Prints and Advertising Fund
The Prints and Advertising Fund supports the distribution and marketing strategy of British independent and specialised films.
Important notice
On 1 April 2011, the British Film Institute became the Lottery distributor for film funding. From this date, the Prints and Advertising Fund will transfer to the BFI. There will be a click through from this website to the BFI's until this website is fully closed down.
All applications completed and received by the UK Film Council before 31 March 2011 were transferred to the BFI on 1 April 2011. You do not need to do anything further as your application will automatically transfer at the stage of the decision-making process it has reached. However, all future correspondence regarding your application and subsequent funding decisions will be made by the Prints & Advertising Fund as part of the BFI.
If you wish to submit an application to the Prints and Advertising Fund you will need to complete a BFI Prints and Advertising Fund application form which is available on the BFI website.
What we do
The Prints and Advertising Fund is designed to help independent British and specialised films find a wider/broader UK audience by increasing access to and awareness of these titles, in order to increase their overall viewing.
The BFI’s Prints and Advertising Fund has an annual budget of £4 million
Who we fund
We support UK distributors to produce extra prints, increase advertising or enhance media exposure and publicity for British independent and specialised films.
Recently supported films have included Oscar-winning/nominated features such as Another Year, Animal Kingdom, The Skin I Live In, Biutiful and In a Better World; Bafta-winning features Shame, We Need to Talk About Kevin and Tyrannosaur as well as a range of acclaimed and recognisable titles from around the world including The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, One Day and Monsters.
Case study: Specialised film in the UK
The BFI's definition of specialised film is quite broad and relates to films that do not sit easily within a mainstream and highly commercial genre. Since the UK Film Council introduced Lottery funding to support the distribution of foreign language and specialised films in 2003 to benefit British cinema-goers, the overall market share of specialised film at the UK box office increased by 27%.
In total, 355 specialised films were released in 2010, representing 64% of the total number of UK theatrical releases last year. These films grossed £66 million, a 6.5% share of total box office earnings. Almost 6 in every 10 films released at the UK Box office from 2000-2003 were specialised. The figure has grown steadily from a low point of 51% in 2003 to 69% in 2009. The market share increased from 8% in 2008 to over 15 % in 2009, falling back to 6.5% in 2010.
