Project Description
London Indian Film Festival
OVERVIEW
London Indian Film Festival (‘LIFF’) launched in 2010 to showcase the best of cutting edge South Asian cinema, bringing a highly original mix of new films, from sumptuous Indian art house, to South Indian “Tamil Noir”, and films addressing social issues, to heart-warming universal, yet locally rooted stories.
Led by Founder & Executive Director Cary Rajinder Sawhney, LIFF’s creative vision is proudly edgy,”the punk rock of Indian film festivals”, boldly challenging stereotypes and emphasising the diversity of South Asian cultures, and their connections to audiences across the UK.
Back in 2010, against a backdrop of the burgeoning ‘Bollywood’ scene, LIFF set out to champion the breaking wave of independent Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Nepali and Sri Lankan filmmakers, and to forge links with the UK and international industries, build a profile for Indian indie films with film critics and UK distributors and cinemas.
CHALLENGES
Key business challenges throughout the journey-so-far have included:
- Sheer number and range of opportunities:
– Importance of carefully weighing options, assessing risk, economic value, and strategic importance
– Need for clarity of communication to potential investors
– Importance of strategic planning framework to make clear decisions and review progress without distracting from organic growth - Bootstrapping the team and infrastructure expected of a first class international festival
- Fundraising and partnership development at a time of financial austerity
- Finding and nurturing the audience for a new kind of cinema, amidst a challenging film distribution landscape
From 2010 to 2017 Chris Hainsworth provided help with strategy development, business planning, financial management, partnership development, and industry/VR event organisation, and continues to provide ongoing advice and support to the Executive Director.
Chris, as part of the fundraising team helped, LIFF grow its funding base from the founder’s seed equity, to encompass consistently successful grant applications, maximising box office revenues’ contribution towards costs, development of “in kind” partnerships, commercial cash and philanthropic support.
In a sector where partnerships often require a nuanced understanding of financial and cultural values, Chris helped the Executive Director and wider team to optimise the value and impact of the organisation’s unique offering.
OUTCOMES
Celebrating its tenth birthday in 2019, the festival:
- Is the largest festival of South Asian cinema outside India, taking place across five cities and seventeen venues across the UK
- Established a media profile for independent South Asian cinema, changing the restrictive narrative of “Indian cinema = Bollywood”
- Highlighted women filmmakers and LGBTQ+ cinema
- Showcased the work of several leading filmmakers – Anurag Kashyap, Guneet Monga, Rituparno Ghosh, Dibakar Banerjee, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Pavan Kumar, Anand Gandhi
WORK COMPLETED
- Trusted adviser to the Executive Director, including commercial advice on key agreements and business issues, and assistance developing key relationships in UK and India
- Creating 3 Year Strategy, Budgets and KPIs
- Development of the Festival’s digital platform on the BFI Player
- Onboarding of key partnerships including Technicolor Delux to ensure a successful transition from print to digital projection
- Creation and Programming of the first South Asian VR Showcase at the BFI South Bank
- Assembling and hosting several “Guru Lounge” training events, covering development, sales and distribution, exhibition and post-production
CLIENT TESTIMONIAL
“Chris has provided much valued support to the festival over many years, as part of the LIFF Steering Group team, using his impressive business skills and bringing to his work great dedication, diligence and determination to see the job through. His disciplined approach to strategic planning and business management has also proven very valuable. Chris also brought his optimistic nature and an open mind to the diverse cultures the festival engages with, this is not to be underestimated. His ever developing relationships across the UK and Indian film industries have helped support growth of the festival’s expanding footprint, especially for VR and industry events, while his nuanced understanding of commercial finance and public value contributed to the successful development of the festival. We are delighted that he has remained part of the LIFF family.”
