The Rise and Fall of the UK Film Council
Lisa Kelly author Philip Schlesinger author Raymond Boyle author Gillian Doyle author
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Edinburgh University Press
Publishing:30th Sep '26
£19.99
This title is due to be published on 30th September, and will be despatched as soon as possible.

Drawing on interviews with leading film executives, politicians and industry stakeholders, including Alan Parker, Stewart Till and Tim Bevan, 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. 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 national and global interests in an increasingly transnational film industry, not least underlining how both US and EU interests and pressures have played themselves out. It therefore provides a timely and significant investigation into the contemporary policy environment for film in the 21st century.
Far more than a study of one British institution, this book is a major contribution to studies of film policy, and indeed cultural policy more generally. Its analysis of tensions between creative and commercial rationales is revealing and extremely insightful. -- Professor David Hesmondhalgh, University of Leeds
An in-depth study of the only period when the UK had a government for whom film policy did matter...A cogent, lucid account of what the Film Council achieved in its short life, how it did it, under what constraints. -- Geoffrey Nowell-Smith * LSE British Politics and Policy Blog *
‘A highly readable academic study has arrived to assess the birth, life and death of the UKFC… It’s a logical approach handled with crisp thoroughness.’ -- Stephen Mayne * PopMatters *
ISBN: 9781399569583
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: unknown
224 pages