Advanced Television

BBFC: 2023 biggest year for cinema submissions in a decade

November 13, 2024

The British Board of Classification (BBFC) has published its Annual Report and Accounts for 2023, revealing insights into the UK’s film and cinema industry. The latest report reveals an uplift in overall content submitted for cinema classification, marking a ten-year record number of submissions in the two most popular age rating categories.

2023 saw 1,114 cinema submissions to the BBFC, representing a 14 per cent increase from submissions recorded in 2013. The 15 category remained the BBFC’s most frequently issued age rating in 2023, totalling nearly 500 submissions – another record for the decade. Films classified 15 in 2023 include Oppenheimer, Saltburn, How To Have Sex, Cocaine Bear and Talk To Me. The 12A category also saw a ten-year record, with over 380 cinema films classified at the category in 2023, including Barbie, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, Polite Society and The Boy and the Heron (pictured).

Last summer, the BBFC announced new advancements in exploring the power of AI to enhance content classification to further its core mission of helping audiences to make informed viewing decisions. Building on its extensive expertise, the BBFC is developing two new tools that utilise AI technology to help the industry adapt to evolving audience viewing habits while improving the efficiency of the human aspect of compliance, which will always remain imperative to the process.

The first of these tools will enable access to locally sensitive age ratings for use in over 100 territories globally, removing the cost and resource barriers currently limiting VoD services’ adoption of BBFC ratings in the UK and other established rating systems worldwide. The second tool, currently in development, will use generative AI to identify and tag online content issues, offering large-scale efficiencies to content providers’ compliance requirements.

In 2023, as part of its increasing collaboration with streaming platforms operating in the UK, the BBFC announced plans to strengthen its partnership with Prime Video. With a view to establishing a self-rating system similar to the BBFC’s existing successful agreement with Netflix, the BBFC worked closely with Prime Video to refine the platform’s internal rating processes ahead of the wider adoption of BBFC age ratings and content advice across the service, ultimately making it even easier for Prime Video customers to choose the right content for themselves and their families.

David Austin OBE, Chief Executive of the BBFC, commented: “Following a precarious few years for the film and entertainment industry, it was encouraging to see cinema submissions increase in 2023. Looking forward, the BBFC will continue to deliver on our mission to support safer viewing experiences for UK audiences by supporting the cinema and home entertainment industries, as well as extending and enhancing our best-practice partnerships with streaming services. As an extension of this, our groundbreaking work with AI will make trusted BBFC age ratings and content advice more accessible than ever before, enabling us to better meet the needs of our industry partners and ensure that families have the guidance they want and expect when choosing what to watch. There are exciting times ahead for the BBFC.”

Natasha Kaplinsky OBE, President of the BBFC, added: “Last year was transformative for the Board, shaping our vision for the next five years. Participating in my first, and largest ever, Classification Guidelines consultation led to the publication of insightful research. The findings, together with our close work with major UK streaming platforms, signal the start of an exciting period for the BBFC. I am incredibly proud to work with such a talented team and look forward keenly to the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead.”

Categories: Articles, Content, Research

Tags: , , , ,