Written by Kianna Best on Feb 8, 2023. Posted in Awards and Festivals

BFI invests GBP 14 million into educating future filmmakers

Today the BFI announced their focus shift of the National Lottery funding into bringing screen culture directly to classrooms, offering guidance for career building as well as delivering local grassroots activity in disadvantaged communities. This new programme will provide activities for 5-18 year olds over the course of three years. As part of the National Lottery’s 10 year strategy, activity is set to commence in April 2023.

“Screen culture has a unique power to support learning and expand horizons, so we’re focused on extending our reach to more children and young people,” commented Leigh Adams, Director of Education and Learning. “The funding announced today will see us connect with more schools to ensure teachers, educators and career professionals can bring screen culture into the classroom as a powerful tool to support learning across the curriculum, and open doors to a range of career opportunities.”

Image courtesy of Kenny Eliason

In order to deliver this programme as effectively as possible, the BFI will award funding tot two UK-wide partners who will deliver three targeted work streams;  BFI National Lottery Teaching with Film, BFI National Lottery Young Creatives and BFI National Lottery Careers and Progression. Receiving GBP 12.4 million, Into Film will work across all three programmes and National Saturday Club, who will receive GBP 1.5 million will collaborate with Into Fil to deliver Young Creatives.

Adamas added: “We are also seeking to engage wider communities, and open up direct links between schools and further and higher education courses. With our partners we want to help ignite a passion for screen culture in future film fans and cinema-goers, as well as potential festival programmers, costume and set designers, VFX supervisors and the many other roles offered within our dynamic sector.”

Into Film, the film education charity, will see a change in focus with the almost GBP 5 million investment for Teaching with Film which will brings screen culture directly to classrooms, aiming to equip UK educators with the right tools for engaging the younger generation in the visual industry. Teaching of image related courses will also be expanded to 14-18 year olds, offering meaningful insight into entering a career in the industry. In addition, the GBP 6 million Careers and Progression programme will help 11-18 year olds access similar career guidance and advice, offering effective leads into working in the industry and opening the doors to many opportunities.