureacracy and corruption at its worst.
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tenstrings
Jul 28th 2010, 13:21
Twitter users should follow @atkinsc99 (http://twitter.com/atkinsc99) for some insight into how incompetent the UKFC were. It was interesting to note how much in grants were given to companies and productions who who had interests in the council (and vice versa). In case the moderators get nervous, this information is contained in a published annual report http://bit.ly/9JypJJ, page 58.
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Faers
Jul 30th 2010, 2:35
I Swear This is England must be TF's favourite film of all-time. You could do a feature on the best Sci-Fi films ever made and it'd make the list. Each to their own, but not for me - very overrated. It is a travesty about the council being disbanded, no given reason could justify this decision. On another note, London to Brighton - what a great flick! It's basically the the last third of Mona Lisa with Bob Hoskins, but what a brilliant film with amazing performances!
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lump516
Aug 7th 2010, 0:46
The report that tenstrings mentioned is pretty devastating -- just about every member of the board and several associated companies had awarded themselves/their friends big wads of cash. As for the films you cite, I've seen some of them, and frankly, the world would have survived without some of them. More low-budget horror and thrillers? An all-star slog sort-of directed by Robert Altman (the Altman of the early 70's would probably have done well by the script; there was still enough of the smart commercial craftsman to him to have given it pace and gotten punchy performances out of the cast; the Altman who directed this was aging, indifferent, and not in the best of health--the result was a mess). As for THE WIND THAT SHAKES THE BARLEY, it would have been made a year or two later, but it would have been made. Most of Loach's films are cheap enough to make back their smallish budgets.
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