NDM: Weekly News Article - W/C 22nd May (74)

UK film companies call for government

help as 70th Cannes Film Festival opens

http://realbusiness.co.uk/current-affairs/2017/05/18/uk-film-companies-call-government-help-70th-cannes-film-festival-opens/

Summary

The Cannes Film Festival isn't just about the red carpet, next door in the Marché Du Film (Movie theatre) films are changing hands for hundreds of millions and production companies are struggling. So British producers are looking to whoever is in number 10, after June 8th to play a hero role and assist them in this struggle. Although, the film tax credit has indeed given the UK film industry some much needed relief it has played more to the benefit of Hollywood producers using the UK, as a location for filming; said PACT (Producers Alliance for Cinema and Television). So PACT is now pushing for the tax credit to be increased. The call from PACT comes at a vital time for UK film companies as with Brexit funding from The European Media Fund is likely to cease after the UK exit from the European Union.

Key Statistics

• PACT is pushing for the tax credit to be increased to 40% on films with budgets between 2 -10 million. 

• There are nearly 7,000 independent film companies in the UK. Last year, those 7,000 companies collectively spent just shy of £1.6 billion making films. 

• According to PACT, worldwide sales of UK production films have slumped by 50% since 2007

• The Film Tax Relief allows a film producer to claim a cash rebate of 25 per cent from HMRC of qualifying expenditure on a film made in the UK, up to 80 per cent of the total film budget with no budget limit.

• Film production – along with the other components to the creative industries – delivers a mighty £84.1bn to the UK economy every year.

My Opinion

I knew that production companies were struggling with the rise of streaming services and similar dramatically changing the way we view films etc. However, never did I think it would come to the point where UK film companies are calling for Government help to stay afloat. I just figured that they will produce some big hitting films which would do wonderfully at the box office and that that cash would tide them over, clearly this is not the case. From what I have seen about the budgets in the news I don't know whether PACT will be able to get the Government's help on this front.