Pact, the lobbying body representing independent film and television producers, has put out a statement broadly welcoming the UK Film Council's report into the state of the film economy in Britain, but their most striking point, that more than half of our independent film production companies make a loss, immediately reminded me of an extraordinary conversation I had earlier this month with Rebecca O'Brien, the producer of many Ken Loach films including Route Irish, the one they just took to Cannes.
She told me that even a Palme d'Or winner like their previous collaboration, The Wind that Shakes the Barley, brought in only around £12,000 in profit even after it had been sold around the world.
"Small independent producers don't see a lot of the action," she told me. "Our French partners have cash-flowed us for the last two and without that it would have been a real struggle." The problem, as she saw it, lay in the top-heavy burden of legal and tax requirements on small budget efforts.
