No Cannes do

Time Out examines the UK Film Council's conservative funding policies.

May 17 2006

The Cannes Film Festival starts this week, and what better time to consider the future of British film than on the occasion of this celebration of the best of auteur cinema from around the world? There are two British titles in the festival’s 19-film competition line-up: Andrea Arnold's Glasgow-set debut feature 'Red Road' and Ken Loach's Irish Civil War drama, 'The Wind that Shakes the Barley'. The noises are positive: the younger and older generations of British cinema appear to be producing films to make the world sit up and watch. Their selection speaks of renewal and continuity.

There's another reason for some timely soul-searching. An advert ran in the national press last week seeking a replacement for Paul Trijbits, the current head of the New Cinema Fund at the UK Film Council whose four-year tenure comes to an end in September. The New Cinema Fund was founded in 2000 as a replacement for the British Film Institute's now defunct production board (a parallel Premiere Fund was also founded at the UK Film Council to support the more commercial end of British filmmaking) and annually ploughs £5 million of Lottery money into what it calls on its website 'diverse, innovative and cutting edge' British filmmaking.

The New Cinema Fund is an essential national resource. It's the principal port-of-call for those more leftfield filmmakers who need the support of public funds to kickstart projects that might frighten the cruel marketplace. Its existence is crucial if this country is to have a film culture that properly embraces the experimental as well as the commercial end of cinema.

Yet evaluations of Trijbits' time in charge of this money-pot have been – to put it kindly – mixed. One leading British filmmaker to whom I spoke last week suggested that Trijbits was 'universally despised' among his peers for some of his professional decisions. Further conversations with producers and directors reveal a similar, widespread disdain. The jaws of many in the film industry have regularly been heard to hit the floor at some of the supposedly 'innovative' productions that Trijbits and his colleagues at the UK Film Council have helped to put into motion ('Intermission', 'Shooting Dogs', 'Live Forever' – all fine, all bland, and to my mind all unworthy of public funds earmarked for 'cutting edge' filmmaking) and smash into a thousand pieces at the names of those filmmakers that Trijbits and co haven't deemed worthy of public support.

The New Cinema Fund has certainly done some good work. It put cash into films such as 'Bloody Sunday', 'Bullet Boy' and 'The Magdalene Sisters' (the last of which won the Golden Lion at Venice) – but I'd still argue that on balance this vital source of revenue for our country's most groundbreaking filmmakers simply hasn't been as daring as it should be.

Judge for yourself; a full list of productions part-funded by the New Cinema Fund is available on its website (ukfilmcouncil.org.uk). Glance over the 40 or so titles there and, while it's hardly a roll-call of dishonour there's clearly a lack of strong and distinct new voices. There are certainly new names here – Amma Asante ('A Way of Life'), Emily Young ('Kiss of Life'), Sarah Gavron ('This Little Life') – but their finished projects largely fail to inspire. This is a result, I'd say, of half-cocked boldness; the films are too often new spins on old pursuits ('A Way of Life' as sub-Loach social realism, for example) and too often it appears that the only 'innovative' element of a project is that it's shot on digital.

Furthermore, and bizarrely, two of the more impressive debuts on the list were not even directed by British filmmakers: Lucile Hadzihalilovic's 'Innocence' (2004) and Dagur Kári's 'Nói Albinói' (2002). Both these productions enjoyed minimal British involvement beyond the UK Film Council's generosity, yet still received £397,000 and £100,000 respectively from the fund. A third foreign-language film, 'Lila Says' (2003), by a French filmmaker, received £400,000 – almost 10 per cent of that year's available cash (and to add insult to injury, the finished film is poor and yet to enjoy a UK release). This isn't jingoism; it's about properly defining the role of an essential fund and ensuring that new British talent gets the support it deserves.

I could list a number of young, critically revered filmmakers whose applications have been rejected by the New Cinema Fund, though clearly it might be damaging to their careers to do so (as is the case with anyone seeking public funds in any sphere). However, I know these filmmakers to be overflowing with the ideas needed to follow in the footsteps of filmmakers such as Derek Jarman, Sally Potter and Peter Greenaway – all of whom, in the 1980s, were cultivated by the BFI production board. Instead, the New Cinema Fund has succeeded in cultivating anger and frustration in British film talent. So far, it’s a damaging legacy.

Nonetheless, Trijbits and his colleagues will surely be smiling as they pack their sunglasses and head south to the Croisette: both of Britain's Cannes entries received support from the New Cinema Fund. 'Red Road' was awarded £10,962 development money and £436,144 production money; while 'The Wind that Shakes the Barley' received £545,000. Hurrah, especially for Arnold, whose 'Red Road' is the only debut feature in the entire competition.

On paper (I haven't seen it yet), Arnold's film – risky, low-budget and by a director who has a proven track-record in short films – is exactly the sort of project that the New Cinema Fund should be supporting.

Meanwhile, Ken Loach will represent the older generation of British cinema at this year's Cannes with 'The Wind that Shakes the Barley', an internecine political drama set in County Cork in the period before the Irish Civil War. It's a passionate work, scripted by Paul Laverty, that will please Loach fans and further infuriate his detractors. Why, though, this film (and none of his other recent efforts) deserves money from the New Cinema Fund, I have no idea. Does Ken Loach really herald new cinema? Does Nic Roeg? Or Alex Cox? Both have received awards from the fund.

So let's celebrate the British entries in Cannes – but with major reservations. Of course, criticism, griping and resentment are par for the course for those in jobs such as those held by Trijbits and his colleagues. But whoever takes over at the New Cinema Fund this autumn needs to be more courageous, less safe and more concerned with cultivating a bold new generation of British filmmakers.

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