BRIEF HISTORY OF THE BRITISH FILM

INDUSTRYBy Bethany Bouchareb

Early history

• Emerged in the late 19th century

• In the first decade of the 20th century more than 30 film studios were established in and around London

• Success with British films faded as America begun creating feature length films which were more expensive and heavily marketed

• In 1925, the British film industry were making fewer than 40 feature length films a year

CINEMATOGRAPH FILMS ACT 1927

• An act that was created by the government

• A quota was set for British made films and this quota had to to be met by the distributors and exhibitors

• The production of British made films doubled by the end of the decade

• This also established new production companies

• However this is also the blamed reason for creating a marker of poor quality, low costing films and quota ‘quickies’

1930’s

• The ‘talkies’ (sound film) had a good effect on the British film industry

• The most successful British film company in this time was founded by a Hungarian: London Film Productions

• In the late 1930’s the British film industry came to a halt again due to being bankrupt from over expanding

• Quality tests were included with quotas to avoid quota quickies.

WORLD WAR 2 AND POST WAR

• Was in recession at the beginning

• Cinema attendance rose

• The British film company tried to compete with America in studio size

• In 1947, America stopped distributing films to the UK

CINEMATOGRAPHIC ACT REVISITED

• The exhibitors quota was raised

• The National Film Finance Corporation (NFFC) was introduced to distribute loans for film production

1950’S-1980s

• The British film industry was at competition with new technologies (radio and TV)

• The British film industry had expertise in special effects (A space odyssey)

• British filmmakers begun to make film versions of TV programs

• The NFFC was abolished

• The quota system was suspended

THE LAST 10 YEARS

• The UK film council was launched

• Bridget Jones Diary was a big hit for the British film industry

• Harry Potter was British made but American funded

• In 2008, Britain was the 11th largest producer of films in the world