National Media Museum pushed aside prominent calls to keep running Bradford International Film Festival

The revelation has provoked anger from City of Film bosses, who say they feel "quite powerless" to influence those running the museum.

The International Film Festival, which attracted Hollywood heavyweights to the city for 20 years, was suspended in 2014, when a review into the museum’s festival programme was announced.

Now the review documents, released to the T&A under the Freedom of Information Act, show leading figures from film and culture voiced strong support for the festival, and other film festivals run at the museum, as a key part of Bradford’s status as a City of Film.

And at a meeting of the Bradford City of Film board in 2014, museum bosses were quizzed about whether they remained "committed to delivering festivals".

The papers also reveal that the museum stopped subsidising the festival in 2012 and had struggled to find external sponsorship.

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While the festival attracted 10,000 to 12,000 visitors, ticket sales only covered 25 per cent of its cost.

Responding to the new documents, Bradford City of Film director David Wilson said while he recognised film festivals had to be sustainable, they could be run on very little money if needs be.

But he said he felt Bradfordians were “quite powerless” to affect the decision-making process at the National Media Museum.

He said: “It’s a shame that the museum, with its reputation and all of its collections, couldn’t see a way forward to continue to host or be part of a significant film festival in Bradford.

“But we are powerless to do anything about that in a way because it is funded by the Government and it is run by the Science Museum Group.”

He raised questions about the transparency of the review process – saying he was surprised that this was the first time he had seen a document setting out the review's findings.

And he said he remained determined to work towards a reborn Bradford International Film Festival, using venues across the city, and had already been approached by many organisations interested in getting involved.

But Mr Wilson stressed Bradford's status as a City of Film was not under threat even if it did not have an International Film Festival.

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Bill Lawrence, who founded the Bradford International Film Festival in 1995 and was the museum's head of film until 2008, said the festival "was really special to Bradford" and any problems in staging it could have been overcome.

He said: "I think it doesn't fit in with their current strategy, which is to become a science museum and throw away the last 30 years of development as a national museum of photography, film and television."

While the National Media Museum redacted the names of the leading figures they consulted, respondents showed a strong support for the film festival, saying the museum should be “the key place in the North of England” to stage film festivals, and that “Bradford, world City of Film, must have festivals if the title is to mean anything – and festivals with an international profile”.

Another respondent was private operator Picturehouse Cinemas, which began running the museum’s three screens from 2014.

Its response reveals this deal saw film festivals limited to a total of 15 days a year, to focus on “commercial sustainability”, saying festival activity “can be a drain on resources, screen time and audiences’ attention”.

Picturehouse said it understood both the International Film Festival and the long-running Bradford Animation Festival “are struggling to grow audiences and run at a significant loss each year”.

But it suggested rolling all festivals into one “high-profile, national moment for Bradford” which could return the city’s film festival to a status “in the same league as Leeds and Cambridge”.

Despite this, earlier this year, museum bosses revealed the International Film Festival would not return, and that it was instead looking at starting a computer games festival to tie in with its new technology focus, as well as continuing its Widescreen Weekends, which celebrate the technical history of film.

A spokesman for the National Media Museum said: “We cannot escape the fact that not enough people came to our festivals to make it possible to continue without change."

He said by 2014, more than half of the regular Bradford International Film Festival audience was aged 60 or over and from the Bradford district, and that a "festival of that scope needed a wider audience base".

He said: "We can assure you we want to attract as many people as possible to Bradford, as well as fully support its City of Film status.

“Unfortunately, continuing a festival programme that was not achieving these aims, added to reductions in our funding and resources, made it unfeasible.

“We understand this is a disappointment to many, but we have to create a sustainable model to grow our audiences from near and far.”

He said the decision to limit festivals to 15 days a year “was made by the museum following discussions with Picturehouse Cinemas, although we have the flexibility to increase the number of days if we choose”.

Bradford Council leader David Green, said: “I think the disappointing thing is whilst people clearly value the International Film Festival, the level of practical funding support wasn’t forthcoming.”

He said the council, which has funded the festival in the past, was now in no position to do so because “the money is not there”, adding that the challenge now was for the council, museum and others to work together to make the remaining events a success.