by Renee Israel
Contrary to popular belief, the
UK National Lottery is not just designed to yield instant multi-millionaires, but to generate funds for all manner of good causes and organizations, including the UK Film Council. But that is set to change.
Everyone connected to the British film industry was shocked this week with the announcement that the UK government has decided to stop all funding to the UK Film Council, an organization that was launched to assist the British film industry.
The decision is part of a government initiative to make economic cuts across Britain, including across 55 non-departmental public bodies that are funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, of which the UK Film Council is one.
The government has announced that it will stop the UK Film Council's funding which includes the £30 million a year it receives from the UK National Lottery and the £25.5 million a year it receives from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.
Since it was launched in 2000, the UK Film Council has received approximately £160 million in UK
National Lottery funding, which it has invested in over 900 films that collectively have generated more than £700 million at the box office globally.
So the decision by the UK government to 'kill this cash cow' has been met with shock and disdain. One critic of the decision is respected British filmmaker Mike Leigh, who described the move as akin to 'scrapping the NHS' and 'totally out of order.'
'Over the past decade, the UK Film Council has been a layer of strategic glue that's helped bind the many parts of our industry together,' said Leigh. UK National Lottery money helped fund such British hits as The Constant Gardener and Fish Tank.
