How does a film qualify as 'British'?

A 'British' film will be eligible for UK film tax relief and possibly lottery funding too.

To qualify as 'British', a film has to pass a Cultural Test. This involves satisfying a number of criteria, such as:

Does the story contain UK elements?
Are UK locations used?
Has the film been made with a UK audience in mind?
Were UK companies and citizens involved in making the film? (e.g. institutions, director, cast, crew etc.)
The Harry Potter films are financed by Warner Bros but satisfy the Cultural Test because the books were written by a British woman; are about British characters; are set in the UK; are popular with UK audiences; have a UK production company (Heyday Films); (usually) have British directors; have mainly British casts; and British crew.


The number of films satisfying the Cultural Test has risen steadily since 2009.

International co-production agreements also exist with countries such as Australia, Canada, France, India, New Zealand and South Africa (but not the US). These co-productions do not need to satisfy the cultural test to receive tax relief and/or funding. These co-productions may qualify for public funding from each country that is contributing to making the film. An example of such a film is Africa United (2010) which was a co-production between Pathe Productions(France), Footprint Films (UK), Link Media Productions (Rwanda), Out of Africa Entertainment (South Africa) and BBC Films (UK). Co-productions made up 15% of the feature films made wholly or partly in the UK during 2011. However, co-productions have declined since 2007 when tax 'breaks' were reduced.