In this guide:
1. Overview
The BFI has dedicated a portion of its International Connections Fund to support UK screen industry professionals to attend international markets, festivals and other international events identified by the BFI as key opportunities for collaboration and to build networks. This will lead to increased international collaboration across the screen sector.
We aim to support UK screen industry professionals and talent to:
- Build mutually beneficial creative relationships
- Discover new funding
- Discover new distribution or publishing opportunities
This will have ongoing reciprocal benefits for industry professionals and give them the potential to scale-up projects and reach new audiences.
Group attendance at First Playable 2025 in Florence, Italy
In collaboration with Games London, the BFI is inviting applications from UK independent video games developers with active projects in development to take part in a Group Attendance to First Playable 2025 between 10 June and 13 June 2025 in person in Florence, Italy (the Event).
Organised by IIDEA (the trade association representing the Italian video games industry) and the Toscana Film Commission, First Playable is Italy’s only international gaming B2B event and is a key international meeting point for games professionals. Attendance at First Playable will help to inform selected UK video games developers about the international games ecosystem and will allow them to connect with developers, investors and publishers from the Italian and international video games industry.
Up to seven UK independent video games developers will be selected to attend and participate in this Group Attendance to First Playable, granting them access to:
- First Playable’s industry programme of talks and panel discussions
- First Playable’s Meet to Match platform, allowing participants to schedule business meetings
- Networking opportunities with international games industry
The group attendance will take place from Tuesday 10 June to Friday 13 June 2025. For successful applicants, the BFI will cover the cost of return economy travel from the UK to Florence, Italy, in addition to up to three nights of hotel accommodation in Florence, Italy.
Please note that the cost of international return travel between the UK and Florence, Italy, will need to be paid by successful applicants in the first instance, and will be reimbursed by the BFI once the attendance has taken place.
For any questions about this group attendance, please contact international@bfi.org.uk.
2. Check if you’re eligible
To be eligible to apply to this fund you must:
- be an independent UK video games developer working in the UK screen sector in a small to medium sized enterprise (SME) that is not substantially owned by a non-UK entity, broadcaster, streamer or studio
- be a UK resident
- have at least one completed and published video game within the last five years
Get in touch with the team if you are unsure whether you are eligible for this Fund: international@bfi.org.uk
3. What you can use the funding for
The BFI will make ‘in-kind’ awards to successful applicants.
The ‘in-kind’ award will cover:
- Up to three nights’ hotel accommodation, including breakfast
- Return economy travel from the UK to Florence, Italy up to a total of £400
- Airport/rail transfers in Florence, Italy
The BFI will organise the majority of the group attendance on behalf of successful applicants but will ask individuals to make their own international travel arrangements. Eligible travel costs will be reimbursed by the BFI after the attendance has taken place.
BFI funding will not cover:
- Subsistence costs other than any stated above (general refreshments, meals, or per diems)
- Hotel incidentals
- Travel insurance (essential)
- Upgrading of flights or train tickets
- Travel within the UK to or from the international departure point
- Any marketing or press activity associated with your attendance at the Event
- Additional baggage or freight costs associated with attending the Event.
Applicants requiring any access support to take part in the Group Attendance will be able to apply for these additional costs. If you are successful, we will let you know the total contribution towards these costs covered by the BFI. Please be aware that this may differ from one initiative to another, and participants may be expected to cover some of the cost.
4. BFI principles for funding
All National Lottery awards must deliver against our three principles for National Lottery funding:
- equity, diversity and inclusion: addressing under-representation in perspective and representation, talent and recruitment, agency and opportunities, widening the range of voices and audiences served
- UK-wide: supporting individuals across the UK, increasing the number of projects and screen professionals outside London and the South-East, looking at location and representation
- environmental sustainability: addressing sustainability both creatively and practically
All applicants will be required to:
- demonstrate a commitment to sustainability (whether in terms of production or onscreen content) in the proposed projects they are taking to the Event; and
- consider how they could make their travel more sustainable.
BFI will:
- consider the types of transport that are funded on each trip, and may not support air travel where an Event can be reached by train;
- be unlikely to support travel to an Event that can be attended with the same level of benefits through online participation; and
- aim to support attendance at sustainability-related sessions at Events.
5. How to apply
When you can apply
Applications will close at 10am on Tuesday 22 April 2025
Information you need to provide
In the application form you will need to provide the following information:
- Your name, address and contact details
- Your experience and track record
- Demonstrable professional interest in working internationally, including rationale for attending First Playable in Italy specifically
- Specific projects in active development that require you to meet with international investors, publishers and partners
- International experience to date
- Why you need National Lottery support
- Your response to the BFI’s Principles for Funding
- If you have any access needs, or anything else that you think we need to be aware of when making arrangements
Equality monitoring
You’ll be asked to complete an equality monitoring form when you submit your application. The form asks for your demographic information. The data that you submit on this form will be confidential and anonymous and not seen by the staff assessing your application. However, we will not be able to put forward your application for assessment until you have completed the equality monitoring form.
If you have any questions when completing the application form, please contact us on international@bfi.org.uk
Submitting an application
Complete the application form below. Please make sure to complete all the sections, as incomplete forms will be automatically ineligible.
6. What happens after you apply?
- You’ll get confirmation we received your application within 1-2 working days.
- You’ll get a decision within three weeks of the closing date.
Once submitted, we will review your application and if necessary, may write to you to obtain more information. If your application is ineligible, we will email to tell you we will not be able to consider it.
How your application is assessed
We are looking for UK games developers who can demonstrate success on an international level and/or a strong interest in working internationally. We will also consider whether an applicant has a project(s) in active development that require them to meet with international industry.
When assessing your application, we will consider:
- The level of relevant experience (including internationally) and track record
- Evidence of interest in and/or need to find international partners
- Commitment to, and justification for, working internationally
- How you have managed any previous BFI awards
- Your demonstration of need for National Lottery funding
- How you have addressed the BFI’s three Principles for Funding
Applications will be assessed by members of the BFI’s International team and the BFI’s Certification Unit. We may share parts of your application with other BFI teams or external consultants to help us assess it.
How we prioritise applications
We will prioritise applicants with the strongest combination of experience, and demonstrable professional interest and need to connect with the international games industry, together with a clear demonstration of need for National Lottery funding.
We will also pay particular attention to applicants who have not previously participated in a BFI International Fund Group Attendance, as well as applicants self-identifying as coming from under-represented backgrounds.
Lottery Finance Committee consideration
Once all applications have been assessed, the BFI’s International team will make funding recommendations to our Lottery Finance Committee. This is the final stage of the funding decision process.
We undertake due diligence assessment of all applications we are recommending to the decision-making committee; if we are recommending your application for approval, we will request your full name, address and date of birth to allow us to carry out an identity check.
Please note that this is not a credit check and will not affect your ability to receive credit from other organisations. We will be unable to submit your application to our decision-making committee until we have received your completed form.
Please note that our request for this information is not an indication or confirmation of funding and you will be informed separately of the funding decision on your application. All applicants will be informed in writing of the decision on their application.
7. Getting a decision
If you’re successful
- You will receive a written offer of funding.
- You will need to sign the offer of funding and return it via email to the BFI within three working days.
If you’re unsuccessful
We receive a high number of applications that meet our assessment criteria and have to make tough decisions on who to support. We may have turned down your application because we determined that it did not:
- fit our funding aims and outcomes
- demonstrate a strong enough commitment to one or all of the following BFI Principles for Funding: equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI); environmental sustainability; UK-wide
- demonstrate enough relevant experience
- demonstrate sufficient need for National Lottery support and should be financed by other means
We will keep the data and supporting materials you sent to us in line with our records retention policy.
Feedback on an unsuccessful application
We’re a small team and unfortunately that means we are unable to give feedback to individual applicants. We welcome your feedback on the application process and how we might improve it.
8. Conditions of funding
If you are offered an ‘in-kind’ award from us, in addition to the General Conditions of National Lottery Funding, the following conditions will apply to your participation at the Event.
If you are selected as a participant, you will be asked to enter into a short agreement confirming your attendance at the event and supplying us with personal details allowing us to make arrangements in your name. We will confirm what costs are being met by BFI, what you need to do and how we expect you to report to us.
As a participant in the Group Attendance, you will be benefiting from a non-cash grant funded through the National Lottery. As an award recipient, we are required to publicise information about you including names and a brief biography.
You will be expected to attend all events, sessions, meetings etc. organised by the BFI and its partners as part of the overall Event, and to represent, promote and advocate for the UK screen sector. In doing so, you are expected to act in a collegiate and collaborative manner, adhering to all relevant codes of conduct, including those in use by the relevant festival or market.
If you fail either to attend the Event at all or to participate in all of the set sessions within the Event, you may be required to reimburse costs incurred on your behalf.
The BFI has Anti-Bullying, Harassment and Racism guidance and principles in place and is committed to providing a safe, welcoming, accessible, and inclusive work environment for all our participants, partners and organisers, in-person and online. Our expectation is that every delegate, representative, or partner attending our Events, as well as every member of our team, behaves in a respectful, responsible and reasonable way towards colleagues. Any kind of discrimination, abuse, harassment, harmful behaviour or bullying (such as: use of offensive or discriminatory language; intimidating behaviour; micro-aggressions) has no place on our programmes and anyone not observing these principles will be stopped from attending immediately and asked to reimburse the costs incurred by BFI by way of this non-cash grant.
You will be required to promise that you will comply with all applicable laws associated with your attendance at the Event and not act in a way which, in our reasonable opinion, might be damaging to the BFI or our partners’ reputations or goodwill whether directly, by association or otherwise.
You will be required to share your findings in the form of two detailed impact reports looking at the impact of your attendance at the Event (the first shortly after the Event and the second 12 months later) and may additionally be asked to share findings verbally for the benefit of the wider UK screen industry at future events to be organised by the BFI.
Questions that will be asked include:
- How many new connections have you made as a result of this attendance?
- Have you identified potential partners for your current or future projects as a result of this attendance?
- Has there been commitment to collaboration on your project from potential investors / publishers / partners as a result of this attendance?
- Have you expressed interest in projects that were pitched to you at the event/market/forum you attended?
- Are you going to work on a new, international project as a result of this attendance?
BFI will work with our designated cultural sustainability partner to assess the environmental impact of each trip. To help us do this, as part of the impact report you will be asked to provide us with information on your travel that will enable us to calculate the carbon footprint of the trip as a whole.
9. Delivering against our National Lottery Strategy
All activity funded through BFI International Connections Fund will deliver against the following outcomes of the BFI National Lottery strategy:
- An increase in the international engagement and reach of the UK screen sector
- Creative talent is supported and nurtured, as they emerge and throughout their careers
- Better support available for small and medium-sized enterprises and independents to develop their businesses
- A wider range of stories are told that otherwise wouldn’t be
- People from under-represented groups across the UK can access the support they need to develop their careers and skills
Key Performance Indicators
The BFI will measure the success of the Connections Fund using the following Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Each trip will contribute towards the following targets for 2023-2026:
- 75 beneficiaries
- 50% of beneficiaries based outside London
- 25% of beneficiaries new to BFI National Lottery funding
- An increase in UK professionals’ networks and connections
- An increase in Collaborations (including co-productions) involving UK partners
- Increased ability of beneficiaries to attract partners and financing to their projects
- Increased exposure and visibility of projects originating from the UK at global events, enhancing the potential of them being:
- made (for projects in development);
- sold and distributed outside of the UK (for completed projects without sales representation); or
- further exhibited outside the UK (short films)
Diversity of beneficiaries:
- Disability (including those identifying as D/deaf or neurodiverse, and those with a longstanding physical or mental diagnosis) 18%
- Ethnically diverse (London) 40%
- Ethnically diverse (outside London) 30%
- Gender (50-50 balance of male and female identifying within the gender binary) 50%
- LGBTQIA+ (including those identifying outside the gender binary) 10%
- Working class background 39%
Diversity Standards
All of the activity supported by our funding is informed by the BFI Diversity Standards. We champion projects and activity that meaningfully tackle under-representation in relation to disability, gender, race, age, sexual identity and socio-economic status, while also considering the interactions of these identities and any other barriers to opportunity.