2024-2026
CREATING CHANGE THROUGH CINEMA.
Presented by BUFF Business Group Ltd.
WHY SPONSORSHIP MATTERS
MISSION STATEMENT
Everyman Leeds, host venue for BUFF 2023.
BUFF’s purpose is to create change through cinema; by representing unheard voices, challenging with purpose and delivering content which reflects the diversity of different communities across the UK. We are only able to deliver on this remit by having a leadership team rich in diversity of thought, background and lived experience.
Emmanuel & Clare Anyiam-Osigwe. The Husband and wife leadership team (BUFF).
The British Urban Film Festival (a.k.a BUFF) is the UK’s longest running film platform, built to recognise and represent diversity in all its forms. The festival was founded by Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe MBE in July 2005 and is one of 35 section B qualifying festivals which allow for films to be eligible for a BAFTA film award in the Best British short and Best British short animation categories. BUFF is also one of 38 qualifying festivals which allow for films to be eligible for a British independent film award across multiple BIFA categories. The festival also has partner ties with the Iris Prize LGBT+ film festival and the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA). In May 2023, BUFF was 1 of 10 Black-owned British businesses recognised and awarded a share of $100,000 in grant finance by the BeyGood foundation, founded by Beyonce Knowles-Carter (a UK first).
CREATING CHANGE THROUGH CINEMA.
Back row (left to right): Justin Chinyere (BUFF festival director), Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe MBE, Jeremy Hall (Managing Director, Dean Clough Ltd) Front row (left to right): Wendy Cook (general manager, Hyde Park Picturehouse), Tracy Brabin (Mayor of West Yorkshire), Bobsie Robinson, (Cultural services manager, Calderdale Council), Clare Anyiam-Osigwe BEM.
In January 2023, BUFF was invited by Mayor Tracy Brabin to relocate its film festival and key operations from London to West Yorkshire, demonstrating the perfect blend of timing, positioning and creative standout. Supported by rapid demographic changes in the region, this enabled the BUFF brand to identify the breadth of great creative talent on show during the Leeds year of culture (2023) with future years of culture scheduled in Calderdale (2024) and Bradford (2025).
The West Yorkshire Combined Authority comprises the West Yorkshire local authority areas of Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield, plus the City of York. This area is the UK's largest economic area outside London with a population of over 2.3 million. In May 2021, Tracy Brabin was elected Mayor of West Yorkshire. She is the first ever woman to serve as a metro mayor. As the Chair of the Combined Authority and Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP), the Mayor works with partners across the region and beyond to deliver regeneration and economic development, and co-ordinate the long-term programmes that will transform West Yorkshire.
BUFF’s PROGRAMME SCHEDULE
2024: Monthly film club screenings at Dean Clough in Halifax
Annual sponsorship (including festival naming rights and pre-festival branding) starts at £250,000.
2025
With BUFF’s 20th birthday entering full view and the council of Calderdale celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2024, there is plenty to celebrate over the coming years. BUFF's constant goal is to foster a utopian vision for cinema and to share that vision abundantly with the world every day. This goal is achieved by creating and facilitating platforms that can be consumed by people anytime and anywhere who are passionate about the business of storytelling. To date, BUFF has never had a host venue that it can truly call it’s own. Over the years the festival has been hosted at some of the UK’s most prestigious venues including Channel 4 headquarters, Ealing Studios and the BT Tower. This is where CineBUFF Halifax comes to the fore.
With every passing year, the execution of BUFF’s programme schedule is driven by our constant goal - fostering a utopian vision for cinema. And nothing will fulfill the Mayor of West Yorkshire’s vision for BUFF greater than a permanent home for the film festival in its 20th year in Halifax - a town that doesn’t have its own regular film festival but is now one of the most sought after locations for film and TV production (Happy Valley, Gentlemen Jack, Secret Invasion, Boat Story).
A 9000 square feet site has been identified in Dean Clough on which a film and television complex will be fitted out with purpose built cinema screens, television, sound and video post-production studios, production offices and a museum. The facility is scheduled to be open to the public in 2025 at a cost of £2.5 million pounds. With your help, time and investment over the next 3 years, together we can write a new chapter in the history of the British Urban Film Festival, the BUFF Awards and BUFF Studios.
PUTTING FILMMAKERS FIRST
As part of our ongoing commitment to filmmakers, We are also seeking your help, time and investment to secure £5 million pounds for a short film fund to be distributed amongst 30 directors for their next film projects and another £5 million for a feature film fund to be distributed amongst another 30 directors for their next film projects. All projects will be administered by BUFF Business Group, facilitating production and distribution of all 60 projects through BUFF Studios in Halifax and the film festival over a 36 month period. This period will also allow for the films to qualify for BAFTA and BIFA eligibility. Co-production credits will be assigned to companies and organisations in return for the allocation of funds specifically for the delivery of the 60 films by December 2026.
Contact us: info@buffestival.com
Since its’ inception in the 1890’s, cinema remains the most powerful platform to see great stories unfold before our very eyes. The most celebrated and the best stories are the ones that stay in our hearts long after the story is over. We welcome the opportunity for companies and organisations to write their own happy ending to the story of BUFF - creating change through cinema.
