BFI Festivals Ringfenced? [Guest Post]

• You can imagine how delighted we were at BFI Uncut when we discovered an angry rant in our inbox regarding the much ignored LLGFF controversy from 'Somebody Anybody', email: 'yougottafight@hotmail.com' - Awesome! Someone having fun with the anonymity the internet provides. We were delighted that they were happy to provide our first guest post! We think this a wonderful model. If anyone feels particularly irate at some of the cuts we will be delighted to offer you our guest post window. So remember, as long as you're acting within the law the wiki is also totally anonymous. Feel free to let it all out :-P   

The UKFC funding that LFF received 3 years ago, comes to an end next year and the BFI will be faced with funding the now bigger and more expensive Festival itself. I'm assuming as well, that if the BFI takes over the lottery funding, that will make the LFF ineligible to apply for further lottery funding. So, where will the money come from to fund the festival. The BFI doesn't have the money to pay it's own staff, let alone fund a multi million pound festival. Obviously, it's a key activity, but it's not our only activity.

Despite the fact that the core Festival team are now working on half a festival less, none of them have been listed as at risk.



The Executive seem to be cutting the things that don't put the BFI on the red carpet and in the limelight, which i'm not sure is the point of the BFI really. If The Executive wants the limelight and the big bucks, maybe they should go work for a distributor, rather than a government funded charity. The LFF could easily be cut to 10 days and still be successful, it's longer than most other festivals, including Cannes.

We keep being quoted that audience figures for LFF are up, but that is simply because we are screening the same film in more than one screen, 15 mins after each other. There are more seats...it doesn't take a genius to work it out. The first screening you get an intro, the second and intro and Q&A, yet the ticket price is the same!

It's interesting nobody has even mentioned the Festivals scenario in any of these talks. The LLGFF Opening Night next year will take place on the last day of work for all those being made redundant...another one of The Executive's bright ideas?