EXCLUSIVE: The UK’s National Film And Television School (NFTS) has cancelled this year’s Inside Pictures professional development programme due to a lack of funding for the first time in more than 22 years.
The School is exploring potential European partnerships with the aim of building a sustainable model from 2027.
NFTS has administered Inside Pictures for 15 years and traditionally launches the new edition at the Berlinale. But it was unable to do so last month as it had been unable to secure sufficient backing for the initiative that supports globally-minded UK and European film and TV producers and executives to develop international business skills.
The programme comprises four one-week modules, including a trip to Los Angeles where participants meet executives, producers, and agents.
Around £100,000 of the £250,000 annual budget has previously come from sources including BFI National Lottery funding (in 2021 and 2022) through the British Film Institute’s international funds, and national training body ScreenSkills through its film and high-end TV fund.
The balance came from participant fees, and Inside Pictures has received in-kind support from London-based solicitors Lee + Thompson.
Screen understands NFTS has not applied for funding from BFI in recent years. Spokespersons for BFI and ScreenSkills told Screen their funding and training priorities are subject to change through routine internal reviews based on research and industry consultation.
Similarly, Amazon MGM Studios’ Ascend global training programme, which was among the funders in 2025, has shifted its focus to below-the-line training.
European move
Former Polygram Filmed Entertainment CEO Michael Kuhn founded the programme in 2002 through his Qwerty Films with initial funding from the UK Film Council, Creative Skillset, and industry sponsors. He expanded the remit to include European participants in 2007, which enabled the programme to access Creative Europe Media funding.
During Kuhn’s final year as NFTS chair, he moved Inside Pictures under the auspices of the School from 2011. Since then, NFTS has worked with a patchwork of funders for each edition.
When the UK screen sector withdrew from Creative Europe in 2021 following the country’s exit from the European Union, NFTS was forced to reduce Inside Pictures’ annual budget from £300,000 to £250,000 and increase the fees charged to participants.
“Inside Pictures is a unique programme that brings together the next generation of film and television producers and executives from across the international industry,” NFTS director Jon Wardle told Screen. “It has built an extraordinary network of alumni over the past 22 years and we are very keen to see it continue.”
Wardle revealed he has been looking at potentially gifting the programme to a European partner that could access European Union funds, which would ultimately end the School’s administrative involvement.
Programme alumni include Alex Gardener-Smith, head of commercial planning at Lionsgate UK; producer Daisy Allsop; Berlin-based producer and One Two Films co-founder Sol Bondy; Anton founder Sebastien Raybaud; Ellen Lister of See-Saw Films; Ruben Ostlund’s producer Erik Hemmendorff of Plattform Produktion; and Piers Tempest of I Swear outfit Tempo Productions.
As of mid-March, the NFTS said it was working to support three Inside Pictures staff who are being impacted by the lack of funding in 2026.