The UK Film Council (UKFC) was a non-departmental public body set up in 2000 by the Labour Government to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It was constituted as a private company limited by guarantee governed by a board of 15 directors and was funded through sources including the National Lottery. John Woodward was the Chief Executive Officer of the UKFC. As at 30 June 2008, the company had 90 full-time members of staff. It distributed more than £160m of lottery money to over 900 films.Lord Puttnam described the Council as "a layer of strategic glue that's helped bind the many parts of our disparate industry together."

On 26 July 2010 the Conservative – Liberal Democrat coalition announced that the council would be abolished; Woodward said that the decision had been taken with "no notice and no consultation". UKFC closed on 31 March 2011, with many of its functions passing to the British Film Institute.

In its own words, the aim of the UKFC was:

"To stimulate a competitive, successful and vibrant UK film industry and culture, and to promote the widest possible enjoyment and understanding of cinema throughout the nations and regions of the UK. The UKFC had a mandate that spans cultural, social and economic priorities."

The United Kingdom has had a major influence on modern cinema. The first moving pictures developed on celluloid film were made in Hyde Park, London in 1889 by William Friese Greene, a British inventor, who patented the process in 1890. It is generally regarded that the British film industry enjoyed a 'golden age' in the 1940s, led by the studios of J. Arthur Rank and Alexander Korda.

The British directors Alfred Hitchcock and David Lean are among the most critically acclaimed of all-time, with other important directors including Charlie Chaplin,Michael Powell,Carol Reed and Ridley Scott. Many British actors have achieved international fame and critical success, including Julie Andrews,Richard Burton,Michael Caine, Charlie Chaplin,Sean Connery,Vivien Leigh,David Niven,Laurence Olivier,Peter Sellers and Kate Winslet. Some of the most commercially successful films of all time have been produced in the United Kingdom, including the two highest-grossing film franchises (Harry Potter and James Bond).Ealing Studios has a claim to being the oldest continuously working film studio facility in the world.