MUMBAI: The UK Film Council published its new funding and policy priorities from April 2007 to March 2010, including the creation of five new funding priorities to boost public access to film such as through film festivals and the nation’s rich film heritage. 

The document, Film in the Digital Age, details the new priorities which have clear backing from across the different sectors of the film industry following an extensive consultation earlier this year.

These include:

UK Film Festivals Fund – £1.5 million per year, to create a thriving film festival scene in the UK giving the public better access to the rich world of cinema in all its diversity;

UK Digital Film Archives Fund – £1 million per year, to open up access to the nation’s unparalleled film heritage across the UK;

Partnership Challenge Fund – £ 1 million per year, bringing new funding partnerships together to widen public participation in film, initially with the following priorities: media literacy and film education; cinema capital funding; cinema access and inclusion initiatives; London 2012 Olympic related film initiatives;

Digitisation and Marketing Fund – £ 2 million per year – building on  existing Prints and Advertising Fund with additional funding focusing on wider theatrical and online distribution of British and specialised film;

Marketing Testing Fund – £ 1 million per year from the existing Premiere Fund will be used to market test British films.  Any British film will be able to apply for funding not just those supported by the Premiere Fund.

In addition, the UK Film Council will continue with all its existing funding priorities at the same financial level.