The Rise and Fall of the Uk Film Council

Drawing on interviews with leading film executives, politicians and industry stakeholders including all of the UKFC's chairs (Alan Parker, Stewart Till and Tim Bevan) and its CEO John Woodward, this book provides an empirically grounded analysis of the rise and unexpected fall of the UK Film Council, the key strategic body responsible for supporting film in the UK for over a decade. What objectives did the UKFC pursue over time? How effective was the agency as a model of public support for film? What lessons for strategic interventions in film policy can be drawn from its experience?

As well as offering a critical overview of the political, policy and technological contexts which framed the organisation's creation, existence and eventual demise, the book provides a probing analysis of the tensions between differing sectoral interests, commercial and cultural agendas, and between national and global interests in an increasingly transnational film industry. An innovative and up-to-date analysis is therefore offered of how, in theory and practice, cultural funding bodies negotiate competing policy objectives over time and through shifting economic and political conditions.

Gillian Doyle is Professor of Media Economics and Director of the Centre for Cultural Policy Research (CCPR) at the University of Glasgow where she directs Glasgow's MSc in Media Management. She has led a number of RCUK funded projects on media economics and policy and conducted studies for the Council of Europe, the European Commission and the OECD and her research has been translated and published in several languages. Gillian is former President of the Association for Cultural Economics International (ACEI).

Philip Schlesinger is Professor in Cultural Policy at the University of Glasgow and Deputy Director of CREATe, the Research Councils UK's Centre for Copyright and New Business Models in the Creative Economy. His books include Putting 'Reality' Together, Media, State and Nation, Reporting Crime and Open Scotland? His next book will be Curators of Cultural Enterprise. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the UK's Academy of Social Sciences and an editor of Media, Culture & Society. He is presently engaged in research on European identities.

Raymond Boyle is Professor of Communications based within the Centre for Cultural Policy Research at the University of Glasgow. He has published widely on media and sports issues. His most recent books includeThe Television Entrepreneurs (2012) with Lisa Kelly and PowerPlay: Sport the Media andPopular Culture (2009) with Richard Haynes. He also sits on the editorial board ofMedia, Culture and Society.

Lisa Kelly graduated in Communication and Mass Media (BA Hons) from Glasgow Caledonian University and completed an MPhil and PhD in Theatre, Film and Television Studies at the University of Glasgow before joining the Centre for Cultural Policy Research as a Research Associate from 2009-2013. Lisa worked on two AHRC-funded projects in CCPR, including a major study of the history of the UK Film Council, and her research interests include film policy and television genres and formats.