Any event chaired by Paul Webster -- head of Film Four -- is likely to get a large audience, if only from producers trying to get his card. But Wednesday's debate, at the Apex International Hotel in Edinburgh, was packed to the seams, and with some of the most important people in the film industry. Paul was joined by Lynne Ramsay, director of Ratcatcher; Elvis Mitchell, film critic for The New York Times; Andrew Eaton, producer of Michael Winterbottom's films; and Baz Bambagoyne, celebrity film critic of The Daily Mail. Those lucky enough to get a seat (as opposed to standing at the back) could have been pressing shoulders with John Woodward, the chief executive of the Film Council; Robin Gutcher, head of Film Four lab; Lizzie Franke, artistic director of the festival; Damien O'Donnel - director of East is East; and more names than there is space to mention.

Ironically, this debate - entitled "State of the UK film industry" -- presented an acute microcosm of the state of the British industry: everyone had something to say but no one seemed to agree with anyone else, and no consensus could be reached. Elvis Mitchell described the perception from the US that the UK makes only genre films -- period, social realist, gangster or romantic comedy. While the US studios also do this, the UK industry has more in common with the US independent sector in terms of size and budgets, so perhaps should follow its lead in making anti-genre films (ie Cube, Pi, Rushmore, Being John Malkovich).

Baz Bambagoyne saw the problem as a lack of support from UK producers relative to the US support. Conversely the point was made that the Brits do often over-hype and push films that put the native audience off the idea of British cinema (ie Honest, Circus, Maybe Baby).

Lynne Ramsay pointed out that UK audiences wouldn't have flocked to see Sam Mendes direct British Beauty, and neither would the international market. Despite the fantastic acclaim surrounding her debut, Ratcatcher only made UK£ 400,000 at the box office, bringing up the issue of exhibition. Lynne suggested that money should be put into building up networks of arthouse cinemas, an idea that was met with ridicule from many screenwriters in the audience who felt that without adequate development funds, exhibition is irrelevant -- no-one's going to see a bad film whether it's shown at their local cinema or not. David Marlow stated that 13 million people visit the cinema at least once a month - this is the only market worth bothering with, and one for which no demographics are available. Baz suggested that more surveys were done to learn about this audience.

In turn this led to this issue of marketing. Damien O'Donnell attacked Paul Webster directly for creating a poster where a dog is "shagging" the letter "E" in East is East, in response to consumer tests. He seemed offended that the image had nothing to do with the film, though given it's financial success (the highest grossing British film since The Full Monty) the campaign would appear to have worked. John Woodward responded to calls that the Lottery funded P&A (prints and advertising), by describing a meeting with all the UK distributors where he suggested it. They responded 'if you're dumb enough to create such a fund, we'll take it, but it won't make a bit of difference'.

An interesting point from an executive from Canal+ was that the UK is hooked on selling to North America, when it holds a decreasing percentage of the world film market. Canal+, like Polygram before it, always budgets and forecasts a film without considering the US market (provided it is budgeted under US$ 15 - 20m). If the film sells in the US, it's a bonus, but if it doesn't then it is no loss. More important is that the film has international appeal - that it can sell to Germany, Italy, France and Japan.

Other points made include: former head of Goldcrest saying that the British should make films with a more cinematic quality and less like TV drama; Robin Gutcher felt that we should be more ideas led and work on stories, and welcomed schemes like Film Four Lab which ignored marketing. Ramsay countered saying that we shouldn't nurture a culture that ignores marketing, rather we need to nurture and train those with passion: 'people don't take risks on people with passion' she said. Lynne also pointed out that 'we have the most cutting edge graphic designers in the world but our posters are crap'. Michael Scott pointed out that eCinema and the internet was about to change everything, though Andrew Eaton warned that the 'revolution' would be further away than people thought.

"Where are your film stars?" asked Elvis, puffing on a Cuban cigar, and the general agreement was that the press gave them a hard time. Even Baz attacked his newspaper: The Daily Mail would rather savage certain stars than celebrate them, which is rather a shame'. Using Kate Winslet as an example he attacked his colleagues who are out to 'pull her to pieces' even though she starred in the biggest grossing film of all time, and continues to work in the UK.

All food for thought, though little to bite on; and Webster acknowledged this in his closing comments where he stressed that he hoped the debate should only be the first part in an "extended look at the British industry."

Nic Wistreich