Lotto boost for 'arthouse' films

Foreign language films have reached much larger audiences

Millions of cinema-goers are choosing foreign and arthouse films thanks to a £1.5m boost from the National Lottery.

The UK Film Council gave the money to distributors of 20 films, including Bad Education and Goodbye Lenin!, to make more individual prints of the films.

Each print can cost £1,000 to produce, meaning blockbusters like Harry Potter have over 1,000 copies but smaller films usually have fewer than 10.

The films took £15m at the box office, with two million people seeing them.

The council's funding increased the total number of prints of these films from 601 to 941.

This has enabled cinema-goers outside of major cities to see the films at the same time as fans in London, Edinburgh, Manchester and Bristol.

Pete Buckingham, head of distribution for the council, believes the initiative has brought small films to areas which traditionally have "very limited choice".

LOTTERY-FUNDED FILMS The Motorcycle Diaries Girl with a Pearl Earring Raising Victor Vargas Bad Education The Barbarian Invasions Belleville Rendez-Vous Capturing the Friedmans Goodbye Lenin! Krampack Whale Rider Respiro The Return Spirited Away The Station Agent Swimming Pool Young Adam Zatoichi Princesa Code 46 The Story of the Weeping Camel

"It is clear that increased support for the marketing and distribution of these films has brought benefits for film-makers, distributors, exhibitors and most of all, audiences," he said.

In April the documentary Capturing the Friedmans benefited from £66,764 lottery cash to boost its UK releases.

The money enabled the film to be shown on 26 screens instead of just 15.

Che Guevara biopic The Motorcycle Diaries, New Zealand film Whale Rider and BAFTA winner The Station Agent have all received over £100,000 of lottery funding.

Other films to benefit from the scheme include the Japanese martial arts drama Zatoichi, Oscar winner The Barbarian Invasions and The Girl with a Pearl Earring which starred Scarlett Johansson.

The UK Film Council's Specialised Prints and Advertising Fund was set up in March 2003.

From and investment of £1,4030,579 the council says it has helped in boosting the box office takings of the films to £14,844,814.