I can't find it now, but Antares posted a link to a news story a couple of months ago when the new UK Government announced they were pulling the plug on the UK Film Council as part of the sweeping cuts they have been making.
It was headline grabbing and an emotional story, but I always felt that the UKFC actually diluted the British Film Institute and it's formation smacked of typical Labour trying to have "initiative" they could show off with and give them control over the direction of British cinema, while side-lining an organisation that has always worked very hard to promote and indeed preserve our films.
Still, the UKFC had funded some big successes and it was disappointing it had to happen. There was a genuine fear production and progression would be halted. But actually today the coalition Government has proved it's thinking, in this respect at least, and given the BFI a 60% boost in funding!
For me that's sensible and awesome. Someone with a brain asked why do we have two organisations when one could focus properly on all sorts of projects and so the BFI will have more cash to promote films and also help support restoration of old stuff, like another link Antares posted that I'd somehow missed
:
http://www.dvdcollectorsonline.com/index.php/topic,6633.0.htmlFull story at Empire:
http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=29590
