Ed Vaizey Hails Record Year For UK Creative Industries
5th January 2015
2014 has been another incredible year for the UK’s creative industries. Data shows records being broken in visual art, and music with British film drawing massive world wide audiences through award winning titles such as ’12 Years a Slave’ and ‘Mandela: Long walk to freedom’. Galleries and Auction houses have also had a bumper year with contemporary and modern sales up by 20% on 2013.
Ed Vaizey, Minister for the Creative Industries said: “2014 has been a fantastic year for UK music, film and video games. It’s great to see continued growth across all our creative industries with more investment going into training and production. Together the sector contributes £70bn to the UK and so a vital part of our economy. I look forward to 2015 with the expectation of even greater things to come.”
Between January and October this year the top five British films collectively brought in £72.93m to the UK box office. With the last quarter of this year promising more great figures as titles such as ‘The Imitation Game’ and ‘Mr. Turner’ are tipped to fall into the top five highest grossing films of 2014*.
The BFI London Film Festival enjoyed record numbers of audiences, 163,000 people attended the festival – a 7.5 per cent increase on the previous year and the highest number of attendees to date. These figures reveal the UK consumers growing appetite for great film.
The global film industry also reveals a strong appetite for British talent and technique as this year we welcomed the opening of a UK branch to Lucas Film’s Industrial Light and Magic. This signals a great step in film production – a move that could lead to epics, building on the success of films such Alfonso Cuarón’s ‘Gravity’ (2013), which has achieved worldwide and award-winning success. Pinewood Studios and Warner Brothers Leavesden continue to go from strength to strength and we can look forward to the next Bond and Star Wars films, which will bring all eyes to UK film once again.
The Government continues to invest in the long-term development of British music through schemes such as Music Export Growth, where is providing grants of up to £50,000 to support independent music companies market UK music overseas. There is also a focus on providing access to learning, nurturing the growth of future talent, with the Government investing £171m into Music Education Hubs to ensure every child aged 5-18 has the opportunity to sing or learn a musical instrument.
Nicola Mendelsohn, industry co-chair of the Creative Industries Council (CIC) and Vice President for EMEA at Facebook said:
“2014 has been a growth year for the UK’s creative industries with many developments, initiatives and international awards.
“The Creative Industries Council launched CreateUK – the first ever industry-led strategy to ensure growth and secure further jobs in the UK and internationally. It will also play an important role in exporting UK creativity to the rest of the world and encouraging inward investment here.
“The sector has found a strategy and working arrangement with Government that means we are well placed to continue to secure the UK’s place as a leading global hub for the creative industries for the decades to come.”2014 has been a profitable and exciting year across all the creative industries. The Government remains committed to the growth of the sector through measures such as tax reliefs, inward investments and the creation of opportunities through access to training.
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