UK Film Council axed as cuts hit culture

The UK Film Council has been axed as part of the austerity measures being undertaken by the British coalition government.

British Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced a round of cuts Monday to the department for culture, media and sport, including abolition of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.

The UK Film Council, which hasan annual operating budget of 15 million ($24 million), was set up by the previous Labour government to develop and promote British film. It also fostered the move to digital projection in the U.K.

It hasfunnelled$255 million in lottery money to produce over 900 films since 2000, including works such as Gosford Park, Man on a Wire and The Last King of Scotland.

It is the highest profile of 16 public bodies cut on Monday as Britain seeks to tame its huge deficit.

The Museums, Library and Archives Council, which has raised standards at regional museums, delivered national museums programs and fostered digitization in libraries and archives, is also to be abolished.

Many of the programs it delivers, including funding of regional museums, are not expected to survive reviews of government spending down the road.

Both agencies will be wound down by April 2012.

Other British cultural organizations Hunt placed under review include:

• Advisory Council on Libraries.
• Advisory Committee on Historic Wreck Sites.
• Advisory Committee on National Historic Ships.
• Theatres Trust.
• English Heritage.
• Heritage Lottery Fund.
• National Heritage Memorial Fund.
• Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.
• Churches Conservation Trust.
• National Lottery Commission.

Last week Hunt cut a $72-million plan for a new national film centre.Prime Minister David Cameron has pressed his ministers to come up with spending cuts of 25 to 40 per cent.

John Woodward, chief executive of the UK Film Council, said the decision to cut the organization was unexpected and made with "no notice and no consultation."

He called the plan "short-sighted and potentially very damaging, especially as there is at present no roadmap setting out where the UK Film Council's responsibilities and funding will be placed in the future."

Hunt spoke of having a "direct and less bureaucratic relationship" with the British Film Council, but has not said who will take over the job of giving out lottery money for film financing.

Film council chairman Tim Bevan called it a "big mistake" and said the council will press the government to preserve core functions of the agency that "underpin British film."

Michael Spence of BECTU, the union representing British film workers, called the decision "economically illiterate and culturally philistine."

"Film is an export success story we sell British production skills throughout the world. And film is also a crucial cultural resource," he said. "But the industry is desperately fragmented and long experience tells us that it needs a national agency to achieve its potential."

MLA chief executive Roy Clare was more sanguine.

"There is no point in standing aside yelling from the sidelines in these circumstances, the truth is the country is bust and we accept that the government has to find a way of dealing with that," he said.