National Film Finance Corporation


The National Film Finance Corporation was a film funding agency in the United Kingdom which operated from 1949 until it was wound up in 1985. The NFFC was established by the Cinematograph Film Production Act 1949, and further enhanced by the Cinematograph Film Production Act 1952, which gave the NFFC the power to borrow from sources other than the Board of Trade. The NFFC was abolished by the Films Act 1985.
The lawyer John Terry served as the NFFC's manager for twenty years from 1958 to 1978. During that time he helped to secure the backing for hundreds of films and which launched the careers of several prominent figures in the film industry, including director Ridley Scott and producer David Puttnam.
John Terry was succeeded in 1979 by film maker Mamoun Hassan who changed the direction of the NFFC: "Hassan is the nearest thing to a whizz-kid that this country's film establishment has yet produced. Hassan has replied to early salvoes aimed at his policies by firing back at his detractors with more spirit than one has ever known from the NFFC before, in its generation-long history."
Prior to leaving the NFFC, David Robinson of The Times commented: "Certainly Hassan's five and a half years at the Corporation have been characterized by independence and vim. His enthusiasm, pugnacity, taste and passionate championing of an indigenous cinema have made him a significant figure in the progressive areas of British cinema."
Hassan left the NFFC in 1984 to return to film production.