John Woodward, CEO of the UK Film Council, told staff this morning of the plan to abolish the UK Film Council, which, since it’s launch in 2000, has invested Lottery money and government grants in the production of more than 900 films, including such critical and commercial successes as: Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold), In The Loop (Armando Iannucci), Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh), This Is England (Shane Meadows) and The Constant Gardener (Fernando Meirelles).

The UK Film Council was established by the Labour government in 2000 as a non-departmental public body to develop and promote the film industry in the UK and is an integral part of the UK film industry;  without it our industry is likely to be hit hard. Not only does it help fund independent films, but also sponsors both the Edinburgh International Film Festival and London Film Festival, more of which you can find in our previous post here.

It was only the other day that their Statistial Yearbook was posted online, and we told of how it painted a very healthy picture despite the economical climate. UK films released in 2009 were huge commercial successes in America, with films such as Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle) and Sherlock Holmes (Guy Ritchie) making gross amounts of money for our flailing industry.

It’s understandable that the government needs to save money in this difficult economic period, but the UK film industry needs support, and without the UK Film Council, it’s only going to be harder to for British film-makers to find funding. On the other hand, it’s unclear as to why the government plan to fold the UK Film Council, especially with the improved box office figures, combined with a spurt of talented film-makers in the UK.

It seems set in stone though, as Tim Bevan, Chairman of the UK Film Council, made a statement earlier, saying,

Abolishing the most successful film support organisation the UK has ever had is a bad decision, imposed without any consultation or evaluation. People will rightly look back on today’s announcement and say it was a big mistake, driven by short-term thinking and political expediency. British film, which is one of the UK’s more successful growth industries, deserves better.

It remains to be seem how our film industry will cope, and where exactly the government will invest the money it’ll be saving. Could the government find a new initiative, a more confined way of investing money into the industry? With an official announcement from Jeremy Hunt due to take place before the House of Commons at 2:30pm, more information, and the finer details, are likely to be revealed in due course. We’ll be sure to keep you updated.

Deadline reported this.