Will inde­pen­dent film sink or swim in post-Brex­it Britain?

Since the UK vot­ed to leave the Euro­pean Union, the result­ing pan­de­mo­ni­um in British pol­i­tics has left lit­tle room to con­sid­er what impact the ref­er­en­dum result will have on inde­pen­dent film. When the nego­ti­a­tions even­tu­al­ly turn to arts and cul­ture, it will be cru­cial to strike a fair deal to ensure the future health of the British film indus­try. As the UK sets about cre­at­ing a new iden­ti­ty for itself in Europe and rest of the world, this peri­od of post-Brex­it reori­en­ta­tion will ampli­fy the risks British inde­pen­dent film­mak­ers fre­quent­ly face. Fund­ing, dis­tri­b­u­tion, diver­si­ty and brain drain are all com­mon concerns.

Yet there are also pin­pricks of light in the tun­nel. Brex­it does not mean that over­seas pro­duc­tion com­pa­nies are going to opt out of Britain’s excep­tion­al crews and resource-rich stu­dios any time soon. British inde­pen­dent film could still retain the Euro­pean Cer­tifi­cate qual­i­fi­ca­tion, and inde­pen­dent film­mak­ers know bet­ter than most how to inno­vate under pres­sure. It is not all doom and gloom, then, but now more than ever it is impor­tant that inde­pen­dent film­mak­ers find ways to make their voic­es heard.

Pro­duc­ing inde­pen­dent films is risky, and fund­ing is the main con­cern for British indies in the inter­im. The UK received over £75m from Cre­ative Europe between 2007 and 2013. Appli­ca­tions from UK film­mak­ers have been wel­comed by its Euro­pean Com­mis­sion on Edu­ca­tion, Audio­vi­su­al and Cul­ture for decades; they award an exten­sive vari­ety of sup­port in areas of dis­tri­b­u­tion, sales, trans­la­tion, pro­duc­tion and train­ing. This sys­tem of Euro­pean co-pro­duc­tion treaties, enabling British pro­duc­ers to find back­ing for their films, will be scrapped. They will be rene­go­ti­at­ed, but quick­ly com­ing to a pos­i­tive arrange­ment will be para­mount. Indeed, it is the two-year rene­go­ti­a­tion peri­od, rather than the even­tu­al out­come, that could prove more dam­ag­ing for Britain’s EU-fund­ing avenues. 

Some British film­mak­ers and film com­pa­nies are expe­ri­enc­ing a hia­tus that is already cost­ing them pre­cious resources. Matthew But­ler, co-founder of British inde­pen­dent film com­pa­ny Fizz and Gin­ger Films, has heard of projects get­ting sus­pend­ed as Euro­pean com­pa­nies post­pone to see what will hap­pen. ​“Fund­ing is our most obvi­ous wor­ry at this point,” he explains. ​“Over the last few years, region­al fund­ing has been cut until there are very few places it still exists. Screen York­shire and Cre­ative Eng­land received large amounts of mon­ey from the EU. Films of all sizes received mon­ey through co-pro­duc­tions with Euro­pean com­pa­nies. These are now in jeop­ardy.” Small­er pro­duc­tions like his are like­ly to get key rev­enue streams restrict­ed by Brex­it. For all of the Leave campaign’s rhetoric, its now appears that few­er British film­mak­ers will have the finan­cial means to make films at home, using local casts and crews. 

As British inde­pen­dent film seeks to sus­tain fund­ing, dis­tri­b­u­tion will have to evolve, too. At first, Euro­pean films may strug­gle to find berths in UK cin­e­mas, and British pro­duc­ers could find it more dif­fi­cult to place their films abroad. But there are poten­tial flip sides to this in the long run. British indies can con­tin­ue to pen­e­trate the Euro­pean mar­ket if they nego­ti­ate to retain their Euro­pean Cer­tifi­cate. The Euro­pean qual­i­fi­ca­tion is vital for pres­ence in mar­kets where Hol­ly­wood, with its wide-rang­ing out­put deals, has con­sis­tent­ly dom­i­nat­ed. This would mean British inde­pen­dent film would not have to com­pete on two fronts, and it has a promis­ing prece­dent: Swiss films have enjoyed this ben­e­fit out­side the EU.

The vac­u­um could also be filled by US and inter­na­tion­al pro­duc­ers look­ing to fund British films, and buy them cheap. Hol­ly­wood-based British pro­duc­er Paul Dud­dridge believes US pro­duc­ers are wait­ing in the wings for oppor­tu­ni­ties owing to the fact that pro­duc­tion costs are low­er in the UK, it boasts estab­lished stu­dio facil­i­ties and tal­ent, and tax incen­tives can make it first choice for US dis­trib­u­tors. Of course, Amer­i­can pri­or­i­ties are also like­ly to be very dif­fer­ent from the Euro­peans. Less exper­i­men­ta­tion, box-office-friend­ly casts, and a loss of Britain’s com­par­a­tive­ly stronger on-screen diver­si­ty track record could be the lat­er costs of close Hol­ly­wood hand-holding.

Vot­ed Best British New­com­er nom­i­nee at last year’s BFI Lon­don Film Fes­ti­val, Nir­pal Bho­gal sees the inter­na­tion­al­i­sa­tion of British inde­pen­dent film as a pos­i­tive step that can and will take it much fur­ther than Hol­ly­wood. ​“I’m talk­ing to financiers in Chi­na and India now,” he reveals. ​“It’s quite an excit­ing chal­lenge I wouldn’t face oth­er­wise. I think British tal­ent will start to look beyond its com­fort zone to get films made; this means they will chal­lenge and strength­en them­selves.” How­ev­er, there can be no cer­tain­ty of pos­i­tive news until Brex­it nego­ti­a­tions begin – and the more time wast­ed, the more finan­cial and cre­ative reper­cus­sions British inde­pen­dent film will have to face. Finan­cial­ly, Bho­gal wor­ries that, ​“everything’s stopped. No one’s invest­ing because they are wait­ing to see what hap­pens. This will have a huge knock-on effect: we might lose a gen­er­a­tion of film­mak­ing talent.”

Yet cir­cum­stances could also result in a rise in cre­ativ­i­ty and resource­ful­ness. ​“From a cre­ative point of view, often­times hav­ing small­er bud­gets means peo­ple have to rely on inge­nu­ity and tal­ent,” But­ler points out. When mon­ey can­not fix the prob­lem, it forces artists to find new ways to make the films they want. This has pushed film­mak­ing, and even tech­nol­o­gy itself, for­wards since the 2008 eco­nom­ic crash. Low bud­get, crowd-fund­ed pro­duc­tions released exclu­sive­ly online are no longer a nov­el­ty. ​“It’s ever more impor­tant to find a new and alter­na­tive dis­tri­b­u­tion chan­nels,” says Weer­a­da Suchar­itkul, Co-Founder of UK start up Film­Doo, an online com­mu­ni­ty and stream­ing plat­form for world inde­pen­dent cin­e­ma. ​“British film­mak­ers can use it as a cat­a­lyst for change and to turn it into an opportunity.”

Avoid­ing the poten­tial pit­falls of this tran­si­tion­al peri­od will not be easy. Yet keep­ing an open dia­logue and healthy cre­ative exchange between British and Euro­pean inde­pen­dent film­mak­ers is some­thing pol­i­tics can­not pre­vent. There may well be slow years ahead as British inde­pen­dent film works out how to get on in this new world, but if there’s one guar­an­tee it’s that get on it will.