Movie News

The British Board of Classification (BBFC) has published its Annual Report and Accounts for 2023, revealing unique 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% increase from submissions recorded in 2013. The 15 category remained the BBFC's most frequently issued age rating in 2023, totalling nearly 500 submissions 203 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 .

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.

Smile is a 2022 US horror mystery thriller by Parker Finn
Starring Sosie Bacon, Jessie T. Usher and Kyle Gallner

After witnessing a bizarre, traumatic incident involving a patient, a psychiatrist becomes increasingly convinced she is being threatened by an uncanny entity.

Thanks to Daniel who comments:

Channel 4's screening of Smile on the 19th October was censored.

Despite the fact that the screening started twenty minutes after the watershed and detailed warnings about the content were given just prior, the opening suicide scene was edited to remove a shot of Caitlin Stasey's character impassively cutting her throat with a shard of broken vase. The scene is crucial in establishing the film's tone early on.

There may have been more cuts but I turned it off. I always understood that Channel 4 policy was to screen films intact after the watershed...guess that's no longer the case.

It is worth noting that the subsequent repeat broadcast on 4seven after 10:00pm was uncut. I did query Channel 4 as to why the film's initial broadcast was censored, and they cited Ofcom guidelines as the reason for the 16 second edit. As the film was shown after the watershed and has an 18 certificate, an uncut screening should have been possible.

As Film4 also cut the late night screening of Lords Of Chaos some time back for images relating to suicide despite the fact that it was also classified uncut at 18, I get the feeling that the cut made to Smile is part of a pattern in which images of suicide are being singled out specifically.

All that said, Channel 4 do deserve a bit of credit for correcting the much lower profile repeat. https://www.classification.gov.au/titles/falling-place
 

Update: There's no time left in the day for grown up viewing

9th November 2024. Thanks to Neil

There was a report commissioned by OFCOM in Oct 2023 which discussed research into attitudes towards sex and violence on UK TV - primarily using the watershed as a benchmark for when stronger content can be scheduled by broadcasters.

The broadcasting code, and the wider expectation of the general public as always been:

Whilst there were some initial calls to postpone the watershed to later in the evening to better reflect changing parenting styles, on greater reflection, participants decided a gradual transition from 9pm onwards and the use of clear warnings, was a better option.

In the instance of SMILE on Channel 4, the broadcaster deemed the expository explicit suicide as being too strong during the 9-10pm transition period, and hence why they decided to cut this scene to avoid reprimand from OFCOM.

I agree that Channel 4 should have scheduled this film later, given the 18 rating.

Longlegs is a 2024 Canada/US crime horror thriller by Oz Perkins
Starring Maika Monroe, Nicolas Cage and Blair Underwood

In pursuit of a serial killer, an FBI agent uncovers a series of occult clues that she must solve to end his terrifying killing spree.

The BBFC has published minutes of meeting where the classification of Longlegs was discussed as the classification decision had been the subject of two complaints saying that the film was too strong for a 15 rating. The BBFC explained:

[ Spoilers! hover or click text below]

The BBFC classified the film 15 uncut for strong violence, gore, threat, horror and language, first for home entertainment and subsequently for theatrical release. The BBFC received two complaints from members of the public who believed that the film appeared too strong for 15, with regard to a scene in which the serial killer, Longlegs, repeatedly bashes his head on a table, which is a moment of gore and self-injury that results in his death. The scene had been discussed in the Compliance meeting on 21 August 2024 with regard to whether it was on the 15/18 borderline due to what may be considered an example of the strongest gory images, which would require an 18.

The BBFC's Classification Guidelines at 15 state with regard to suicide and self-harm that [s]cenes of suicide and self-harm should not be frequent or endorsed. Glamorisation of suicide or self-harm may result in a higher rating. Graphic depictions or detailed references are unlikely to be permitted. For threat and horror, There may be strong threat and horror. A sustained focus on sadistic threat is unlikely to be acceptable. And violence may be strong but there should not be sustained focus on the infliction of pain or victims suffering. The strongest gory images may occur if justified by context (for example, war, medical detail). Prolonged sadistic violence is unlikely to be acceptable.'

The Classifiers were asked to consider the scene for informational purposes and did so within the context of the film as a whole. They considered that the gore is self-inflicted, by the serial killer character, and that the scene does not show Longlegs' method of taking his own life to be an attractive solution or one likely to be effective. They noted that the real-world setting strengthens the impact of the scene and that the film has a sustained creepiness but that the film's supernatural and satanic elements provide mitigation. Some Compliance Officers considered that the more the Longlegs character is seen, the less creepy he appears, and so considered the 15 decision to be correct. The Classifiers agreed that Longlegs had been appropriately placed at the 15 category.