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The British film industry after Brexit: ‘We’re going to throw it all away’

With production spend about £8bn a year, business has never been better for British screen industries – but all that could change when we leave the EU

‘In England now, there is only the noise of division,” intoned Ralph Fiennes mournfully at the European cinema awards last Sunday. It sounded like a quote from one of Shakespeare’s historical plays, but everyone knew what Fiennes was talking about. His acceptance speech for his European achievement award, in which he bemoaned the “distressing and depressing” level of Brexit discourse, came on like a poignant adieu to Europe from the British film community.

A few days earlier, fellow Brit thespian Andy Serkis produced his own, more direct form of Brexit commentary, reviving his conflicted Gollum character from The Lord of the Rings franchise in the guise of Theresa May, feuding with herself over her Brexit negotiations. “This is it: our deal. We takes back control. Money, borders, laws, blue passports,” Serkis growls as May/Gollum. “No, it hurts the people. Makes them poorer,” the meek May/Smeagol replies. That is about as much entertainment value as British film has found in Brexit so far, not counting Benedict Cumberbatch’s turn as balding Brexit “mastermind” Dominic Cummings in HBO’s imminent TV movie Brexit: The Uncivil War.

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from Culture | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2EQ4xRG
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