Rise and Fall of the UK Film Council

Drawing on interviews with leading film executives, politicians and industry stakeholders including all of the UKFC's chairs (Alan Parker, Stewart Till and Tim Bevan) and its CEO John Woodward, this book provides an empirically grounded analysis of the rise and unexpected fall of the UK Film Council, the key strategic body responsible for supporting film in the UK for over a decade. What objectives did the UKFC pursue over time? How effective was the agency as a model of public support for film? What lessons for strategic interventions in film policy can be drawn from its experience? As well as offering a critical overview of the political, policy and technological contexts which framed the organisation's creation, existence and eventual demise, the book provides a probing analysis of the tensions between differing sectoral interests, commercial and cultural agendas, and between national and global interests in an increasingly transnational film industry. An innovative and up-to-date analysis is therefore offered of how, in theory and practice, cultural funding bodies negotiate competing policy objectives over time and through shifting economic and political conditions.