The BFI has made 24 new awards through its UK Global Screen Fund, supporting international opportunities for the UK’s independent screen sector.
Financed through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the awards see a further £2,069,000 being allocated through the fund’s International Business Development strand, which has now made 134 awards totalling over £11 million to date.
Designed to support UK companies across film, TV, animation and interactive narrative video games in securing new business partnerships and enhancing their international activities, International Business Development funding is awarded in the form of non-recoupable grants
ranging between £50,000 and £200,000, via one of three tracks:
• Film Transformation, for internationally-focused transformational business strategies related to independent UK films, spanning three to five years
• General, for business strategies to create, acquire and/or exploit intellectual property (IP) across film, TV, animation, documentary and interactive narrative video games, with strategies spanning three years
• Challenger, a new £50,000 award with optional additional mentorship component introduced for earlier-stage screen companies, launched in April
Denitsa Yordanova, BFI Director of UK Global Screen Fund and International Funds, said: “This latest round of awards demonstrates the quality and diversity of our incredible independent screen sector, spanning film, TV, animation and games, across the UK. The ambition of these companies in developing truly global growth strategies, and in striving to reach new international audiences, is exciting to see and it is so important that we continue to build on the UK’s strength in the global content marketplace, investing to support the screen sector in reaching its full potential.”
Soleta Rogan, Managing Director at Rogan Productions, said “Rogan is delighted to be a recipient of this year’s round of International Business Development support from the UK Global Screen Fund. In a now-globalised world of production, support like this further enables the company to bring its work to the international stage and forge partnerships in multiple territories, bringing increased opportunities to expand and diversify our output. This support comes at a critical time as we are expanding rapidly, fostering a global reputation for excellence and moving into new fields. With our catalogue of titles from Freddie Mercury: the Final Act to Grenfell: Uncovered, we have shown how we can bring a global dimension to UK stories. We are pressing on into fiction and look forward to engaging more markets with our particular brand of storytelling.”
Rachel Glendinning, Co-founder & Production Director at Friday Sundae said “We’re delighted to receive support from the UK Global Screen Fund’s International Business Development strand. This award comes at a pivotal moment for Friday Sundae as we establish There Are No Ghosts at the Grand as our first original IP and build towards a future slate of distinctive narrative games for international audiences. The funding is already helping us strengthen the foundations needed for global growth, from localisation and audience development to international marketing, community-building and partnerships. As the game begins to reach new audiences internationally, including the US and Japan, this support is hugely valuable in helping a small UK studio build sustainable relationships overseas and turn early momentum into long-term opportunity.”
Alongside this latest round of awards, the UK Global Screen Fund has launched its brand new Video Games Release funding, designed to support UK video game developers to mount release campaigns for their games in international territories, through marketing, promotion and localisation, with the aim of increasing circulation and sales potential.
UK Global Screen Fund applications are currently open for:
• International Business Development – closing 11 June
• International Distribution Prints & Advertising (P&A) – assessed on a rolling basis
• International Distribution Festival Launch – assessed on a rolling basis
• International Distribution Video Games Release – assessed on a rolling basis
