§ Mr. GardinerTo ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport (1) what steps her Department is taking to help independent film44W distributors to compete with (a) mainstream products and (b) products distributed from Hollywood studios; [149952]
(2) what steps her Department is taking to broaden the audience base at cinemas; [149953]
(3) what steps her Department is taking to support the independent distribution sector in making available more prints of independent films; [149954]
(4) what steps her Department is taking to create incentives for exhibitors to show more independent films. [149955]
§ Estelle MorrisThe UK Film Council, the Government's strategic agency for film, has recently announced a comprehensive Distribution and Exhibition Strategy costing £24 million over the next three years aimed at widening audiences for film and ensuring a broader and more diverse range of films is available.
£14 million of this funding will be allocated, in partnership with the Arts Council of England, to a Digital Screen Network which will enable the exhibition of a wider range of films, through the provision of equipment enabling the digital exhibition of films.
The strategy also includes a Specialised Print and Advertising (P&A) Fund, with £1 million per annum over the next three years, to assist distributors to widen the availability of films defined as "specialised". These are films characterised by an innovative cinematic style, or which engage with challenging subject matter, offering audiences a different experience of cinema from that provided by mainstream US studio-originated material. Support will be available under this fund to enable a distributor to increase the print run and media investment (P&A) for specialised films.
The £1 million UK Film Distribution Programme is another strand of the strategy which is aimed at assisting distributors to increase the theatrical release of indigenous UK films that are aimed at a wide, commercial market.