BFI Chief Ben Roberts Makes the Case for Lottery Funding at Edinburgh's First UK Film Conference
Ben Roberts, chief executive of the British Film Institute, took the stage at the Edinburgh International Film Festival's inaugural UK Film Conference on 15 August 2026 to defend the way public money shapes British cinema — and to admit that he was once warned not to take the job that started it all.
In conversation with Picturehouse Cinemas managing director Clare Binns, Roberts delivered the keynote address at the first-ever UK Film Conference, an industry event folded into the Edinburgh festival's professional programme. The setting was new; the subject was one Roberts has navigated for over a decade.
He told the audience that when he was offered the role of Director of the BFI Film Fund in 2012, people cautioned him against accepting it. He took it anyway. The BFI — the UK's lead organisation for film and the moving image — now dispenses around £150 million across a three-year funding cycle, the bulk of it from the National Lottery (Deadline).
That money comes with strings. Roberts addressed the frequent complaint from film-makers about the BFI's paperwork burden directly, explaining that because the funds are National Lottery proceeds — designated for "good causes" under UK law — the BFI is legally obliged to run an open, competitive application process. Transparency is not a choice; it is the condition of the grant.
The principle guiding those decisions, Roberts said, is straightforward: the BFI looks for projects worthy of lottery money that the commercial market is unlikely to fund on its own. The goal is to back work that would not otherwise reach a screen.
To illustrate the point, he cited a concrete example. Tom Holland — now one of the most recognisable actors in global cinema — appeared in How I Live Now, directed by Kevin Macdonald, a film supported by National Lottery funding. That early role, Roberts argued, helped set Holland on the path to stardom. It was lottery money filling a gap the market left open.
The keynote comes amid a broader BFI strategy cycle. The organisation published its ten-year plan, Screen Culture 2033, in September 2022, and launched its National Lottery Funding Plan for 2026 to 2029 in September 2025. Roberts has also pointed to initiatives like the Teaching with Film programme, which brings cinema into classrooms, as part of the BFI's wider remit beyond production funding (BFI).
For a general audience, the stakes are simple enough. Every National Lottery ticket bought in the UK contributes a fraction to a pool that helps decide which British films get made. Roberts was in Edinburgh to argue that the system works — imperfectly, with forms and friction, but with a track record that includes at least one future Spider-Man.
