The year ahead for the UK film industry

This year is well underway and with the Valentine’s day fever safely behind us, it’s a good time to reflect on what happened in the UK film industry last year and look ahead to what we can expect in 2017.

At the end of January, the British Film Institute (BFI) released its latest statistics highlighting the success of the British Film Industry in 2016. Their figures showed us that 200 feature films began shooting in the UK last year, bringing in a total spend of £1.6 billion. This is an overall increase of 13% on the previous year and it is the highest number since their records began in 1994. Of the 200 films, 48 were funded from outside the UK which is 85% of total investment, a trend which we hope is set to continue.

Can we expect another equally if not more successful year? It is hard to tell, but it will certainly be an interesting few months, in which politics will play an integral role – and not just with the ongoing spoof shows of Donald Trump. The UK Government is set to be triggering article 50, if it all goes according to plan, by the end of March. Earlier this month we saw the lower house of parliament passing the bill and it has now been handed over to the House of Lords, though with some members saying they will attach conditions to it, it could stretch the government’s timetable, no surprises there then. So what does this mean for the film industry?

Brexit

As we know one of the main fallouts from Brexit is the collapse in sterling, however this does also mean that North American companies are likely to be very active in Europe. An example would be the move by 21st Century Fox to buy the 61% share in Sky for £11.7 billion, the British companies shares were down post Brexit and with the political overhaul we have seen in Whitehall there was much less opposition to this move. According to 21st Century Fox “It would also enhance Sky’s leading position in entertainment and sport, and reinforce the UK’s standing as a top global hub for content generation and technological innovation.” It could be a positive move for the UK film and TV sector, but we will have to wait and see.

The UK’s tax breaks are still a great incentive for film and TV production companies bringing in work to the UK. Our previous Chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne is actually credited in Star Wars: The Force Awakens thanks to his introduction of the government’s tax-relief scheme which led to the film being classified as British, we are still convinced it’s because he is a Storm Trooper. Currently film production companies of British qualifying films of any budget level, can claim a cash rebate of up to 25% of UK qualifying expenditure. It is capped at 80% of core expenditure i.e. even if you spend 100% of qualifying expenditure in the UK, tax relief is only payable on up to 80%, but we will cover this in more detail in another post. Combine this with the weakening sterling and the world class talent and facilities in the UK and it looks like we are set to see a lot of US and foreign productions heading here in the coming year.

Whilst we may not be able to correctly predict what the year may bring – last year certainly threw some rather large Trump and Brexit shaped curve balls at us – we can help productions prepare for the changes we do know about. Last month BECTU announced changes in the PACT/FAA rates paid to supporting artistes. To arm you with the information you need, we have pulled together a document on the changes production need to know about, have a look below:

Want to hear from us via our newsletter?

Sign up here