The last year has witnessed the birth of Creative Scotland, the inception of Creative England as well as the death of the UK Film Council and regeneration of the BFI. To add to these industry developments comes the The Film Industry Export Alliance. A sucessor to the Film Export Group, the new organisation will pursue the interests of international export.

The role of international sales in the sustainabilty of film companies is one worthy of further reserarch. The reliability of direct sales to foreign markets was higlighted as a crucial aspect of business sustainability by Rebecca O’Briien at 16 Films at EIFF 2010. It will be good to hear some more insights this year, not least to push agenda’s in industry research.

In connection to this, the academic field also has a new representative body. The British Association for Film, Television and Screen Studies (recently endorsed by the leading American scholarly organisation in the field – the Society for Cinema and Media Studies) has been launched. Where industry related research fits in the organisations worldview will be very interesting to discover.

The work of both groups is likely to be exceptionally valuable in future and will merit attention here.

(Image via gtc.org.uk)