Venues and events in Manchester, Sheffield, Leeds and Bradford were among the winners as the the BFI announced details of the first awards from the BFI National Lottery Audience Projects Fund for the 2026 to 2029 period.
A total of over £9 million will support the exhibition and distribution of ambitious, audience-facing, film and immersive projects of national scale from April 2026.
Out of the 23 awards, 17 are for long-term projects over two-three years – recognising the importance of stability for the exhibition sector and enabling sustained and strategic audience development interventions to attract and retain new audiences – and six awards are for targeted shorter-term activity, all of which meet the fund’s objectives of growing new audiences and engaging audiences who are representative of the UK population.
Overall, the funding supports 10 venues nationwide, nine festivals and special programmes including an immersive project, three audience development sector-facing initiatives, and one distribution award. The fund remains open, and further awards will be announced over the three-year period.
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These initial 23 projects combined aim to generate 3.05 million admissions UK wide. The initial awards represent support for over 88,000 screenings. Of the 23 awards, 17 are going to organisations based outside of London and South East England, although all awarded projects will have activity outside the region.
“As we enter the second phase of our 10 year National Lottery funding strategy it’s vital we continue to collaborate with partners, old and new, across the UK to realise our ambition of bringing the broadest possible range of UK independent film and immersive storytelling to the widest possible audience,” said Ben Luxford, BFI’s Director of UK Audiences. “We hope these initial funding awards demonstrate our commitment to UK Wide screen culture for audiences and we look forward to announcing more in the coming years.”
Since launching in April 2023, 153 projects have been supported by the BFI Audience Projects Fund, including 24 venues, 84 festivals and special programmes, 39 distribution campaigns, and six audience development sector facing initiatives. Based on reporting to date of the initial three-year period 2023-2026, projects supported by the fund have generated 6.64m admissions of which 87% were outside London and the South East, and 202,814 in-person screenings have been supported.
The Northern winners in the latest funding round included:
- HOME Cinema and Arts Centre, Manchester awarded £600,000, for ‘A HOME for Everyone: Reaching Greater Manchester’s underrepresented audiences
Funding will support HOME to deliver programming, marketing, and outreach work to engage and increase audiences representative of the Greater Manchester population, prioritising three underrepresented groups — Children & Families, Global Majority communities, Lower Socio-Economic audiences. - Showroom Cinema, Sheffield awarded £585,000, for ‘Festival Foundations & Film Futures’
Funding will support Sheffield’s original independent cinema to develop a new film festival for children and young people, and support community outreach and partnerships, new working practices and increased access provision
- Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle awarded £600,000, for ‘Everybody, Every Story’
Tyneside Cinema will launch a three‑year audience development project which aims to widen access, rebuild audience confidence and increase participation among audiences currently underrepresented, including Global Majority communities, LGBTQIA+ audiences, working‑class communities, women seeking stronger on‑screen representation, D/deaf and disabled audiences, and younger audiences whose habits have shifted post‑pandemic.
- Leeds City Council awarded £580,000 for ‘Leeds Film Expanded’
Funding will support Leeds Film to deliver: Leeds International Film Festival; Leeds Young Film Festival; and the INDIs young audience initiative for ages 15-25, from 2026-2029, increasing the number of accessible screenings, marketing, and city and region wide presence as well as supporting the three year programmers scheme for emerging and existing curators, to ensure the programme remains diverse and representative of different audiences.
- Sheffield DocFest awarded £600,000 for ‘Public Audience Development Programme 2026-2028’
This three-year award will support DocFest (the International Documentary Festival Sheffield) to develop its festival and year-round offer to engage broader audiences, including family and young people as well as continued emphasis on access and relevance for younger, Black and Global Majority, and lower socio-economic audiences.
- Pictureville Cinema at the National Science and Media Museum, Bradford awarded £146,500 for ‘Building on the legacy of 2025 Bradford City of Culture: Film Exhibition Strategy for the National Science and Media Museum 2026’
Building on the momentum and insights from Bradford City of Culture 2025, funding will support Pictureville Cinema at the National Science and Media Museum — Bradford’s only independent cinema — with a data project to better understand its audiences and use marketing and curatorial approaches (seasons, festivals, community screenings) to engage myriad audiences, turning them into repeat visitors.
Johnathan Ilott, head of programming at Sheffield Showroom Cinema said: “Showroom is a cultural cornerstone for the Sheffield City region, bringing the best in international, independent, and world cinema to local audiences. For over 30 years, we have expanded access to screen culture, championed diverse voices, and created meaningful opportunities for young people to engage with, learn from, and shape the stories on screen.
We’re delighted that this funding will help us to keep building those ambitions and deliver even more screenings, programmes and festivals that have audiences and inclusivity at their heart.”
