After all the consultation responses, this is what the UK Government came up with and for some formats it’s the equivalent of a 0.5% increase in tax relief.
And whilst Nigel Huddleston, the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, states that they are trying/hoping to help the filmmakers of the next Barbie or a Grand Theft Auto video game, it shows that this will do nothing for the truly independent filmmaker and even less for gamer production.
Please note: Government funding for film production in the UK is akin to winning the lottery and therefore doesn’t address what is truly needed and that is investment from high net worth individuals.
https://www.kftv.com/news/2024/01/02/new-uk-film-tax-incentive?
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Frustrating! As a London-based, Italian producer I feel that our European colleagues have way more availability of funding on a local, national and European community level than us. Do you think we can point at Brexit as the main cause for this?
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Do you think there needs to be a separate tax incentive system set up for indie filmmakers in the UK, Geoff Hall?
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Alessio Bergamo Hi Alessio, no I don’t put this down to Brexit; this was a phenomenon before that. It’s a cultural thing, which I think is due to an over-reliance on government funding and I know I keep banging this drum, but HNW individuals need educating in film investment. This isn’t happening and it means that there’s a lack of diversity in the stories we tell. Just look at the dramas on ITV or the UK Indie films that are made and you see that there’s nothing new under the son, mainly because IMHO, with government funding comes the control of the cultural narrative.
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Maurice Vaughan well, this is supposed to cover some of that, Maurice, but this model is flawed. There are lots of Producers out there in His Majesty’s Land that are looking for government funding for their projects, but it’s not enough to fire up the market. What we actually need is a cultural change in investment and then, yes, tax incentives for films that aren’t wanting to produce the next Barbie.
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Geoff Hall I understand but filmmakers cannot rely on private financiers only, on the other hand.
on microbudget features, like my film "Sparrow's Call", we had a few HWI and we could make it happen, but it's not sustainable in the long run, for us and them.
in the EU, you can raise up to 50% with public funding and add on top of that a sweet tax credit (30-40%) in the case of Italy and, independent producers with reasonable sized but commercial projects, can make their movie.
the BFI has 7million pounds per year to finance an army of UK filmmakers at very strict conditions.
I think we need education on the government side, rather than private financiers, as the era of patronage has downed a long ago
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Brilliant Geoff Hall