Briony Hanson joined as new Director of British Council Film in July 2011. Briony has worked in the field of film, focussing on cultural exhibition, event production and training as a Programme Director, as a lecturer, and as an event producer. She has also conducted numerous on-stage interviews and master classes with filmmakers and performers including Julianne Moore, Todd Haynes, Steve Buscemi and Gus van Sant, Emma Thompson, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Rob Brydon, Clive Owen, Jim Jarmusch, Dustin Hoffman, Lisa Cholodenko, Christine Blundell, Mike Leigh and Andrej Wajda.

Before joining the British Council Briony ran UK filmmaker training organisation, The Script Factory. We were fortunate enough to get a few minutes out of her busy schedule to speak about her new role and her vision during her visit to TIFF; Toronto International Film Festival.  

British Council Canada: How do you see the scope of British films in TIFF?

Briony Hanson: Fantastic and amazing! In terms of all the international film festivals, Toronto is the one that has championed British work most successfully over the last couple of years. Both this year and last, there were in the region of 30 films participating in the festival, which is a staggering amount. It is a huge festival and the proportion of British films is very high. TIFF has been very clever in the sense that they have a great eye for spotting the films before the filmmakers are huge and successful. It is not about Oscar-winning films at the time of the selection but they do go on to become Oscar-winning films. Toronto has been an amazing launch pad for some of the sleeper films that went on to become global sensations like Slumdog Millionaire and The King's Speech. Who knows which film will make it big this year?

British Council Canada: How do you see your role at the British Council after working for over a decade in the film industry?

Briony Hanson: I am very excited about my new job and it's a challenge for me. I have worked for a long time in the British film industry in lots of different capacities: as an exhibitor, as a developer, as a trainer. In that time, I have realized that British filmmakers have so much to offer. There is a huge wealth of talent out there and I now have the opportunity to market and promote that talent internationally through the platform of British Council.

British Council Canada: What is British Council doing in promoting British films and British films culture globally?

Briony Hanson: I may give you an answer now that may change in the next six months as I am very new to my job but what I am finding out is that there is a great deal of activity going on in the department at the moment. The focus is concentrated on four areas. The first is that we work with major international film festivals like Sundance, Toronto, Karlovy Vary and Berlin, where we welcome the programme directors and their teams into London for a few days at a time and show them the best of our collection. We show them new British work; we discuss with them the work in progress in the hope that we can persuade them to take the work to show in their festivals. The second thing is that we have a huge plan of activities to work with independent countries and regions to showcase British work and to provide opportunities for British filmmakers to travel abroad and talk about their work. That might be finding one suitable film title to play in the European film festival in Ottawa or in Odessa. It might be working on a more formal level with the next tier film festivals such as Goa or Guadalajara where we can liaise between the British filmmakers and international audiences. We also have a big short film promotion scheme, which is really an opportunity for every filmmaker in the UK to submit his or her work to the British Council. We make a selection of the best of that work and we champion it to film festivals abroad and include into BritFilm catalogue [an online directory] giving Filmmakers in the UK a stamp of recognition. Currently the scheme is on hold while we catch up with a backlog but it will reopen again in the next couple of months with some more exciting benefits. The fourth area is brand new - we have launched a fantastic new website which is www.britishcouncil.org/film. It is a portal designed for information about the British film industry and it focuses around three main areas: directory of film festivals; directory of filmmakers / directors, and directory of British films - with a listing of every British film made since the late 90's. We are hoping that the website becomes a popular source for directors, producers, fellow filmmakers, students and film enthusiasts as an all-inclusive resource on British film work.   

British Council Canada: How do you envisage British Council's work in film and film culture over the next few years?

Briony Hanson: These are exciting times for the British film industry generally. It has transformed after a few turbulent years and has the potential to head off in new directions. I am keen that we involve the British Council film department very closely with the film industry in the UK. There is an incredible development going on in the UK at the moment. I plan to join hands with organisations like BFI & BAFTA that have huge events departments constantly working to arrange conferences and develop film packages. We will work with the experts and be the link between them and the international market.

British Council Canada: How will British Council support students and film enthusiasts in pursuing their goals?

Briony Hanson: British Council is the UK 's leading international organisation for educational and cultural relations and we will continue to do so through arts. For the young people in the UK, we can include them in our database for short filmmakers. We will also assist in introducing them to our colleagues overseas. We have a huge network of colleagues and offices internationally that we can tap into to make sure that the international industry and audience know who they are and what kind of work they are interested in doing. That is widely about screening their work internationally but also about making future collaboration possible. For international filmmakers or filmmakers in general, there is a lot to learn from the British film industry. We have an enormous resource with great experience. We also bring people to film festivals, film events and activities and trainings and workshops. UK has the best trainers in the world in terms of specific fields of industry and I would encourage people to learn from them.

British Council Canada: Last, do you see any opportunities of collaboration between the British & Canadian filmmakers?

Briony Hanson: In my opinion there is a very interesting opportunity for collaboration between filmmakers from our two countries. We both share two very significant common factor in that we are both English-speaking and we both have (in global terms) a relatively small industry as compared to Hollywood. Due to that, there are bright prospects of co-production, probably now much more so than we had in the past. I have only been here for a couple of days and have already been approached by various Canadian producers looking to work with British a partner - which is exciting.