Resources > Department For Culture Media And Sport (DCMS)
08 Jun 2011

Department For Culture Media And Sport (DCMS)

The DCMS is responsible for setting UK film culture and industry policy. It works to help create a strong film industry that brings cultural and economic benefits to the UK. It actively promotes British film through funding and support of key initiatives.

Working in partnership with industry bodies, the DCMS strives to create a sustainable, stable and successful film industry that brings both cultural and economic benefits to the UK. To achieve this, it provides direct financial support for the production of culturally British films. The main forms of direct financial support are:

  • grant in aid and lottery funding for film-making, distributed through a number of organisations, including the British Film Institute

  • tax incentives


Film tax relief is worth more than £100 million a year. Lottery funding for film, currently around £27 million a year, is set to increase to around £43 million annually by 2014.

On 1 April 2011 the BFI took over responsibility from the UK Film Council for the work in support of tax credit certification of UK films; overseeing the strategy and public funding to support film in the nations and the regions and audience development and education. Film London will manage the UK’s national inward investment function for film.