{"id":47114,"date":"2026-08-15T18:28:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T13:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=47114"},"modified":"2026-08-15T18:28:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T13:28:26","slug":"bfi-ceo-ben-roberts-gives-keynote-address-at-inaugural-uk-film-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=47114","title":{"rendered":"BFI CEO Ben Roberts Gives Keynote Address At Inaugural UK Film Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tIn conversation with <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/clare-binns\/\" id=\"auto-tag_clare-binns\" data-tag=\"clare-binns\">Clare Binns<\/a>, managing director of Picturehouse Cinemas, at the <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/edinburgh-film-festival\/\" id=\"auto-tag_edinburgh-film-festival\" data-tag=\"edinburgh-film-festival\">Edinburgh Film Festival<\/a>\u2019s inaugural UK Film Conference <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/bfi\/\" id=\"auto-tag_bfi\" data-tag=\"bfi\">BFI<\/a> CEO <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/ben-roberts\/\" id=\"auto-tag_ben-roberts\" data-tag=\"ben-roberts\">Ben Roberts<\/a> was candid from the outset about the problems of working for a major public-funding body. Having previously worked for numerous UK distribution and sales outfits, Roberts admitted that he had been warned against taking the job as Director of the BFI Film Fund in 2012. \u201cVarious people said to me, \u2018Everyone will hate you and you\u2019ll never work again,\u2019\u201d he laughed. \u201cSo, there was definitely that sense going in \u2014 that these jobs are quite challenging, because you <em>can<\/em> make a lot of enemies. The fact is you turn most people down in that job. You just do, because the numbers are stacked against you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tRoberts now has more than just the Film Fund at his disposal, dispensing sums in the region of \u00a3150 million in a three-year cycle, and, in his interview, he outlined a case for a future of British film that would include the whole process, from script to screen \u2014 which includes supporting exhibition, distribution, archival work, festivals and education. \u201cThe BFI does a unique job of having some money to support filmmakers,\u201d he said, \u201cwhich can be very easily [measured]: Yes or no. Yes, you got it. No, you didn\u2019t get it. But there are so many other things that the BFI does to try to make the conditions for making and releasing films in the UK possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tRoberts conceded that the BFI system can seem like a bureaucracy but defended the amount of paperwork. \u201cIt\u2019s lottery money,\u201d he said, \u201cso you have to run everything in a very open way. We\u2019re different to the BBC or Film4 in the fact that we can\u2019t have a conversation with one of you in this room, and when you tell me about your project \u2014 and we like the sound of it \u2014 say, \u2018Come in for a meeting, let\u2019s give you some money.\u2019 We can\u2019t work like that because we have to run an open process. And then, within that, we establish some goals about what we might be looking for.\u201d (In a shorter version of this comment, Roberts quipped, \u201cLook, everyone has to fill out a form. Get over it!\u201d)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tAnother preconception about the BFI, he said, is that it favors worthy projects that tick politically correct boxes. \u201cPrincipally, you\u2019re looking for something that feels worthy of \u2018good cause\u2019 money, because national lottery money is \u2018good cause\u2019 money. So, you\u2019re looking for something that really needs that money \u2014 something that the market is probably not going to obviously fund, but that\u2019s still pretty broad. And then there\u2019s obviously, as there should be, a qualitative assessment as well. Is it good? Does it read well? Is the team that\u2019s making it \u2014 even if they\u2019re early in their career \u2014 clear on what they want to achieve? Have they made anything that would suggest that raw talent is there? An old colleague of mine, when I first joined the film fund said, \u2018It\u2019s not social work.\u2019 Which is really important, actually, because it\u2019s <em>not<\/em> social work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tOn the subject of artistic quality, Roberts also suggested that the metric for success should not be limited to two of the most common, which tend to prioritize the role of the director and the importance of box-office. \u201cYou could have a film that might not make money, but an actor in that film might be identified. We often sometimes forget to talk about the actors that have been discovered, or platformed, through lottery funded or publicly funded films and gone on to be huge stars. <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/tom-holland\/\" id=\"auto-tag_tom-holland\" data-tag=\"tom-holland\">Tom Holland<\/a>\u2019s second film was <em>How I Live Now<\/em>, directed by the great Kevin McDonald and was funded with lottery money. And that was putting him on a particular path. <a href=\"https:\/\/deadline.com\/tag\/olivia-colman\/\" id=\"auto-tag_olivia-colman\" data-tag=\"olivia-colman\">Olivia Colman<\/a>\u2019s first standout work that moved her from sketch comedy to dramatic feature film was Paddy Considine\u2019s <em>Tyrannosaur<\/em>. So, I think there are many markers of success in a film.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tWarming to his theme, Roberts pushed back at the sometimes-combative relationship between artists and those dishing out public funds. \u201cI do think I should be given a hard time,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it\u2019s a two-way street. We get quite frustrated by the quality of original thought sometimes, original ideas. And there is plenty of opportunity for filmmakers to start to demonstrate their original thoughts and their skills without needing to wait for the very highly prized and highly won lottery money\u2026 I think it can be a misconception that a lot of money needs to be spent in order to create something that\u2019s got value.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tHe did concede, however, that \u201cthere are some things I think we haven\u2019t been great at in the UK as an independent sector. For instance, I don\u2019t think we\u2019re great at comedy. Obviously, the Edinburgh Film Festival opened with a really strong, lottery-backed comedy this year, <em>The Incomer<\/em>. I\u2019m not saying we don\u2019t do it, but I think it takes real skill to do it well. We know audiences love horror, and I think that we pull our punches sometimes in horror, as well as comedy, in independent film. Someone said to me recently, \u2018I\u2019ve got a horror project.\u2019 I said, \u2018Is it scary?\u2019 He said, \u2018It\u2019s more of a mood.\u2019 But we don\u2019t want mood. Go for it. Go for it a little bit more. There are a few areas where sometimes we sort of polish off the edges of genres that punch through a bit harder.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto     \">\n\tBoth Binns and Roberts commented on the recent renaissance of cinemagoing among young people, as well as an uptick in attendances since Covid, but Roberts was particularly keen to get to potential audiences as soon as possible. \u201cThere are lots of ways that we try to open up pathways for young people,\u201d he said. \u201cBut the missing piece \u2014 and it\u2019s really, really important \u2014 is having film firmly in the classroom. I mean, teaching film as a storytelling medium, particularly a time when \u2014 on a sort of crude level \u2014 I would say that watching is the new reading for a lot of people. So, how you develop really good interpretation skills, literacy skills, how you can create your own communication channels healthily and creatively is really important right now.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In conversation with Clare Binns, managing director of Picturehouse Cinemas, at the Edinburgh Film Festival\u2019s inaugural UK Film Conference BFI CEO Ben Roberts was candid from the outset about the problems of working for a major public-funding body. Having previously worked for numerous UK distribution and sales outfits, Roberts admitted that he had been warned&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/deadline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/Ben-Roberts-BFI-CEO-e1781616847588.jpg?w=1024","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47114\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}