UK-wide roadshow begins this week.

The British Film Institute (BFI) is to host a series of roadshows across the UK throughout November to discuss progress on Film Forever, its five-year plan to support UK film, alongside the work of its new partners.

It has been a year since the BFI launched its Film Forever initiative, accompanied by a roadshow to discuss plans for delivery.

The new series, which kicks off Wednesday, will report back on the progress of the last 12 months, to introduce new partners and to discuss the BFI’s work and new funding programmes in greater detail.

Open to the public as well as industry professionals, there will be an opportunity to meet the BFI teams working on the plan at a series of workshops and surgeries.

The sessions will cover the Film Fund, Education, Audiences, Archives, MEDIA Desk UK, Certification and Fundraising as well as the launch of BFI Player and a new research fund.

More information and booking can be found at the Eventbrite booking page.

BFI roadshow workshops

Partners presenting workshops with the BFI throughout the country include Film Nation UK, Creative Scotland, Film Agency for Wales, Northern Ireland Screen, Creative England and Creative Skillset as well as its new Film Audience Network partners.

Click on each location for more information

Roadshow dates

The following workshops are available:

Film Fund: Ben Roberts, BFI Director of Lottery Film Fund
Supporting the future success of British film

With over £26m to invest in 2013, the BFI Film Fund is the UK’s largest public investor in film – supporting first-class film-making through development and production, to distribution and international sales. Ben Roberts and members of his team will outline the core principles of the Lottery Film Fund, as well as updating on the first year of Film Forever and a look ahead to their key activity in 2014. This will include the flagship talent development programme NET.WORK with an annual budget of over £3m, an increase of £1.5m on funds previously available, for new and emerging UK writers, directors and producers where they will be joined by the key partners who are delivering NET.WORK across the UK – Creative England, Film Agency for Wales, Northern Ireland Screen and Creative Scotland (to come).

Audiences: Eddie Berg, BFI Director of Partnerships
Boosting Audience Choice: Schemes to extend the reach, breadth and depth of UK independent and specialised cinema across the UK

With an annual investment of £5.5m, Film Forever set out four new schemes to boost audience choice: the BFI Film Audience Network; Film Festivals Fund; Programming Development Fund and BFI Neighbourhood. This session provides an update on the available funding and priorities for each of the schemes including details of BFI Neighbourhood, which is launching later this autumn. Hear from partner organisations on their plans to deliver the BFI Film Audience Network in each region. We’re keen to get your feedback on how we can improve and strengthen our plans.

Education: Dr Paul Gerhardt, BFI Director of Education and Nikki Christie, BFI Head of ESRD Partnerships
Expanding education and learning opportunities

Last year Film Forever set out a new focus and ambition for film education across the UK with BFI Lottery funding of £7m a year plus £1m a year from 2012-2015 from the Department of Education (England only). This year Paul Gerhardt and Nikki Christie are reporting back on the first phase of the new Film Academy network (which identifies and develops young talent) with an annual , the forthcoming launch of FILM NATION UK (bringing film and moving image resources to all 5 to 19 year olds), and inviting contributions to a comprehensive new strategy for all age groups, which will draw on all of the BFI’s resources. They will be joined by members of the FILM NATION UK team and Creative Skillset.

Archive: Heather Stewart, BFI Creative Director
Unlocking film heritage for everyone to enjoy

BFI plans are well underway to digitise 5,000 titles from the BFI National Archive and 5,000 from the UK’s significant collections held in public film archives and to make them available across as broad a range of platforms as possible. The initiatives include an advisory group to develop a thematic framework for the digitisation programme, awards of up to £40k for archives to prepare material for selection, new cataloguing and digital preservation infrastructure projects, and the launch of BFI Player, a video-on-demand platform offering access to digitised films from the programme. Come to this workshop to hear more about these plans and to discuss models for public engagement and selection of heritage to be digitised.

MEDIA Desk UK: Agnieszka Moody, Director Media Desk UK

MEDIA Desk UK is a promotion and information office for the EU’s MEDIA Programme which offers a wide variety of funding for film and television, from training through project development and distribution to markets, events and festivals. From 2014 MEDIA funding will be continued under a banner of a bigger EU Programme for creative industries, Creative Europe. Agnieszka Moody, Director of MEDIA Desk UK, will present the various funding strands that will be available next year and how to access them, as well as the wider support offered by Creative Europe.

Certification: Anna Mansi, BFI Certification Manager

The Certification Unit is the first point of contact for producers wanting to qualify their film, High-end television or animation programmes as British and access the UK’s Creative Sector tax reliefs. The unit offers advice on qualification under the Film, Animation and High-end television Cultural Tests, the UK’s Co-production Agreements and the European Convention on Cinematographic Co-production. The unit will also be responsible for the Video Games cultural test and qualification process which is currently pending approval from the European Commission. Anna Mansi will present a session on the qualification procedures for the new creative sector tax reliefs.

Fundraising: Francesca Vinti, BFI Director of Development

Join Francesca Vinti and members of her team to discuss fundraising techniques relevant to your organisation or project, with a specific focus on not-for-profit cultural organisations. Drawing on case studies, this session is for sharing, debating and pooling ideas.

Please note – Fundraising workshops will run in Sheffield, Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff only.

BFI Film Research & Statistics Fund: Nikki Christie, Head of ESRD

The BFI Research & Statistics Fund is an award of National Lottery funding of up to £4m, from now until March 2017, to deliver the Film Research and Statistics Programme. This programme is intended to meet the needs of the film community, film industry and the development of public policy for film. It is anticipated that this investment, through the Fund, will achieve a significant step change in the level of research and statistics available, delivering a well-resourced and wide ranging quantitative knowledge base for film. This session will provide an overview of the Fund and answer any questions potential applicants may have.

Everyone is welcome. To register please visit the Eventbrite booking page.

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