News – Funds for family films

A fund of nearly £1m has been earmarked to support production companies developing British films targeted at children.
The cash, from the National Lottery, the UK Film Council’s Development Fund and the BBC, will be used to challenge Hollywood’s stranglehold over family movies. The fund will be managed by the Children’s Film and Television Foundation, which was originally set up in the 1950s and made more than 200 films before concentrating on TV production. The Film Council has expressed the hope that British films for children can achieve the same degree of success as recent figures show their adult counterparts have enjoyed. 20 films, which received a total of £13.7m support from the National Lottery, have generated over £125m in global box office returns.