British Film Institute (BFI) CEO Ben Roberts said “we have to find a way to get more money into the system” to ensure cultural cinema stays distinctive.
Speaking to Picturehouse Cinemas’ creative director Clare Binns at the keynote session of Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF)’s inaugural UK film conference, Roberts said the Independent Film Tax Credit (IFTC) which became available in April 2025 has brought “an uptick in the amount of UK independent production under £15m”, but “there’s something else that has to be done to close the gap in financing.
“There’s something missing in money. There’s got to be more money in the system. How do we get more money in the system? Whether it’s private finance, angel investment, tax-efficient investment into film that allows people to keep doing that work.”
On several occasions throughout the 90-minute session, Roberts said filmmakers should be open to alternative funding avenues outside of what the BFI can provide. “We [the BFI] should be given a hard time; I think it’s a two-way street,” said Roberts. “We get quite frustrated by the quality of original thought sometimes, original ideas, and there is plenty of opportunity for filmmakers to demonstrate their original thoughts and skills without needing to wait for the highly prized and highly won lottery money.
“There are other means of putting your work into the world, and the creator economy shift creates loads of opportunities. It can be a misconception that a lot of money needs to be spent in order to create something that’s got value. Money really helps in so many ways, in terms of the people you can work with and the amount of time you get to make your work, but there are some things we haven’t been great at in the UK as an independent sector.”
Asked by Binns what those are, Roberts responded, “I don’t think we’re great at comedy,” while acknowledging The Incomer, Louis Paxton’s BFI- and Screen Scotland-backed comedy which opened EIFF on Thursday, August 13. “I’m not saying we don’t do it, but it’s also a real skill to do it well.
“We know audiences love horror, and I think we can pull our punches sometimes in horror and comedy in independent film.” Roberts said that “elevated horror sometimes means more of a mood. Go for it a bit more. There are a few areas where we sometimes polish off the edges of genres that could punch through a bit harder.”
Commercial films
Binns posited the possibility, raised the previous day at EIFF by producer Christine Vachon, that public funding can lead to less commercial work. “I do think it’s true that in the US where there’s little-to-no public funding, it creates a more aggressively commercially minded model,” responded Roberts. “Commerce and art are two words; they’re not in competition with each other. When we talk about the art of film, that sounds like a snobbish phrase, but it’s not. Spider-Man is a very artful film. A film costs half-a-million quid, and it makes £2m, it’s been commercial on its terms. Everything does not need to be commercial to the same degree.”
While noting that he has not directly led the BFI’s film funding since 2020, Roberts said, “We sometimes feel like people are pre-empting what we might want, along the lines of assumptions around ticking boxes. People will say, ‘I ticked all the boxes, what else do you want?’ Well, write something good, that’s where you should start.”
Screen Scotland executive director Isabel Davis is attending EIFF, ahead of taking over as director of Filmmaking Funds at the BFI in October. Roberts said he has “a note on my phone of all the things I want to talk to her about… we haven’t had that conversation yet. Isabel is very experienced, and the great thing about having creative change in these key gatekeeper jobs is that someone gets to come in and apply their own thoughts to it.”
Roberts and Binns expressed friendly disagreement on occasions during the talk, including on the issue of application forms for BFI funding. “Does that sometimes actually stop creativity?” asked Binns.
“No,” answered Roberts quickly. “Everyone has to fill out the form. It’s like, get over it,” he added in a jovial tone. “If you want a mortgage, you fill out the form. It’s public money. The form is an opportunity to put down some pointers about what your project is. It does not in itself rub off any edges. They’re monitoring forms; with public money you have to monitor things. But I reject that outright. The form is not the problem.”
Support
Roberts and Binns also discussed the challenges of getting the films the BFI backs via funding to a wider audience, including in multiplexes. “We have an eligibility limitation around lottery money. I don’t think many would thank us if that precious lottery money was widely available to multinational corporations to support their business models,” said Roberts.
“That’s your interpretation of it,” responded Binns. “Yes, they are multinational companies, but there’s also a sense that, why wouldn’t you try and show them that there’s money to be made with these films?”
“Well, we just don’t have enough,” said Roberts. “You’ve got to target lottery money where you think it can make the greatest impact. We’re an arms-in body of government, so we work with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), other government departments, the wider sector, to say what’s going on in the landscape, what’s happening around distribution support, and how does that then fit all cinemas, including multiplexes.
“We don’t lobby on behalf of businesses, that’s outside of our brief. But if there is a legitimate conversation to have about how we promote the value of all cinemas on the high street and how cinemas might benefit from the same kind of reliefs that other parts of the hospitality and leisure sector are getting, then we will convene those conversations. We’ve made no secret of the fact that we’d love the cinema sector to be in greater receipt of support for capital infrastructure, to help cinemas where there is a particularly precarious fabric to their spaces.”
Asked by Binns what traction there was on that, Roberts replied, “DCMS have been very engaged in our conversation. We know that our minister and secretary of state really value the cinema sector and have strong first-hand anecdotes about how cinemas have impacted themselves, their families, their local communities. But… the constant message coming out from government is there’s limited money. So you have to make really strong cases for how this will not just save something from disappearing, but add value to the high street, to the local economy.”
“We’re going to stay on that, distribution, tax relief as well, but we also have to acknowledge that commercial multiplex operators have their own business models, and that might not fit public funding.”
The EIFF industry programme continues today (August 16) with a talk about moving beyond debut features, with the British Independent Film Awards’ Springboard platform.
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