Sundance 2024 premieres Sebastian and Kneecap are among the major recipients of British Film Institute (BFI) funding in 2023, a year which has seen an overhaul in the way the BFI administers its production support.
This year, the BFI’s refreshed 10-year National Lottery funding strategy, Screen Culture 2033, kicked in. From January 13, 2023, the BFI Film Fund closed to all new applications. The revamped Filmmaking Fund opened in April, with three strands from which features can access funding: the BFI Discovery Fund, dedicated to directorial debuts, budgeted below £3.5m and aiming to support six features per year; the BFI Impact Fund, which will support five projects with production funding per year, as a rolling fund; and the BFI Development Fund, that supports all stages of development and aims to support 60-70 projects per year.
The BFI has also changed the way in which the public can access information about its awards – previously both recent and historic awards could be accessed via the BFI website. Now, awards post-2022 are available to be download from the site, while awards issued prior to April 2022 can be accessed via an email request. This change has enabled the BFI to present the government’s Department for Culture Media and Sport’s UK Global Screen Fund awards to be displayed alongside the National Lottery funding awards.
At time of writing, the BFI had not published full information on the titles to receive support under the revised Filmmaking Fund to date, with some projects yet to be announced. All funding awards will be published on the BFI site once the project, and how it is funded, is in the public domain. However, Screen has highlighted a selection of notable films to receive substantial support in 2023.
Sebastian, Bêtes Sauvages (£925,000)
Finnish-UK filmmaker Mikko Makela’s sophomore feature is set to premiere at Sundance in the world cinema dramatic competition. His follow-up to BFI London Film Festival premiere A Moment In The Reeds stars Ruaridh Mollica and David Nellist, and follows an aspiring writer living in London who begins a double life as a sex worker in order to research his debut novel. The UK’s James Watson of Bêtes Sauvages produces, with co-producers Scotland’s barry crerar, Belgium’s Lemming Film and Finland’s Helsinki Filmi.
The drama received £890,000 in production support pre-April under the Film Fund, plus £35,000 as part of the Step Up initiative, to provide opportunities for crew from underrepresented groups. The Edinburgh and Glasgow-shot film also accessed £500,000 through Screen Scotland’s Film Development and Production Fund.
Kneecap, Kneecap Films, Fine Point Films (£810,000)
World premiering in Sundance’s Next strand will be Rich Peppiatt’s Ireland-UK co-production Kneecap, starring the real-life anarchic Belfast rap trio of Moglai Bap, Mo Chara and DJ Provai as they become the unlikely leaders of a civil-rights movement to save their Irish mother tongue. Simone Kirby and Michael Fassbender also star. Producers are Jack Tarling for Mother Tongues Films and Trevor Birney for Belfast-based Fine Point Films, with co-producer Patrick O’Neill of Ireland’s Wildcard. Charades handles international sales.
The Irish-language feature also received funding from Northern Ireland Screen and Screen Ireland. From the BFI Film Fund it was awarded £575,000 from the Film Fund and £35,000 from the Step Up initiative. It also received an additional £200,000 from the Filmmaking Fund, issued in August.
Santosh, Santosh Ltd (£890,000)
Hindi-language, India-shot Santosh is the narrative feature debut of Screen Star of Tomorrow 2023 Sandhya Suri. The character-driven neo-noir is set in the hinterlands of Northern India. Zwigato and A Suitable Boy’s Shahana Goswami stars. It is produced by Mike Goodridge and James Bowsher of the UK’s Good Chaos, and France’s Balthazar de Ganay and Alan McAlex of India’s Suitable Pictures. The co-producers are Razor Film in Germany and Haut et Court in France. As well as £890,000 in production funding, BBC Film, ZDF/ARTE and CNC are also backing the feature.
Sweet Dreams, Jingo Juice/Marshmallow Laser Feast (£435,000)
This is the first foray into story-driven work for Marshmallow Laser Feast, an experiential London-based art collective whose previous body of work includes Cate Blanchett-narrated virtual-reality event Evolver, which premiered at Tribeca. Sweet Dreams is billed as a multi-sensory experience inviting audiences to explore the food chain, raising questions about consumerism and desire. It was written by Simon Wroe and will be running summer 2024 at Manchester’s Warehouse - Aviva Studios. It received £400,000 of Film Fund production support, plus £35,000 from Step Up.
Low Rider, Quinn Trip Productions (£310,000)
UK writer-director Campbell X’s Low Rider is a UK-South Africa co-production starring Emma McDonald and Thishiwe Ziqubu, and follows the adventures of a woman as she flies from London to Cape Town to search for her absent father. Along the way she forms a bond with a charismatic stranger, who offers to help her on her quest to find her increasingly elusive father. It is the first feature produced by Rebecca Long and Stella Nwimo’s UK production outfit Boudica Entertainment. It received £310,000 from the Film Fund in 2023, and was also awarded £675,000 in 2022 bringing its total support close to £1m.
Brides, Neon Films (£143,650)
Well-respected theatre director and Screen Star of Tomorrow 2023 Nadia Fall’s feature debut Brides centres on two 15-year-old girls who leave home in order to make their way across Turkey to the Syrian border. It was supported by regional and national Italian film funds, in addition to development support from the Filmmaking Fund, totalling £143,650. Suhayla El-Bushra writes and Nicky Bentham of Neon Films produces.
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