It’s the Baftas on February 18 and across the film industry outfit planning is in full flow. The red carpet will unfold on London’s Southbank for a glorious celebration of creativity and talent. But a bit like an iceberg, what we see on the surface is only a fraction of the story. Below the waterline there is so much more going on.
We get a glimpse of it when we see the credits roll at the end of a film, so many people, so many strange job titles. A whole ecosystem of hard-working producers, directors, editors, make-up, costume, carpentry, locations, studios, film schools and more. In fact, over the last five years film production generated £10 billion of inward investment into London.
Wherever you live in the world, your first encounter with London is often on screen. Whether a director needs historical elegance, corporate glass and steel, a Forties period street, a chase through the Tube, a lush forest or dystopian urban landscape — London can provide it.
Look closely and you might have noticed Canary Wharf transforming into Nineties Chicago in the last season of The Crown. The Barbican became the centre of sci-fi — hosting Andor, The Peripheral and Daniel Kaluuya’s debut The Kitchen. St Paul’s Cathedral, Eltham Palace and the legendary Rivoli Ballroom in Brockley became chocolate playgrounds for Wonka. London doubled as 18th and 19th-century France for Napoleon with the French Revolution re-enacted at Somerset House and the Old Royal Naval College, and hit show Top Boy filmed all over Hackney. In 2022 alone, 106 feature productions and 90 TV dramas were filmed on location here in London.
So — inside scoop — who and what is filming in the city right now? Well, Idris Elba is co-directing a new survival thriller Above the Below, Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw are in a six-part Netflix espionage thriller Black Doves, Silo season 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and hit political thriller The Diplomat season 2 starring Keri Russell as US ambassador to UK, Kate Wyler. Which proves that London really is the best place to tell a story.
Fans of Notting Hill, Harry Potter, Paddington and Bridgerton are choosing London as a destination
Many film locations have an afterlife too, long after the production units have packed up. Fans of Notting Hill, Harry Potter, Paddington and Bridgerton are choosing London as a destination. Netflix subscribers are 2.4 times more likely to put a destination top of their travel list after seeing it in a hit show and Ted Lasso’s local (in real life the Prince’s Head pub in Richmond) has welcomed thousands of US visitors — helping tourism roar back, especially after the pandemic.
Away from London’s streets, our film studios are generally full to the brim. Over by Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, 3 Mills Studios is much loved by everyone from Danny Boyle to Wes Anderson. To the east in Dagenham, Eastbrook Studios will be London’s largest studio with 12 sound stages covering over half a million square feet. London is also world-renowned for its production talent and there are 4,500 production companies and 60 animation studios here.
But this hasn’t happened by accident. It’s hard to imagine now, but a decade or so ago London had a pretty poor reputation as a place to make a movie. Getting permissions was a pain and productions were charged wildly different fees depending on which side of the road they filmed if they were working across borough boundaries.
Seeing how well New York was doing, we helped establish Film London with funding from City Hall — our brilliant one-stop shop for making a film in the capital. Mayoral funding has unlocked millions in private investment for studios, skills development and inward investment and tax breaks provide an added incentive. And the good news is London is now the third biggest city for film on the planet after Los Angeles and New York.
Film in London is a creative engine, driving jobs and growth, but it’s an engine we need to continually nurture. There are an estimated 20,000 screen job vacancies and we want to open up this amazing industry to all Londoners. It’s a ‘Team London’ effort.
The London Screen Academy is a free sixth-form founded by industry heavyweights including Working Title’s Tim Bevan and Eric Fellner and James Bond producer Barbara Broccoli. The Mayor’s Creative Skills Hub is helping Londoners get jobs, breaking open the “who you know” networks that tend to be the default. Our Equal Access Network is making the workforce more representative and Unpacking the Credits is getting the right careers advice into schools.
Because film really matters to London and London really matters to film.
