Creative England pledges to strengthen regional film funding

The British film industry is far too centred on London, an executive at Creative England has said, as it launches its first scheme to fund new writers to stay in the regions in the hopes of finding the next Full Monty or Billy Elliot.

Creative England is to offer financial support for promising playwrights from outside London, to allow them to stay in their own community instead of making the pilgrimage to the capital as they work on a film.

The scheme, the first of its kind, will see 18 playwrights from around Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle and Norwich being offered paid commissions to develop their short film scripts.

The three considered the best will then be given a £15,000 production budget to make their short films, after being introduced to producers and directors in the film industry.

The project is intended to exploit what Creative England believes is a natural relationship between stage and the big screen, with each concerned largely with a single story and author's voice.

Paul Ashton, a senior film executive at the organisation, said it is intended to help break the trend of only a very select few of playwrights going on to film success.

"What tends to happen is that you have the same tiny group of writers who are chased by everybody," he said.

"Unless you're part of that particular scene it's very difficult. The British film industry is so centred on London that people don't necessarily have a good sense of what's happening outside London.

"So the idea behind this scheme is to link up with theatres that have a long history and deep roots in those regions, and to be work with them at the point they're finding these people, rather than waiting for people to eventually tumble into the London scene."

He added that he hoped it would help convince people from around the country that they do not necessarily have to "up sticks" and move to London in order to have a "sustainable creative life".

"Two of the most successful British films in the last 20-odd years, Billy Elliot and The Full Monty, had a strong regional identity," he said.

"And that travelled extremely well. The argument that being regional is somehow parochial and self-serving is just not true.

"It's very easy for creativity in regional places to atrophy. And we want it to blossom, we want it to really thrive.

"England's regional cities are creative and active. That's very true for television, so it just needs to become as true for film."

Creative England will work in partnership with the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Bristol Old Vic, Live Theatre, Newcastle and the Writers’ Centre Norwich.

They are now seeking 18 writers with a track record of success in theatre or novel-writing to begin learning how to write scripts for the big screen.