BFI FAN Training Course – Open to all FAN members across the UK
A business skills course to help cinemas survive, consolidate and thrive.
Applications for Revisiting Your Cinema Business Model 2025 are open now.
This course offers practical and realistic strategies on how cinemas can adapt to financial challenges, profound changes in audience behaviour, and transformations in the film industry at large.
Designed for those in leadership or senior management roles at independent cinema organisations, Revisiting Your Cinema Business Model will explore challenges in management, strategic planning, financial reporting and governance.
Through a structured learning programme and six months of mentorship, the course will empower participants to develop a sustainable business model that will enable their organisations to survive and thrive in the long term.
Drawing on a wide range of expertise and case studies from across the exhibition sector and beyond, we will consider how cinemas can widen revenue streams, maintain cost control, respond to emergencies, use data to drive their business decisions and deepen audience relationships while continuing to innovate and work towards their organisational mission and values.
The deadline for applications is Friday, 7 March
Who is this course for?
Successful applicants must be in leadership or senior management positions with a demonstrable ability to affect change in their organisations. Our priority for this course is to work with cinemas (independent, community and commercial) and mixed arts venues, but we can be flexible on this, and you should get in touch if you are interested.
Applicants must work for an organisation that is a member of the BFI Film Audience Network. Find your local film hub here. Participant data may be passed on to the course funder, BFI Film Audience Network, for monitoring purposes.
If you have any questions about the course, including your eligibility to take part, we would be happy to answer them. Please contact training@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk
Fees and Bursaries
Course Fees
The fee for this course is £800
Course Fee Bursaries
A limited number of bursaries of up to £500 are available to individuals working for not-for-profit organisations to help cover part of the course fee. If you would like to apply for a bursary, please complete the additional form as part of the application process.
Film Hub Bursaries
Your regional/national Film Hub may be able to offer bursary support for this training course. This can help cover fees, travel, accommodation, childcare etc. for the in-person sections of the course. Please contact your local Film Hub to apply for support in advance of your application to this course.
Programme Structure
The course consists of eight modules comprising workshops, presentations and case studies. Towards the end of the modules, each participant will be appointed a mentor to work through and implement learning from the course.
Course Modules
(April – November 2025)
Module 1: Revisiting the Cinema Business Model Structure
Wednesday 23 April 2025, London (in person, full day)
Setting the context for the course, we will examine common features of not-for-profit cinema models, how they differ from commercial models and what we can learn from commercial businesses to increase our productivity and profits while balancing our charitable objectives. Resilient businesses continuously scan their changing environment to see new opportunities, adapt and sustain, and remain relevant and profitable. Participants will be invited to share their own business plans, explore collective challenges and start to think about how they could both improve productivity and widen their public, commercial and private revenue streams.
Module 2: Putting Audiences First
Thursday 24 April 2025, London (in person, full day)
Cinema is an audience-facing industry, so it’s essential that any adaptations made to your business plan should be made with them in mind. Using contemporary case studies, we will take a deep dive into pricing structures and membership schemes that have worked for comparable venues, as well as dissect the programming of organisations that have changed the films they exhibit to reach a new audience.
Module 3: Financial Planning and Reporting
w/c 26 May 2025, date TBC (online, half day)
For business leaders, financial management will form an intrinsic part of the day-to-day workload. In this session, we will reiterate the key sources of financial reporting if you want to improve productivity and sustainability in this area. What costs should you be keeping the closest eye on, which reports should you be sharing, and who in your team should you be sharing these with?
Module 4: Financial Sustainability: Public and Private Funding
w/c 23 June 2025, date TBC (online, half day)
What is the current potential for securing, continuing or increasing core or grant funding? This session will look at a range of different sources of external funding, including public bodies, local authorities, and charitable trusts and foundations. How have years of reduced government funding of the arts and culture sector impacted their priorities, and how can you increase the opportunities for your organisation to access these funds by re-focusing your activities while remaining aligned with your mission and values? This session will also explore philanthropic giving from your existing customer base, including a case study on community ownership, and look at the role trustees and staff play in achieving organisational ambitions and sustainability.
Module 5: Financial Sustainability: Maximising Commercial and Earned Income
w/c 28 July 2025, date TBC (online, half day)
As well as looking to external sources, are we maximising the resources we already have? Could revenue be increased from existing commercial activity such as private room/event hire, café and catering, advertising, renting spare office/studio space – or could these be promoted more effectively? Could you work in partnership with local organisations to enhance your film and other cultural programmes, and reach new audiences with them? Through a case study, participants will explore the benefits of expanding public programmes to generate income, rather than reducing your programme to save costs.
Module 6: Financial Sustainability: Sponsorship & Philanthropy
w/c 1 September 2025, date TBC (online, half day)
The greater the variety of income streams that an organisation has, the more sustainable it can become by not relying on one particular funding stream. Sponsorships, Partnerships and Philanthropy are playing an increasingly important role in the income portfolio for arts organisations and cinemas, and this session will introduce a series of case studies highlighting replicable practices in this field.
Module 7: Growth and Capital Improvements
w/c 6 October 2025, date TBC (online, half day)
In this session, we will assess the realistic opportunities for future capital development and whether this is something participants want to pursue and at what scale. With case studies of large, big-budget building projects and smaller projects on a faster turnaround, we will explore what is involved in a development project (time, money, staff resources), the impact on the business while the development takes place, and how the completed development will alter the cinema business model. Or would smaller-scale capital purchases or developments – a new CRM system, upgraded IT, increased accessibility – have a bigger impact on your organisation now and in the future?
Module 8: Reflections, Developments and Implementations
w/c 10 November 2025, date TBC (full day – in person)
At the end of the course, we will come together in person once again to reflect upon the previous seven modules, looking at what organisations have developed already and what organisations can implement in the coming months and years. This will also be an opportunity to establish how the group can support each other as a network of cinemas with a shared goal.
Mentor and Peer Support
(October 2025 – March 2026)
Participants will have the opportunity for in-venue implementation of learning from the course with the appointment of a mentor who will provide bespoke support over six months. Mentors will be selected in consultation with the participant, focusing on the needs and objectives that have been identified throughout the course. During this period, the ICO will continue to encourage and facilitate networking with other participants, creating a network of peers for ongoing support.
Course Leaders
Steve Mapp
Former CEO, Broadway Cinema
Steve was Chief Executive of Broadway Cinema, Nottingham from 2008 until retiring in June 2023. Joining in 1990, he was originally appointed to set up the Finance and Development departments for the then-newly established media centre, leading the development and implementation of successive Business Plans. He managed over £8m of phased capital developments to expand and improve facilities, raising investments from ERDF, National Lottery, regional agencies and sponsorships. Steve oversaw a merger with film training organisation Intermedia and the establishment of Broadway as the lead organisation for Film Hub Midlands in a partnership with Flatpack. He established Broadway as an ACE NPO to become a key regional centre that supports the training and development of creative talent who use new technologies in their practice. Steve led Broadway through 14 months of closure during the COVID-19 pandemic, securing Cultural Recovery Funding, introducing remote working and a restructuring of the organisation, leading to a successful reopening in May 2021.
Catharine Des Forges
Director, Independent Cinema Office
Catharine started her career as a Film Exhibition Officer at the BFI and has worked with many venues over the last 30 years both as a funder, consultant and advisor as well as a period spent at Arts Council England in a similar role. She set up the ICO in 2003 and took it from a start-up with 3 members of staff and 10 months worth of funding to the present day, with a capital asset and a turnover of just under £2m. Over the years she has led on funding strategy and organisational development and has raised millions of pounds from organisations such as BFI, ACE, Esmee Fairbairn, Creative Europe, Screen Skills and numerous film institutes and other partners. She is an advisory board member for Be The Business (www.bethebusiness.com)
David Sin
Head of Cinemas, Independent Cinema Office
Across thirty years, David has worked as a Programmer, Distributor and Consultant, helping to set up, programme or advise numerous cinemas that have achieved record admissions and have proved sustainable over a long period. From 1998-2002, he was Director of Cinema at London’s Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) where he programmed an award-winning season of Japanese experimental film and increased admissions by 100%. He also made a success of the ICA’s cutting edge distribution company, releasing over 50 films including Ring, A One and a Two and Kandahar – all of which were profitable. Whilst Head of Content at the British Film Institute, he co-produced a screening of Borderline staged at the Tate Modern Turbine Hall; and A Throw of Dice with a live orchestra in Trafalgar Square.
Testimonials
- 100% of delegates achieved what they hoped to from the training programme
- 100% of delegates would recommend the training programme
- 100% of delegates learned something new of relevance to their role or organisation
- 100% of delegates made useful new contacts
- 100% of delegates gained fresh ideas and inspiration
“So many ideas came out of this course! From how to work with community partners, marketing memberships, fundraising and how to think about internal meetings and data to get the most out of a small team.”
“I learned different ways of monitoring finances and profitability across all areas of our business which I realise now, on reflection, that I’d become stuck in my ways of doing. It’s helped me really think about bookkeeping and report systems and what the business needs to plan.”
“I found the course to be insightful in showing me new ways to innovate our business by learning from course speakers and other participants- the course was a great way to network with others and see a better, overall picture of the independent cinema industry”
“I really enjoyed the course structure with lots of different case studies so that by the end, I felt really lucky to have got the time and knowledge from such a range of experts.”
“I met a number of new contacts with a range of different expertise different from my own and have started to use these to support new initiatives in the business.”
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How to apply
Please complete this form to apply
The deadline for applications is Friday 7 March. Applicants will be informed of decisions no later than Friday 21 March 2025.
In order to complete this form, you will have to sign into your Google account, which will also give you the ability to save your progress and come back to the form at a later date.
If you do not have a Google account and would like to fill out an application form in Word format, please email us at training@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk and we will arrange for one to be sent to you. If you would like to access a list of the questions in advance you can do so here.
The cost to take the course is £800. If you are unable to pay the full fees before the course starts, please let us know and we may be able to agree a staggered payment plan.
If you have any queries about your application or the course, please contact: training@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk
Bursaries
A limited number of bursaries of up to £500 are available to individuals working for not-for-profit organisations to help cover fees. If you would like to apply for a bursary, please complete the additional form as part of the application process.
Remember that many of the regional/national Film Hubs will be able to offer exhibitors bursary support for training. Please ensure that you have contacted your local Film Hub to apply for support in advance of your application to this course.
If you are successful, your organisation will need to pay the remaining fees to confirm your place, so please ensure you have funds in place.
Criteria
Who is this course for?
Applicants must be in leadership or senior management positions with a demonstrable ability to affect change in their organisations. Organisations can include, but are not limited to, cinemas (independent, community and commercial) and mixed arts venues.
You must work for an organisation that is a member of the BFI Film Audience Network. Find your local film hub here. Participant data may be passed on to the course funder, BFI Film Audience Network, for monitoring purposes.
If you have any questions about the course, including your eligibility to take part, we would be happy to answer them. Please contact training@independentcinemaoffice.org.uk