The end of the UK Film Council causes an outcry in the British film

T he new British minister for culture, Jeremy Hunt, is a slasher cost zealous. Under the government's austerity policy Conservative / Liberal Democrat and a desire to break with Labour's legacy, this champion of financial orthodoxy has decided to cancel the UK Film Council (UKFC), the Board of British film, the main distribution organization for public contributions to cinema.
"An unfortunate decision, which concerns a vital part of any culture" likes the actor Liam Neeson (Love Actually), the British film world denounced this brutal decision, announced Monday, July 26, taken without consultation. The petition organized to save the UKFC has collected more than 30,000 signatures, including the biggest names in the profession.

Distribute state aid and subsidies from the national lottery in film: this was the task UKFC, founded in 2000 by former Prime Minister Tony Blair, as part of its policy of developing the creative economy (" Cool Britannia "). With limited staff and annual operating budget of 15 million pounds (18 million euros), this organization has funded more than 900 films in ten years.

Major productions worldwide success (Bend it Like Beckham, 2002, The Last King of Scotland, in 2007, and Slumdog Millionaire, 2009), films and art house, videos or commercials: the institution has was one of the promoters of a new golden age of British cinema.

In addition, the council has promoted the installation of a record number of rooms in Europe equipped with digital technology. His website statistics refers. To its advocates, the agency has primarily worked with the incredible variety of creative and breaks the vicious circle of British cinema - the economic weakness due to chronic underinvestment.

But UKFC had its detractors. They beckon the emphasis on blockbuster trade export abroad and movies entertainment. Others criticize the bureaucratic decision process of an entity that had a right to inspect the final assembly of the films it financed. In cultural circles close to the Conservative Party, it highlights the lack of cooperation with the private sector, especially the City, attracted by the investment in film.

The government has not decided who will take over the UK Film Council. Charity Organization to promote the film, the British Film Institute is not equipped to perform this task production. The film world also fears that, in the absence UKFC, the authorities diverted a portion of grants given by the National Lottery to the arts in favor of funding the cultural component of the 2012 Olympic Games.

In the UK, times are tough for the arts. The new leadership abolished the Council for Museums, libraries and archives and is committed to drastically reduce the number of officials from the Ministry of Culture, Media and Sport set up by the Labors government (1997 - 2010). Asked about the cuts, Jeremy Hunt was merely a dry: "Times have changed."