ScreenSkills: Indie Film Tax Credit 'Modest Gain'
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- ScreenSkills' 'Sizing up the Future' report found UK film and TV projects fell 13% over three years, with film production down 8% and TV down 25%, driven by streamer pullbacks since 2022 and BBC commissioning down 13%.
- The Independent Film Tax Credit (IFTC) delivered a 'modest gain' with a significant increase in scripted film announcements, but ScreenSkills questioned whether announced titles will actually enter production and contribute to UK activity.
- The IFTC offers 40% tax relief on movies with budgets up to £15M ($20M), introduced in spring 2024 after lobbying from Christopher Nolan, Ridley Scott, and Barbara Broccoli; high-profile beneficiaries include The Magic Faraway Tree and Prince Naseem biopic Giant, which relocated from Malta to Britain.
- ScreenSkills projected three scenarios to 2028: an upper case of 12% content volume growth (favorable BBC charter, surging US inward investment, IFTC boost), a baseline of just 1.6%, and a lower case of -5.5% driven by cost inflation.
- Only just over half of the UK's 260,000–330,000 potential film and TV workers are currently in work, a utilisation rate that has declined since 2022, meaning available talent is under-employed or working significantly reduced hours.
- The report predicted AI could affect up to 80% of production roles by 2028, with 15% at 'significant' risk of 'algorithmic displacement,' building on an earlier ScreenSkills finding that some organizations have imposed 'strict internal controls' around AI.
Why it matters: For the roughly half of UK film and TV workers currently without consistent employment — out of a 260,000–330,000 strong talent pool — the IFTC's 'modest gain' offers little relief against a 25% TV production collapse, while the report's projection that AI could affect 80% of production roles by 2028 stacks a structural workforce threat on top of already deteriorating cyclical conditions.
