click on image to enlargeThe British Film Industry is successful and thriving but as Jill Nelmes identified in An Introduction to Film Studies can be defined on a number or levels and by a range of “disparate films, genres and movements?. In addition to this there are arguments over what is a British Film and as such, there have been many attempts to define British Film over the years. A useful definition that the BFI proposed in 1996 was that films could be described and culturally and/or institutionally British e.g. commercially successful British Films like the Harry Potter fantasy genre franchise (2001-2011) or Bond action films like Skyfall (2013) are only culturally British because they are distributed by Warner Bros. Independent British historical thrillers like A Field in England (multi platform release July 5th 2013) would be described as culturally and institutionally British as they not only represent British national identity but also are financed (Film 4.0), produced and distributed in the UK.
click on image to enlargeThere are however, problems with this simplistic definition of what British film is and of course, key exceptions. Historical drama The King’s Speech (2010) was commercially successful without…
