The Film Council has launched its UKP6m fund for Regional Investment for Film in England (RIFE) on Wednesday.

The partnership between the film super body and Screen East was signed and sealed in Cambridge on Wednesday, less than a week after the launch of their youth training scheme, First Light. Films Minister Dr Kim Howells attended the launch along with representatives from both the Film Council and Screen East.

RIFE will provide cash support for a range of film activities including film production, screen commissions, cinema exhibition, film training, archives and education. The establishment of the fund (an annual commitment for three years) comes after an extensive consultation programme carried out last year led by the Film Council. This included a national seminar and nine regional seminars with more than 500 people participating from across the regions.

Those contributing to the consultation process welcomed the conclusions of the Film Council's regional strategy and agreed that an injection of funding to be administered on a regional level was the most effective way to strengthen the growth of the film UK film industry on a local level.

Film Council CEO John Woodward said, "This is the first of many regional partnerships being made over the coming months. Strong regional film agencies are increasingly important to the film industry and invaluable to regional film culture."