A new £4.5 million production fund designed to increase the quantity, range and scale of film and TV productions made in the West of England has been launched today.

Greenlight West is the first investment from the £25 million received by the West of England from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport’s Creative Places Growth Fund. The West is one of only six regions to get the funding.

Grants of between £50,000 to £500,000 will be available for productions that can demonstrate the meaningful impact they will bring to the region in terms of local spend, employment, skills development and other benefits.

Eligible applicants include incoming productions filming in the region, productions made or led by regionally based companies, and productions carrying out significant post-production work locally.

Investments made by Greenlight West are forecast to generate £20.7 million in production spend in the region, supporting mre than 230 jobs, while backing freelancers, local suppliers, and the wider screen supply chain.

Full details for the Greenlight West fund are here.

Announcing the new fund at Bristol Old Vic today, Helen Godwin, mayor of the West of England, said:

“The West of England is already one of the most popular places in the UK to make TV and film. Whether that’s blockbuster drama, homegrown storytelling, globally renowned natural history, expertly crafted animation or cutting-edge factual production, this is the place to be.

“We’re serious about ramping up our region’s credentials as a filming hub even further, to grow this important sector and stimulate more spending, create more jobs and skills opportunities for local people.

“With this new incentive we’re sending a clear message to the sector. We want you to make more magic here in the West Country, tell more stories from our region, and show off more of our places on screen – with all the tourism benefits that brings.

“We’re here to help you invest, recruit, and train locally and we look forward to harnessing the power that your film and TV production can bring to the country’s fastest-growing regional economy.”

Rachel Drummond-Hay, chair of the Royal Television Society West of England, said:

“The news of the regional production fund is a fantastic boost to the region’s television sector. At a time when the commissioning landscape is undergoing significant change, becoming increasingly competitive and hard to navigate, an investment programme of this scale will have huge benefits for production companies, suppliers and freelancers alike.

“Not only will the fund give companies based in the region an edge when it comes to pitching, tendering and financing new projects of scale, it will also help ensure talent stays in the region and new talent continues to be developed.”

Locally-based freelance producer Ben Greenacre’s credits filmed in the region include The Forsytes (5/Masterpiece), The Outlaws (BBC/Amazon Studios), and new feature film Bad Apples starring Oscar-nominee Saoirse Ronan, which opens in UK cinemas on 18 September. He said:

“Congratulations to the West of England Mayoral Combined Authority for delivering this much-needed and long-awaited production fund. Bristol and the South West are already among the best places in the country to film, but incentivising more TV production will help ensure the region builds on its remarkable success in what is an increasingly competitive market.

“Film and TV production is already one of the South West’s most important industries in terms of inward investment, and this Fund will help it grow further and faster. I think we’ll see the dividends almost immediately. And the benefits go well beyond television, this fund should also encourage more independent films to base themselves in Bristol and the wider region.

“Bad Apples, set and shot in Bristol, Bath and North Somerset, is released this weekend to critical acclaim and is already creating a real buzz around the region as a filming destination. This Fund has the potential to make Bristol and the South West a national leader not just in TV drama and documentaries, but in independent filmmaking too.”

Councillor Tony Dyer, leader of Bristol City Council and deputy Mayor of the West of England, said:

“In Bristol, we are proud to hold UNESCO City of Film status, run one of the UK’s busiest and most established Film Offices, and be the home of The Bottle Yard Studios, the South West’s largest filming facility. We are also proud to support this growing sector to help bring world-class content to screen. This investment is a big boost for local jobs, skills and the future growth of film and TV production in Bristol and across the wider region.”

The mayor was joined on stage for the announcement at Bristol Old Vic, where many stars of stage and screen began their professional careers, including Olivia Colman, Sir Daniel Day-Lewis, Erin Doherty, Naomie Harris, Jeremy Irons, Theo James, Cyril Nri, Sir Patrick Stewart, by some of the new talent working behind the camera.

Patricia Natividad, an alumni of All Set West, a combined-authority funded skills programme for the sector, said:

“This funding is great news. There’s already a busy film and TV scene here in Bristol and the West, and hopefully this will take it to the next level. It’s great that productions receiving funding will be required to connect with local crew, trainees and talent development schemes. For someone like me, getting started in my film and TV career, it makes me feel optimistic for what the future holds.”

Holly Parfitt, producer and additional camera of Soil Survivors, a documentary by Bristol Film School Boomsatsuma students, one of several locally-made productions which won national Royal Television Society awards this summer, said:

“We are excited to hear that Greenlight West plans to create even more opportunities for young people looking to get into the industry here in the West of England. It’s a brilliant time to be a film student in the region.

“Attending the National Student RTS Awards, let alone winning the Award for Saving The Planet for ‘Soil Survivors’, was a surreal and very exciting experience. It was a real honour to have our work recognised amongst so many other film students’ work from across the UK. It goes without saying that the support and guidance from Bristol Film School had a huge impact on the making of the documentary and us as filmmakers. It was a pleasure working with the crew and our ‘creepy crawly stars’ and we are all so proud that the film has received this accolade.”

The West of England is the UK’s third largest screen production hub, home to major media institutions including the globally renowned BBC Studios Natural History Unit and Oscar® and BAFTA-winning animation studio and BCI member Aardman, alongside a community of independent production companies, freelancers, crew, studios, facilities and creative workforce talent.

Generating an estimated turnover of £325 million, the region’s film and TV industries support around 3,000 FTE jobs and thousands more freelancer and contract roles. More widely, the creative industries are one of five key growth sectors for the region, and the fastest-growing anywhere in the country over the last decade. In the West, they comprise more than 5,500 businesses and employ over 40,000 people: generating £1.6 billion for the economy each year.

The region includes local authority-run film offices (including BCI member Bristol Film Office) and studio infrastructure including Bristol’s Bottle Yard Studios. The BCI member is the largest dedicated filming facility in the South West.

Scripted production in the region was recently showed by BCI member Visit West’s Starring Bristol campaign.

Recent productions made, filmed or produced in the region include Rivals (Disney+), Down Cemetery Road (Apple TV+), Agatha Christie’s Seven Dials (Netflix), Bridgerton (Netflix), Wonka (Warner Bros. Pictures), Boarders (BBC), A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder (BBC), The Outlaws (BBC/Amazon Prime Video), Planet Earth III (BBC), The Americas (BBC), Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (Netflix), and Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl (BBC and Netflix).

About Bristol Creative Industries

Bristol Creative Industries is the membership network that supports the region's creative sector to learn, grow and connect, driven by the common belief that we can achieve more collectively than alone.