Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many producers who have secured BFI Film Hub North short film funding in the last five years have been supported by the BFI with (a) development and (b) production funding for a feature film; where each of those producers was based in the North of England; and how many of the directors of those films were based in the North of England.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The Short Film Fund is delivered centrally by the BFI, rather than through its five regional hubs, including Film Hub North. The Short Film Fund supports projects with directors based in England and is run in partnership with BFI NETWORK Talent Executives, who work with filmmakers on the delivery of funded projects. Regional hubs make recommendations to the BFI on which projects should receive support.
Film Hub North supports regional producers in a variety of other ways. This includes the Creative Producer Lab in partnership with Film Hub Midlands, which has supported over 50 producers since 2019, including 34 based in the North of England.
Through a range of measures, Film Hub North has helped to support 73 short film production awards over the period FY 2018/19 - FY 2022/23. The BFI has identified at least nine producers who were supported by Film Hub North and received funding from the BFI NETWORK Short Film Fund, who then applied for and received further support via either the BFI National Lottery development and/or production funds for a feature film. This includes producers based across the North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humberside. However, this does not capture the full range of benefits available to producers in the North through the BFI NETWORK. Additionally, Short Film Fund funding recommendations are made based on the location of the director, not the producer, so Northern producers may receive support through other regional hubs.
Moreover, with regards to the BFI supporting producers to transition from short films to feature films: where producers choose to take this step, it can often take longer than five years, for a variety of reasons, with many filmmakers needing more than one funded short film before they gain production funding for a feature film.
Asked by: Mike Kane (Labour - Wythenshawe and Sale East)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how much the British Film Institute has received in applications for funding from each region in each of the last three years.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The British Film Institute’s (BFI) ten year strategy, Screen Culture 2033, sets out the core principle for the work of the BFI to reach across all of our nation.
The below table sets out the number of applications to the BFI for both their National Lottery funding and their government-provided Grant-in-Aid funding, broken down by region, in the past three years (2019-2022). The table also sets out the number of awards given over each of those years, also broken down by region based on beneficiary location (drawn from postcode data, in accordance with the methodology agreed with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport).
Region | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 3-Year TOTAL | ||||
| Applications | Awards | Applications | Awards | Applications | Awards | Applications | Awards |
ENGLAND East Midlands | 4,708 | 5,397 | 15,043 | 8,175 | 5,013 | 5,339 | 24,763 | 18,911 |
ENGLAND Eastern | 7,644 | 9,247 | 10,463 | 12,046 | 22,533 | 10,559 | 40,640 | 31,852 |
ENGLAND London | 143,213 | 17,814 | 138,301 | 24,541 | 152,278 | 18,405 | 433,793 | 60,760 |
ENGLAND North East | 1,935 | 2,301 | 1,099 | 2,159 | 2,705 | 2,720 | 5,740 | 7,180 |
ENGLAND North West | 7,953 | 6,133 | 11,773 | 6,297 | 18,170 | 7,155 | 37,896 | 19,585 |
ENGLAND South East | 19,484 | 8,445 | 20,407 | 10,630 | 18,800 | 11,473 | 58,692 | 30,548 |
ENGLAND South West | 9,707 | 5,520 | 13,548 | 8,261 | 10,341 | 7,191 | 33,595 | 20,972 |
ENGLAND West Midlands | 11,406 | 6,022 | 12,375 | 5,823 | 5,717 | 6,714 | 29,499 | 18,559 |
ENGLAND Yorkshire & Humberside | 9,088 | 6,190 | 9,993 | 7,247 | 11,384 | 7,610 | 30,465 | 21,047 |
NORTHERN IRELAND | 10,495 | 6,253 | 10,925 | 5,737 | 11,281 | 8,095 | 32,702 | 20,085 |
SCOTLAND | 7,618 | 5,059 | 5,619 | 3,841 | 7,285 | 5,912 | 20,522 | 14,812 |
WALES | 3,399 | 3,172 | 4,307 | 2,345 | 6,562 | 3,422 | 14,268 | 8,939 |
Total | 236,652 | 81,553 | 253,854 | 97,102 | 272,067 | 94,595 | 762,572 | 273,250 |
To note, given the assessment process, applications may be made in one year, and processed or awarded in the following year. Therefore, a direct correlation cannot be established between the applications and awards made in any single year.
Extrapolated from the figures in the above table, the below table further provides the proportion of applications and awards over the three years 2019 - 2022, broken down per region.
Region | Proportion of Applications (over 3 years) | Proportion of Awards (over 3 years) |
ENGLAND East Midlands | 3% | 7% |
ENGLAND Eastern | 5% | 12% |
ENGLAND London | 57% | 22% |
ENGLAND North East | 1% | 3% |
ENGLAND North West | 5% | 7% |
ENGLAND South East | 8% | 11% |
ENGLAND South West | 4% | 8% |
ENGLAND West Midlands | 4% | 7% |
ENGLAND Yorkshire & Humberside | 4% | 8% |
NORTHERN IRELAND | 4% | 7% |
SCOTLAND | 3% | 5% |
WALES | 2% | 3% |