Abstract
In their extensive analysis of the UK Film Council (UKFC), Gillian Doyle, Philip Schlesinger, Raymond Boyle and Lisa W. Kelly conclude that ‘the world of film is one dominated by insiders’ (p. 175). The authors offer a unique insider’s look into the history of this institution. Four thematic areas organize the detailed study – historical background, agenda, impact and strategic lessons – tracing the chronological rise and fall of a relatively short-lived centralized film funding body. From policymakers and political leaders to industry executives and independent filmmakers, the contradictory priorities and strategies among diverse players vying for UKFC resources and power are at the heart of this book. European film policy historically has existed as a pendulum ideologically swinging back and forth from the side of cinema as a commercial industry to the other where cinema is a distinct cultural and artistic form. It is this internal battle waging that triggered the New Labour government in 2000 to establish the UKFC, which served as the central funding body and state supported film agency until its swift dismantling in 2011. The book traces a significant institutional shift from prioritizing production funds that broadened to include distribution and exhibition with the emergence of digital technologies in the institution’s later years. Ultimately, the authors aim to answer the question ‘What led to the Film Council’s demise?’
A key narrative thread of this work is the UK film industry’s interdependent relationship with US major studios. Historically the UK industry has existed in the ‘shadow of Hollywood’, whereas this shadow represents an uneven political, economic and cultural relationship which has been the focus of previous studies. In response to this dynamic with Hollywood, policymakers and Film Council executives aspired to build a commercially sustainable and viable UK film industry. However, competing visions emerged on how to accomplish it. This tenuous relationship between the United States and United Kingdom played out through tensions between UKFC executives and independent filmmakers from the beginning, particularly since a handful of the executives previously had worked directly with the US studios and supported bigger budget inward investment by the studios.
Internal conflicts within the UKFC and its centralization were a major factor in its demise. The authors credit difficulties in meeting the needs of diverse constituencies and varying priorities from Hollywood partners to local independent producers. Particularly, contradictory priorities and strategies emerge within the UKFC, specifically the relationship between the Board, executives and lower management as well as the ‘awkward and very difficult’ relationship between the Film Council and the British Film Institute (BFI) (p. 52). Through close analysis of institutional strategies and individual decision-making within and around the UKFC, the book makes a clear argument for how policy and structural shifts in the United Kingdom from the 1990s to early 2010s transformed support models due to changing political regimes. Due to a myriad of complexities, the book points to ‘both deft and inept political backdoor dealings, clashing egos and conflicting interests, falling over hubristic tripwires’ (p. 175). The authors in their conclusion not only question the institution’s centralized structures, including its oversight of the BFI, but also criticize the ‘deficiencies in procedures’ that led to the UKFC’s establishment and ultimate closure (p. 185).
This study of the UKFC represents an overarching debate within the British film industry: does public support of cinema preference culturally significant films or stimulate commercial viability (p. 55)? A unique contribution is the book’s insider access to the voices of key industry and government players. The interviews are a strength, providing insights from key players who established, ran and worked with the UKFC ranging from regretful hindsight to contradictory accounts of institutional workings. As the Council case study illustrates, state supported film policies historically have been left at the mercy of changing political parties, power and priorities specifically the transition from the New Labour government of the 2000s to the new Coalition government of the early 2010s. The interviews are rich in detail and shed light on leadership and decision-making of political and industrial figures in which many scholars never gain access. This methodological approach follows a key trend in media industry studies where work on production and distribution cultures utilizes industry interviews to gain insight into institutional workings and the ways in which individual players understand their role within them. This approach reveals how the heavy lifting and competing voices of key policy figures from various committees and working groups weakened the institution’s efficiency.
The methodological scope and rigour of this study offers a model for more multi-layered industrial analyses. In later chapters, the authors’ reflection on the difficulty of accessing specific policy documents or the interviewees’ unwillingness to discuss certain issues, such as a short-lived and under documented proposal to merge the UKFC and BFI prior to the former’s dismantling, was rather illuminating. In a way, the book is an exercise in piecing together policy negotiations and alliances through limited publicly available internal communications and external coverage. A further discussion of the methodological challenges of such an in-depth study would have been instructive for future studies of this kind.
The book’s historical chapter offers a summary of the well-tread territory of shifting UK film policy during the 20th century. The analysis would benefit in engaging with the increasing body of literature across US and UK media industry studies focusing on industrial and institutional analysis from a variety of perspectives and case studies. The authors point to the dominant creative industries paradigm in UK policy since the 1990s yet do not directly engage with the large body of scholarship that explores the media sectors of the creative economy. While a central focus of the book is the tension between cultural and commercial priorities of the local film industry, it is never clear how the authors actually define UK cinema beyond a financial framework. Considering the extensive work on the fluidity and mobility of UK cinema within a local, regional and transnational industrial context, this discussion could be more explicit. Furthermore, the authors mention only a few film titles that benefited from the Film Council’s funding bodies and policies, namely, the book’s cover image from The King’s Speech (2010). However, how did these policies operate and impact individual films? Where do UKFC policies and financing meet the films and creative players involved on a more micro-level?
Due to the level of information regarding governmental workings, political histories and funding bodies, this book is best for those readers who already are familiar with the UK political system and historical industry shifts. The detailed account of working groups and public accounts offer a close study that at times is weighed down by the density. Yet, the book is an excellent resource for an audience that may range from postgraduate students and scholars interested in a broad collaborative project employing industrial methods to policymakers interested in a critical analysis of a film funding body’s institutional inner workings and failures.