BFI Investment in British Film Reaches The Billions

BFI figures have shown the UK film industry is celebrating a record breaking year for investment with imput reaching over £1 billion. The investment in British film production from overseas sources has risen by 14% since last year to £1.075bn for 2013, according to The Guardian.

George Clooney filming The Monuments Men in Rye, Sussex

The UK film industry was helped this year by 37 major international productions basing themselves in the UK. Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy began its filming in the UK, taking over Millennium Bridge in London last August. Another film which saw some filming take place in Britain was The Monuments Men, a comedy/drama starring George Clooney. This trend of filming in the UK is set to continue with the next Star Wars movie and Avengers: Age of Ultron also choosing to film in Britain.

The British government has been keen to support the investment in the British film industry. It recently changed the rules regarding tax breaks for the film industry now films only need to spend 10% of their budget within the UK to qualify for tax relief, before they had to spend 25%. Chancellor George Osborne showed his support for the industry by saying, "These fast growing sectors are creating jobs across the country and each new job means security for another family. I want to build on this success and showcase the world class talent this country has, encouraging more films and TV programmes to be made here.”

Steve Coogan and Judi Dench starred in Philomena, the year's highest grossing independant UK film

Despite the growth in investment, however, British movies didn't have too great a 2013. Last year they cut  back on their budgets, spending only £139m on films costing over £500,000, a much lower figure than the £229million spent in 2012. Also UK independent films made up only 6% of the total UK box office, though some such as Philomena, which took £11m, and Quartet, I Give It a Year, and Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa drew in audiences. Les Miserables however, was the top grossing UK film at the UK box-office taking£41m. In general UK box office takings were over £1 billion but this number was down from 2012 when Skyfall was released becoming the highest-grossing film ever in the UK

The next plan to boost the British film industry is to get the massive Chinese market onboard. The British government have recently made a deal that allows Sino-British productions to bypass the Chinese quota system which, allows only a certain number of international films to be screened in their country.