BFI invests £9.25 million to support UK-wide screen culture for audiences

The BFI today publishes details of the first awards from the BFI National Lottery Audience Projects Fund for the 2026 to 2029 period. A total of over £9 million will support the exhibition and distribution of ambitious, audience-facing, film and immersive projects of national scale from April 2026.

Out of the 23 awards, 17 are for long-term projects over two-three years – recognising the importance of stability for the exhibition sector and enabling sustained and strategic audience development interventions to attract and retain new audiences – and six awards are for targeted shorter-term activity, all of which meet the fund’s objectives of growing new audiences and engaging audiences who are representative of the UK population. Overall, the funding supports 10 venues nationwide, nine festivals and special programmes including an immersive project, three audience development sector-facing initiatives, and one distribution award. The fund remains open, and further awards will be announced over the three-year period.

These initial 23 projects combined aim to generate 3.05 million admissions UK wide. The initial awards represent support for over 88,000 screenings. Of the 23 awards, 17 are going to organisations based outside of London and South East England, although all awarded projects will have activity outside the region.

“As we enter the second phase of our 10 year National Lottery funding strategy it’s vital we continue to collaborate with partners, old and new, across the UK to realise our ambition of bringing the broadest possible range of UK independent film and immersive storytelling to the widest possible audience,” said Ben Luxford, BFI’s Director of UK Audiences. “We hope these initial funding awards demonstrate our commitment to UK Wide screen culture for audiences and we look forward to announcing more in the coming years.” 

Since launching in April 2023, 153 projects have been supported by the BFI Audience Projects Fund, including 24 venues, 84 festivals and special programmes, 39 distribution campaigns, and six audience development sector facing initiatives. Based on reporting to date of the initial three-year period 2023-2026, projects supported by the fund have generated 6.64m admissions of which 87% were outside London and the South East, and 202,814 in-person screenings have been supported.

Projects previously supported by the Fund in 2023-2026 include: Queer East festival; a UK tour of immersive VR experience In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats; UK distributor Dogwoof’s theatrical campaign for Copa 71 (2024); Bradford: A City of Film, a year-long ambitious film screenings and events programme as part of Bradford City of Culture 2025; and multi-year audience development awards for independent cinema venues including Queen’s Film Theatre in Belfast and HOME in Manchester.

A total of £19.7 million has been allocated to the BFI National Lottery Audience Projects Fund out of £33.5 million pledged to Audiences over the next three years in the BFI National Lottery Funding Plan 2026-2029, representing a 20% increase from 2023 to 2026, to support the UK exhibition and distribution sectors. This funding follows the recently announced £10.8m awarded to the BFI Film Audience Network (FAN) enabling 10 UK-wide strategic partners to deliver audience facing work, and £3m for the Open Cinemas fund which powers ESCAPES and has successfully attracted new audiences to independent cinemas across the UK through free regular screenings. This activity, supported by ‘good cause’ National Lottery funding, sees the BFI continue to invest and grow the activity it supports UK-wide to increase cinema audiences for UK independent and international film.

Broadway Cinema, Nottingham awarded £600,000, for ‘BROADER 26-29’

Following a successful pilot initiative from 2023-2026, BROADER 26–29 is a three‑year programme and marketing strategy intended to diversify audiences at the venue via innovative models of co-creation, insight-led programming, and community partnership.

HOME Cinema and Arts Centre, Manchester awarded £600,000, for ‘A HOME for Everyone: Reaching Greater Manchester’s underrepresented audiences’

Funding will support HOME to deliver programming, marketing, and outreach work to engage and increase audiences representative of the Greater Manchester population, prioritising three underrepresented groups — Children & Families, Global Majority communities, Lower Socio-Economic audiences.

Phoenix Cinema, Leicester awarded £555,000, for ‘MyPhoenix – Building Long Term Engagement and Leadership’  

Funding will support Leicester’s Phoenix Cinema to raise its national profile as an organisation fully committed to accessible cinema, and to develop a new Green Screen programme in support of environmental sustainability, whilst investing in community outreach to engage new and diverse audiences with the programme.

Plymouth Arts Cinema awarded £150,000 for ‘Independent Cinema for Plymouth: Building for the future’

Funding will support marketing and outreach work to engage diverse audiences in the film programme and enable the organisation to play a key role in the provision of independent film in Plymouth.   

QUAD Cinema, Derby awarded £300,000, for ‘Cultivate, Innovate, Elevate’

Funding will enable QUAD to engage an external consultant to work with the team during 2026/28 to develop a robust and actionable integrated multi-year business and audience development plan, the recommendations from which will inform the future shape of the cinema programme.

Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast awarded £330,000, for ‘QFT — Developing diverse and engaged audiences for the future’

Funding will cover programming and marketing costs to enable Northern Ireland’s leading cultural cinema to engage new audiences — primarily young audiences, families, and those from the Global Majority – via programmes including: LUMI – the young audiences (18-27) membership scheme and programming collective; monthly family screenings; and the expansion of the Visions of Europe season.

Showroom Cinema, Sheffield awarded £585,000, for ‘Festival Foundations & Film Futures’

Funding will support Sheffield’s original independent cinema to develop a new film festival for children and young people, and support community outreach and partnerships, new working practices and increased access provision.  

Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle awarded £600,000, for ‘Everybody, Every Story’

Tyneside Cinema will launch a three‑year audience development project which aims to widen access, rebuild audience confidence and increase participation among audiences currently underrepresented, including Global Majority communities, LGBTQIA+ audiences, working‑class communities, women seeking stronger on‑screen representation, D/deaf and disabled audiences, and younger audiences whose habits have shifted post‑pandemic.

Watershed Cinema, Bristol awarded £600,000, for ‘An Audience Compass: All Roads Lead to Watershed’

Watershed’s audience development project will engage and benefit underrepresented communities with film culture, focusing on bespoke activity in four locations across the city. Funding will support Watershed in diversifying audiences engaging with the film programme, working with a range of partners, co-curators and enhanced data collection and analysis to then retain new audiences from the specific geographic locations. 

Arts Alive in Shropshire and Herefordshire awarded £246,000, for ‘Flicks in the Sticks’

This three-year award will enable Arts Alive to expand its film offer via “Flicks in the Sticks” to reach wider rural audiences, engaging people of all ages and backgrounds. It will support greater accessibility in screenings and events, while empowering Promoters to programme a broader and more diverse range of films, helping to grow new audiences and strengthen community cinema across the region. 

Carousel Project awarded £400,000, for ‘Oska Bright Film Festival’  

The three-year award will support the Oska Bright Film Festival’s ambitious year-round plans, including the biennial festival in Brighton in March 2028, festival partnerships and touring activity and the Welcome Back network, which shares best practice on welcoming learning disabled people as audiences and within the workforce. The award will also provide mentoring opportunities for the festival team.

Flatpack Projects awarded £200,000 for ‘Flatpack 20: Cinema Without Walls’

This two-year award will support Flatpack to deliver its 20th anniversary festival in 2026 as well as a more focused festival in 2027 alongside year-round community screenings in Birmingham and the West Midlands region, all with the aim of growing the engagement of young, Global Majority and working-class audiences and to lay the foundations of the next 20 years for the festival. 

Leeds City Council awarded £580,000 for ‘Leeds Film Expanded’

Funding will support Leeds Film to deliver: Leeds International Film Festival; Leeds Young Film Festival; and the INDIs young audience initiative for ages 15-25, from 2026-2029, increasing the number of accessible screenings, marketing, and city and region wide presence as well as supporting the three year programmers scheme for emerging and existing curators, to ensure the programme remains diverse and representative of different audiences.

Sheffield DocFest awarded £600,000 for ‘Public Audience Development Programme 2026-2028’

This three-year award will support DocFest (the International Documentary Festival Sheffield) to develop its festival and year-round offer to engage broader audiences, including family and young people as well as continued emphasis on access and relevance for younger, Black and Global Majority, and lower socio-economic audiences.

Watershed Cinema, Bristol awarded £204,000 for ‘Other Ways of Seeing: Cinema Rediscovered 2026-29’

Other Ways of Seeing is part of Cinema Rediscovered Festival, a UK-wide initiative supporting co-curators and venues across the UK to deliver bespoke repertory programmes for specific audiences. 

Cinema For All awarded £689,900 for ‘Community Film Futures’

Cinema For All is the UK’s national support and development organisation for volunteer-led cinemas, representing over 1,700 organisations, which collectively bring cinema directly to communities. Funding will enable Cinema For All to offer services and activities to support the volunteer-led cinema sector over three years to become more resilient, increase technical proficiency, and participate in a variety of coaching sessions focusing on marketing, programming and general audience development.  

Independent Cinema Office (ICO) awarded £1,486,350, for ‘Strengthening Independent Cinema: Expanding Access to Ambitious Independent Film’

The three-year award will support the ICO to deliver a series of strategic interventions for the independent exhibition sector, enabling the UK’s independent cinema network to be resilient, inclusive and audience-focused, while strengthening the visibility and reach of UK and international film.

The Barbican Centre, London awarded £186,160 for ‘UK Tour of In Other Worlds: The immersive exhibition imagining our future, produced by Barbican Immersive with Liam Young’

Supporting the Barbican to tour major Immersive exhibition In Other Worlds to venues across the UK, to build nationwide audiences for screen-based Immersive storytelling, with a focus on younger audiences.

London Latino Film Festival awarded £35,000 for ‘London Latino Film Festival (LoLaFF) First Edition’

Funding will support the inaugural edition of London Latino Film Festival taking place in October 2026 to celebrate the diversity and creativity of Latin American cinema. 

Pictureville Cinema at the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford awarded £146,500 for ‘Building on the legacy of 2025 Bradford City of Culture: Film Exhibition Strategy for the National Science and Media Museum 2026’

Building on the momentum and insights from Bradford City of Culture 2025, funding will support Pictureville Cinema at the National Science and Media Museum — Bradford’s only independent cinema — with a data project to better understand its audiences and use marketing and curatorial approaches (seasons, festivals, community screenings) to engage myriad audiences, turning them into repeat visitors. 

Tongues on Fire awarded £60,000 for ‘UK Asian Film Festival’

Funding will support the May 2026 edition of the UK Asian Film Festival in venues across London, engaging South Asian audiences with South Asian film. 

Vertigo Releasing awarded £55,464 for ‘Exit 8’ distribution campaign

Enabling Vertigo Releasing to increase the reach of the film, focusing on 18-30 audiences across the UK with an enhanced digital, PR and social campaign. Funding will also support the design and production of immersive events to extend the film’s reach and build momentum ahead of launch.

YourLocalCinema awarded £38,000 for ‘Audience Development’

YLC is an audience facing online platform which improves how the industry supports film-fans with hearing loss, by promoting captioned screenings direct to audiences. The website now receives over 1m visits per year and this funding will enable YourLocalCinema to extend its support for promoting captioned screenings for Deaf audiences and audiences with hearing loss, removing barriers to accessing film in cinemas across the UK.