Evaluation of BFI Audience Fund

Tender description

In BFI2022 we set out our commitment to giving everyone, everywhere in the UK, the opportunity to enjoy and learn from the richest and most diverse range of great British and international filmmaking - past, present and future. The BFI Audience Fund is central to this commitment and is underpinned by our desire to boost diversity and inclusivity - to build a broad film culture across the UK which recognises and values the quality of difference and seeks to rebalance under-representation on screen, in the workforce and in audiences. The BFI Audience Fund is an open access, flexible fund which has been designed to support a range of audience-facing activities (such as film festivals, distribution releases, multiplatform distribution proposals, touring film programmes, large scale and ambitious film programmes) with ?5.6m available annually. The objectives of the BFI Audience Fund are to: o grow the diversity of audiences engaging with film; o develop the 16 to 30-year-old audience for film; o increase access to independent British and international film for audiences, especially those outside London; o enhance confidence, best practice and capability of the sector; o increase access to the UK's screen heritage via the BFI's National Archive of film and TV, and those of the regions and nations; o increase engagement with BFI supported activities and cultural programmes across the UK, and o enhance the quality and cultural depth of audience experience. Through investments made by the BFI Audience Fund we expect to see: o a larger, more diverse film audience with a greater number of young people enjoying independent British and international film; o an increased profile for independent British and international film; o new partnerships and initiatives that diversify outputs and practices to reach new audiences; and o an inclusive workforce that is representative of our population The BFI wishes to commission an evaluation of the Audience Fund to ascertain the impact of our investment in the sector. The evaluation will assess the extent to which the Fund has achieved its aims and objectives as set out in the Funding Guidelines, by drawing on a variety of data sources and primary research.