It was constituted as a private company limited by guarantee, owned by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, and governed by a board of 15 directors.
In its own words, the aim of the UKFC was:[6] To stimulate a competitive, successful and vibrant UK film industry and culture, and to promote the widest possible enjoyment and understanding of cinema throughout the nations and regions of the UK.The UKFC administered and funded a range of different activities, including: The Development Fund aimed to broaden the quality, range and ambition of film projects being developed in the UK.
It helped filmmakers of all experience levels develop their ideas and screenplays into viable feature films, be they fiction, documentary or animation, up until the moment they were ready to get production finance.
[7] Funded films included Jane Campion's Bright Star; Oscar-winning filmmaker Andrea Arnold's second feature Fish Tank; Armando Iannucci's In the Loop; and Sam Taylor Wood's Nowhere Boy, written by Matt Greenhalgh.
The New Cinema Fund supported emerging talent and established filmmakers working outside the mainstream, focusing on innovative writing and gifted directors.
It had a commitment to supporting work from the nations and regions, from black, Asian and other minority ethnic filmmakers and encouraged the use of digital technology in the production, distribution and exhibition of films.
Films supported by the fund included James Marsh's Oscar-winning Man on Wire; Armando Iannucci's In the Loop (Sundance 2009); Jane Campion's Bright Star; Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank; Dominic Murphy's White Lightnin' (Berlin and Sundance Film Festivals 2009); Sally Potter's Rage (Berlin Competition 2009); Noel Clarke's Adulthood (BAFTA Rising Star); Ken Loach's The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Cannes, Palme d'Or); Shane Meadows's This is England (BAFTA, Best British Film); Kevin Macdonald's Touching the Void (BAFTA, Best British Film); Andrea Arnold's Red Road (Cannes, Jury Prize); Paul Andrew Williams's London to Brighton (Edinburgh International Film Festival, Best New Director); Alexis Dos Santos's Unmade Beds (also at Berlin and Sundance 2009); and Duane Hopkins's Better Things (Cannes, Critics' Week).
[citation needed] Funded films included Mike Leigh's award-winning Happy-Go-Lucky; Oliver Gerald McMorrow's Franklyn; Christopher Smith's Triangle; Oliver Parker's Dorian Gray; Stephen Frears's Cheri; Bob Weide's How to Lose Friends and Alienate People; Anand Tucker's And When Did You Last See Your Father?
; Julian Jarrold's Brideshead Revisited; Oliver Parker and Barnaby Thompson's St Trinian's; Rupert Wyatt's The Escapist; Roger Michell's Venus; Vito Rocco's Faintheart; and Gabor Csupo's The Secret of Moonacre.
The BFI was responsible for delivering that part of the UKFC's strategy "to help UK audiences enjoy the best of British and world cinema".
[16][17] The move also led American actor and director Clint Eastwood (who had filmed Hereafter in London) to write to the British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne in August 2010 to protest the decision to close the council.
Eastwood warned Osborne that the closure could result in fewer foreign production companies choosing to work in the UK.