Creative England's final Film Culture Lottery Fund opens for applications

Creative England has opened applications for the Film Culture Lottery Fund with a total of £700,000 available for cinema projects in the English regions.

This year marks the last time that Creative England will be handling the awards, with responsibility for this strand of funding to transfer to the BFI as part of their Film Forever plan announced earlier this month. As part of this refocusing of roles agreed between Creative England and BFI, the cultural elements of Creative England’s role will transfer to the BFI from April 1, along with the Film Culture team.

The fund is designed to support a range of dynamic and creative work in venues, festivals, archives and rural and community cinema schemes outside London, allowing audiences to access and enjoy a broad range of film across England. In July, Creative England announced the awards made under its first round of Film Culture funding which saw 39 projects supported, including the Encounters International Film Festival in Bristol and the Cinema Plus film education group in Norwich, among others.

Creative England’s head of film culture Jay Arnold [pictured] commented: “This is a great opportunity for regional film programming. Through our work over the past year we have encountered some truly inspiring projects and we look forward to supporting a new wave of exciting and dynamic film activity.”

“Creative England is a key delivery partner for the BFI and we welcome this investment into our English delivery partners as we work together to develop The UK Audience Network,” added Eddie Berg, the BFI’s director of partnerships.

Applications are now invited from cinemas, film archives, film festivals and other eligible organisations based in the English regions with awards ranging from £2,000 to £40,000. Applications for the Film Culture Fund can be made online until Nov 30 via the Creative England website.