Ed Vaizey, the Conservative Minister for Culture, has praised the British Film Institute (BFI) for demanding ethnic minority, women and gay quotas on the films they finance. BFI is the largest funder of films in the UK, and from September they will no longer finance projects that do not fill diversity quotas, according to the Daily Telegraph.
The new “three ticks” scheme means that every film will have to fulfil two of the following requirements: on-screen diversity; off-screen diversity and “creating opportunities and social mobility”. It is intended to ensure that more diverse actors and projects end up getting funded.
On screen, at least one of the leading actors must portray a character that is “positively reflecting diversity”. The film itself is more likely to receive funding if it “explicitly and predominantly explores issues of identity relating to ethnicity or national origins, a specific focus on women, people with disabilities, sexual identity, age and people from a socially disadvantaged background”.
The BFI is effectively handing out government money as it allocates £27m a year raised through the National Lottery. It supports around thirty projects a year and these have included The King’s Speech and Philomena. It is chaired by Labour supporting former television executive Greg Dyke.
They hope to encourage more films like the recent film “Pride” which is about left-wing gay activists backing the National Union of Mineworkers during their battle with Margaret Thatcher. They also funded a film about women fighting for the right to vote called “Suffragette”, it did not include reference to the fact the leader of the suffragettes was a Conservative.
But Mr Vaizey still praised the initiative as helping to “raise the bar”. He went on to say that he hoped other television and film outlets would follow the BFI’s example.
Viazey is best known for being a member of the Notting Hill set, a group of ambitious Conservatives that includes David Cameron. They are often perceived as being out of touch with the views of ordinary Tory voters.
As reported on Breitbart London in May, one of the Notting Hill set, Nick Boles was asked to apologise because his unpopular policies were putting Tory seats at risk in the 2015 General Election. He did not choose to apologise or back down.
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