UK Film Council's importance underlined by Oscar success for The King's Speech

1 March 2011

The importance of the soon-to-be abolished UK Film Council has been reinforced by the four Oscars won by The King's Speech, which the Film Council helped fund.

Unite, the largest union in the country, arranged for its UK Film Council reps to brief peers yesterday (Monday 28 February) on the vital work that the Film Council does to support the respected British film industry.

There were two amendments to the Public Bodies (Reform) bill – the legislation to abolish nearly 200 quangos, including the UK Film Council – which is currently going through the House of Lords.

The two amendments were - to establish the future for film export support, co-production activity, anti film theft, research and statistics and diversity and also to put into place provision to assess the performance of the British Film Institute after the merger within 12 months.

Unite said that 66 per cent of the work of the UK Film Council is being transferred to the BFI and other organisations – however, there are key elements of the UK Film Council work missing from the transfer list. Unite members at the UK Film Council are facing redundancy.

Unite national officer Rachael Maskell said it was ironical that The King's Speech, which won four Oscars following its seven BAFTA awards, would not have been made without £1 million of funding from the UK Film Council.

She said: ”As the British film industry is going from strength-to-strength, it seems illogical to abolish the UK Film Council, one of the engines for that industry's growth and widespread international recognition.

”If the government wishes to support the industry's future in a whole-hearted manner, it should commit itself to maintaining all functions of the UK Film Council. What ministers are currently proposing is only a partial solution, which does not do justice to this industry brimming with acting and writing talent, as well as technical expertise.“

The King's Speech is the highest grossing British independent film of all time with £38 million at the UK box office to date and counting.

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