Digital Screen Network
The average Hollywood blockbuster opens on 300-plus screens across the UK; most independent films, restored classics, documentaries and foreign language films still struggle to reach over ten per cent of those screens.
Digital screening cuts the cost of releasing films (a digital copy costs around one tenth of a 35mm print). That's why UK Film Council and the Arts Council England created the Digital Screen Network – a £12 million investment to equip 240 screens in 210 cinemas across the UK with digital projection technology to give UK audiences much greater choice.
Cinemas in the network have already screened non-mainstream films including My Week With Marilyn, The Guard, Submarine, Brighton Rock, and the Oscar®-winner In A Better World, as well as classics like Meet me in St Louis, The Wizard of Oz and Casablanca.
Digital Screen Network cinemas hosted the UK Film Council and BBC Two's Summer of British Films season – a sell out tour running from July to September 2007 featuring British classics such as Goldfinger, Brief Encounter, Billy Liar, Henry V, The Wicker Man, The Dam Busters and Withnail and I.
Furthermore, the network established the UK as a frontrunner in the global conversion to digital. In particular, it gave a large number of independent cinemas the opportunity to convert who may otherwise have struggled to achieve this.
Please note: no funding is currently available for cinemas.
