BFI Filmmaking Fund begins hunt for new director
BFI Filmmaking Fund director Mia Bays has made clear her intention to leave the job after five years in October 2026, and a fresh face will step into one of the most influential jobs in UK independent film.
There are other key changes at the UK film funds – it will be Farhana Bhula’s first full year in post as director of Film4, having been appointed in September, with Mubi’s Cate Kane joining as senior commissioning executive this month. Film4’s parent broadcaster Channel 4 will also be getting its new chief executive, Sky revenue boss Priya Dogra, come March.
Over at BBC Film, HanWay Films’ Katie Ellen has recently joined as head of film finance, while Premier’s Angela Smith will take up the head of communications role in February. The industry will also be eager to see what changes Nigel Warner shepherds in at Pact, with the UK policy consultant to the Motion Picture Association and former government special advisor taking over from the producer trade body’s long-serving chief executive John McVay, also in March.
Uncertainty over Netflix-Warner Bros deal
The impact of Netflix’s planned $82.7bn acquisition of Warner Bros could have enormous repercussions for the theatrical, production, commissioning, studio and broadcasting landscapes in the UK. There will be specific concerns for the many Netflix and Warner Bros employees based in the UK, who will be pondering where the promised $2-3bn of cost savings per year by the third year will come from, particularly as Netflix has committed to “to significantly expand US production capacity” as part of the merger.
The transaction is expected to take 12-18 months to close, and the ink is not yet dry on the deal, so for 2026 at least, the main impact of the proposed deal will likely be a sense of uncertainty and unease across an already risk-averse UK film landscape. Read more on the possible impact of a Netflix-Warner Bros deal in the UK here.
Consolidation may intensify
It’s not only the US behemoths – companies of all shapes and sizes in the UK are choosing consolidation as the path to a stronger future. 2025 saw two UK sales agents merge with international companies. Film Constellation was fully acquired by pan-European Vuelta and merged with Germany-based international sales outfit Global Screen to form Global Constellation, while Signature teamed with US firm Capstone to form Capture.
In a still bruising landscape for independent film, more consolidation can be expected to follow in the coming 12 months. UK broadcasters are thinking similarly, with Sky eying a £1.6bn ITV takeover deal.
Changes will also be unveiled in the coming year at UK-headquartered production and distribution company Mubi, after announcing the streamlining of its operations at the end of 2025, including the full integration of German sales agent The Match Factory (initially acquired in 2022) into its operations.
Comedy makes a comeback at the box office
Heartfelt comedies and feel-good dramas had a rather merry past year at the UK-Ireland box office, and producers and distributors would be wise to continue to build on this audience appetite in 2026.
Box office successes from the past year included Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boy (Universal, £46.4m), The Roses (Disney, £10.1m), I Swear (Studiocanal, £6m) and The Ballad Of Wallis Island (Universal, £2.5m).
French mini-major Pathe’s decision to return to English-language filmmaking after shutting its UK film division in 2023 is a further boon for the future of heartwarming UK features with broad commercial appeal. FilmNation’s Ben Browning has been named co-CEO of Pathé UK and is relocating from Los Angeles to London. (The last film produced by Pathe UK, The Great Escaper, was the best performing UK independent film at the local box office in 2023, grossing £5.3m in the territory.)
2026 should also be the year in which newer distributors, including True Brit and Vue Lumiere find their feet, after launching in 2023 and 2024 respectively. The former already has a slate of feel-good films ready for release in 2026, including Morgan Mathews’ 500 Miles and George Jaques’s Sunny Dancer.
Industry takes clear stance on AI
The UK government is due to present a full report and an economic impact assessment on the issue of AI and copyright before parliament by March 18, following a year of roundtables with representatives of the creative, media, tech sectors and academia.
Many in the creative industries believe the government has already made its bed and climbed under the sheets with big tech on the issue of allowing AI models to train on copyrighted materials, without remunerating the copyright holders.
But the message from the UK screen sector to government heading into 2026 remains clear – 88% of the 11,500 respondents to the UK government’s consultation on AI and copyright want to see copyright licenses required for all cases when training AI models on existing works, while 99% of UK film and TV performers who took part in an Equity ballot at the end of 2025 said they are prepared to take industrial action over AI.
Enter the British Business Bank
UK producers continue to face crippling challenges when it comes to financing, but could the British Business Bank hold the answer?
The British Business Bank is a government-owned development bank set up in 2014 to help businesses in the UK access financial support. The bank is the largest investor in venture capital in the UK, with a 20% market share. It received a £4bn funding boost earlier in 2025 for the government’s eight priority sectors, which include the creative industries.
Exactly how the £4bn will be divided between the eight priority sectors is still to be determined, but Ian Murray, creative industries minister, has told the UK screen industry that he is committed to getting the financial services sector to realise the creative industries and IP are worth investing in.
A better year for female filmmakers
The release schedule suggests a better first couple of months of 2026 for gender parity at the UK-Ireland box office, following a dearth of films by female directors making an impact at the UK-Ireland box office in 2025.
Key releases in the first couple of months of 2026 directed by women include Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet (Universal), Nia DaCosta’s 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (Sony), Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Voice Of Hind Rajab (Altitude), Philippa Lowthorpe’s H Is For Hawk (Lionsgate), Kristen Stewart’s The Chronology Of Water (BFI Distribution), Julia Jackman’s 100 Nights Of Hero (Vue Lumiere), Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights (Warner Bros), Mona Fastvold’s The Testament Of Ann Lee (Disney), Mary Bronstein’s If I Had Legs I’d Kick You (Picturehouse) and Cherien Dabis’ All That’s Left Of You (T A P E Collective).
Only 16% of the 718 films released in the UK and Ireland in 2025 were directed or co-directed by women or non-binary filmmakers, down from 21% in 2024, according to Reclaim The Frame’s annual report. Female UK independent filmmakers were particularly poorly represented in 2025’s top 100 list of best-performing titles at the UK-Ireland box office, with Marianne Elliot’s The Salt Path a rare outlier on the list (£7.9m, Black Bear).
This absence was acutely felt at the British Independent Film Awards in 2025, where no female-directed films were nominated in the best British independent film category, and Posy Sterling’s award for Lollipop in breakout performance and three awards for Myrid Carten’s A Want In Her were the only female wins in major categories. Here’s hoping 2025 was a blip.
CIISA must shore up funding
2026 is crunch time for the long-term funding strategy of the Creative Industries Independent Standards Authority (CIISA). The eagerly anticipated industry standards watchdog has been in the works for a few years and had originally hoped to run on voluntary opt-in contributions from industry, with no organisation expected to contribute more than 0.1% of annual UK turnover.
However, several key streamers, broadcasters and production groups have not opted in, and it is now understood CIISA is looking at other options for financing. CIISA has already marked out organisations that have financially opted in as “trailblazers”, including the BBC, Sky and ITV. UK culture secretary Lisa Nandy has also made it clear that the government is open to making the obligations to support CIISA statutory, if necessary.
Bond heads back, hopefully
It has now been seven years since filming began on the last James Bond film, No Time To Die, and audiences and industry are eagerly awaiting to see what the next era of the UK spy franchise will look like, the first under the full creative control of Amazon MGM Studios.
We know that UK Barbie and Harry Potter producer David Heyman will produce alongside US Spider-Man franchise stalwart Amy Pascal, and Canadian Dune filmmaker Denis Villeneuve will direct, under a working title of Bond 26. Little else is known at this stage – no shoot date, and rather importantly no actor to play Bond, has been confirmed. (UK Eternity and Fantastic Beasts actor Callum Turner is currently the bookies’ favourite.)
As the gap between Bond films starts to creep ever closer to a decade, Amazon MGM Studios has struck a licensing deal with rival streamer Netflix in certain territories (excluding the UK) to stream the Bond catalogue for a limited time. Amazon, it seems, is all too aware of the need to keep up the relevance and momentum of a franchise with 72 years of history, in a rapidly evolving audience landscape.
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