Producers’ playground: the British Film Producers Association and international film festivals in the post-war period

Abstract

ABSTRACT The article explores how the process of film selection was conducted on the national level in Britain in order to shed light on the notion of ‘programming along national lines’ from the perspective of countries participating in international film events such as the Cannes film festival. In Britain, such participation was seen as an opportunity by both film producers and the government to present British films on the international stage, away from the American and the colonial ones. The intense and often confused debates as to whether the UK should participate in international film festivals at all and which films should be selected reflected the dynamics of British film industry. Seen from the perspective of these debates Britain’s participation in the international film festivals becomes a significant episode in the industry’s history. The struggles surrounding the representation of Britain on the international film festival circuit reveal yet another trend within the history of the British film industry, in particular its production sector – namely, which of these modestly budgeted indigenous films could best represent Britain at international film festivals and to what end exactly.