Despite the UK pound reaching its highest level against the dollar in three years last week, the British Film Commission (BFC) does not anticipate any major interruptions to US production coming to the UK.
“We have an incredibly close relationship with the US industry, and right now nothing has changed at all,” said BFC chief executive Adrian Wootton of the currency fluctuations. “All the work we anticipated coming into the UK has come in. It hasn’t made a profound difference to the flow of product into the UK.”
Wootton pointed out UK studios are humming with activity and that many US companies now have “deep roots” in the UK. High-profile films and TV series in the UK include Supergirl, shooting at Leavesden earlier in the year; the new Harry Potter TV series, which is also based at Leavesden; the third season of HBO’s House Of The Dragon; Marvel’s Avengers: Doomsday, shooting at Pinewood; Amazon’s The Thomas Crown Affair, and Sony’s Spider-Man picture, Brand New Day.
The BFC chief executive spoke to Screen at the Mediterrane Film Festival in Malta (June 21-29), where he hosted talks including the masterclass with Jeremy Thomas and introduced films.
Wootton’s comments come following last month’s announcement the BFC has been awarded three-year funding support from the UK government from April 2026. The organisation will now have a stable annual budget of just under £2m a year for the rest of the current electoral cycle, eliminating what Wootton described as the need to go “with a begging bowl” to the government each year.
Wootton again asserted US companies are also becoming increasingly involved in independent UK projects using the new UK Independent Film Tax Credit (IFTC), citing Sony’s backing of Nicholas Hytner’s The Choral starring Ralph Fiennes as an example.
“[Sony] aren’t investing just as a distributor picking it up but they put several million pounds of production money into Choral. Sony is investing in a way they haven’t done before. That’s very clearly related to the advanced AVEC.”
Wootton was also striking a philosophical note about the tariff proposals from US President Donald Trump which roiled the industry on the eve of Cannes.
“We know that the US studios have submitted ideas and proposals supported by the president’s ambassadors into the US Treasury. We are waiting for the outcome of those deliberations,” he said.
The BFC head added, however, his organisation was in sync with other similar European agencies in wanting to see a more robust Hollywood-based production sector.
“Nobody likes looking at California and thinking about the men and women who aren’t working there and the weakness of the Californian film industry,” he said. “I think we would all like the Californian film industry – and the industry in America – to be stronger.”
Eye to Europe
As well as courting US productions, the BFC is increasingly turning toward Europe. Wootton claimed the “sharp suspicion” Europeans felt about the UK in the post-Brexit environment is now being “worn away”.
Last week, alongside the confirmation of the BFC’s three-year funding, the BFI Global Screen Fund also saw its budget more than doubled to £18m per year for 2026-2029, which Wootton predicts will lead to a spike in coproduction.
In response, the BFC is expected to announce further Memoranda of Understanding (MOUs) with European partners this year. MOUs have already been signed with Italy Spain, Austria, Norway, the Netherlands and Malta. Wooton likened them to a “hot line” to the partner countries and a way of “smoothing over” issues regarding incentives, visas or any other problems on international projects shooting between the partner countries.
“Of course, we want to maintain our incredibly close partnership with the US but there is absolutely no reason why we can’t work more closely with our European partners and stimulate more film and television production. With what we have on the table with the enhanced AVEC and Global Screen Fund, that is now happening.”
As part of the relationship building with Italy with which the UK signed an MOU in 2023, the BFC is expected to take a delegation of producers to meet Italian counterparts at the Venice Film Festival’s Production Bridge in August.