Matt Hancock's speech welcoming BFI Futures

Minister of State for Digital and Culture Matt Hancock's welcoming the BFI's new 5 year vision for UK film.

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I am delighted to be here this evening to help launch BFI Futures, the BFI’s powerful new five year vision for UK film.

Film has always felt futuristic, but perhaps never more so than at this moment. We are at an exciting time where the trends that were emerging when the BFI launched its last strategy in 2012 have only grown stronger, the synthesis that is occurring at pace across the screen industries shrewdly reflected here in the BFI’s new commitment to support not only film but anything that tells a story, expresses an idea, or evokes an emotion through the art of the moving image.

Where do we want to be in 2022? How do we get there? What do we want our story be? These are the questions the BFI has asked and looked to answer in BFI Futures.

We know that content creation is thriving in the UK, propelled by our highly competitive tax credits. The value of UK film production in 2015 was £1.4bn - the second highest ever recorded. The challenge is to keep building on this success. I want to ensure that the UK remains a not only a great – but the best – place in the world to make film.

To do that, we need to ensure that we have the skills base to support ever greater success.

I am delighted to see the BFI’s commitment to encourage opportunity for all, starting at the earliest age. Amongst the kids who today belong to one of Into Film’s 10,000 after school film clubs are tomorrow’s scriptwriters, producers, directors, VFX artists.

Setting out a career pathway for them is vital, to capitalise on the natural appeal of screen content and enabling them to believe - no matter who they are or where they come from – that a career in the creative industries is within their grasp, and then giving them the skills to achieve their ambitions.

Talent must be recognised and given the chance to shine, wherever it lies in the UK. I welcome the BFI’s commitment to devolve more decision-making to the regions in order to ensure this happens, and to take on an ever stronger leadership role to improve diversity, broadening access to opportunity to people from all backgrounds.

It is only by encouraging the creative potential of everyone that we will truly advance our industry, telling stories that resonate with audiences not only across the UK, but around the world.

Clearly, global partnerships are essential in building strong industries full of opportunity. The continued promotion and export of UK film, talent, skills and culture is vital. Our inward investment performance is extremely strong, and we know that we lead the way on exports, with the value of services exported by the creative industries in 2014 valued at nearly £20 billion – over 9 per cent of total UK service exports.

We want to make sure that the UK’s role on the global stage grows ever greater over the next five years.

We will ensure that businesses have stability and certainty in the period leading up to the UK’s departure from the EU, and that we maximise the opportunities this presents for the sector. And we will look to harness the potential of other markets, old and new.

The BFI has done great work in building relations with China, opening up cultural and commercial opportunities for UK film. We are currently engaged in negotiations with the Chinese to deliver a TV co-production treaty to sit alongside the film treaty we signed in 2014 – making us only the second country in the world to achieve this feat.

And on the other side of the globe US studios are clamouring to take advantage of our world-class studios and crews.

One thing is certain – over the next five years more British stories will be told. Stories that reflect the breadth our culture, our country, our way of life. The BFI set out a compelling vision for how UK film can speak for us all and – here on London’s Southbank – outline the promise of a new centre which could become a cathedral of film. When people recognise their stories on screen, they engage – they visit cinemas, they steam content, they consider their own creative options. They grasp the future, and shape it.

I look forward to seeing that story unfold. Thank you.

From:
Department for Culture, Media & Sport
The Rt Hon Matt Hancock MP
British Film Institute