Speech to Guiding Lights event

This event tonight is very important, not just to the film industry but to the creative industries more widely.

We in government are doing a major piece of work at the moment on the creative economy and the film industry is a key part of this. Across the board, the role of mentors is essential, skills are essential. And this pilot is absolutely a guiding light, to film, TV and video games as well as many others.

I have only had a chance to speak to a few of the mentees here tonight but picked up that they got a great deal out of this experience.

Thanks to the Mentors and to those who have been organising the scheme. This has been run on a very small budget but with a huge amount of goodwill and generosity.

When the mentors agreed to do this, it was a big commitment. For schemes like this to work, everyone needs to take their roles seriously. The mentors involved in this scheme have given time, effort and thought in huge amounts. When I say thank you, I genuinely mean it - this has made a real difference.

It has been established as a pilot scheme and I am sure when evaluated it will be proved to have been successful. Ways will have to be found to finance it. I hope the 25 who have been so generous with their time will also be strong advocates for any future schemes and tell others about it.

This is a great industry, I have been Minister for film for almost a year now and in that time it has seen huge successes. There are obvious examples such as The Queen, the Last King of Scotland and Venus but many others too. There has been 83% more inward investment than in previous years and 50% more spent on production in the UK. This is a strong industry and I am proud to be its Minister.

You are building a strong, sustainable and long term film industry; and it is thanks to people like Tim [Bevan] and others in this room.

I hope to see more of this project, we will do out bit. I wish every success to all the mentees and look forward to more of their work in the future.

Thank you.

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