"The prospect of losing a valuable resource such as the UKFC is of great concern to us... We respectfully request careful consideration of our concerns in deciding the fate of the UKFC"

Clint Eastwood

"the British Government’s proposed abolition of the UK Film Council is a major betrayal to film-makers, the industry and the medium of film"

Mike Goodridge, editor of Screen

"I found the news deeply shocking. It really did come out of the blue."

Jane Wrigh, Managing Director & Executive Director at BBC films

"This is literally a bolt from the blue for everybody in the industry, including the UKFC. There has been no consultation, no evaluation, very little consideration of how to take forward the different parts that the film industry does. The DCMS statement begs many more questions than it answers."

Paul Trijbits, of Ruby Films

"Today’s announcement proposing the abolition of the UK Film Council, which would appear to have come out of the blue, will take some time to digest fully. Over the past decade, the Film Council has been a layer of strategic glue that’s helped bind the many parts of our disparate industry together. It is sure to be widely missed, not least because the UK Cinema industry is in the midst of a fundamental transformation at the heart of which is digital roll-out... On the welcome premise that government and lottery support for film will continue, I will look forward to discussing ways in which a new, coherent plan for film can be developed and implemented to benefit audiences throughout the UK."

Lord Puttnam

"catastrophic... We should not forget that film is an industry and one in which the UK excels both at home and abroad. We employ 36,000 people and contributed over £4.5bn to GDP in 2009. This is an astonishing decision by government – without the merest hint of consultation with either the wider film industry or the UK Film Council itself. The decision flies in the face of economic sense."

Roger Michell, of Directors UK

"This is going to affect not just new film-makers but established ones too. The government is saying there will still be the lottery funding, but it’s the distribution that is key. That is a dark art as it is, but to axe the current system with no idea how to go forward is outrageous."

Rebecca O’Brien, Producer

"The decision to scrap the UK Film Council is like ‘abolishing the NHS. It’s totally out of order. It’s very hard to know what they are actually going to sustain and what they will abandon"

Mike Leigh

"This has come as a huge surprise, and it will take time to comprehend all the implications."

John Hurt

"I am deeply disappointed but not that surprised – we were just waiting for the axe to fall. I’m interested that the DCMS says it wants to build a more direct link between the British Film Industry and government – I thought its whole thing was detaching government from interfering with the running of our culture. They don’t strike me as people who understand the film business, or even the culture business."

Mike Figgis, director

"a mad move by macho numbercrunchers. It made UK a gargantuan load of money."

Armando Iannucci, (via Twitter)

"I’m absolutely gobsmacked by this. It is not at all clear what the heck is going to happen next. The big fear is that the government is not really committed to supporting film in the way that it was."

David Thompson, the former head of BBC Films

"The UK Film Council was essentially the equivalent of a research and development department. In cutting it, it is destructive to our emerging young talent. There is no other organisation that could invest in the future as it did"

Ken Loach

"We were already streamlining and reducing the number of quangos but, like so much of what this government is doing, this appears hasty, ill-thought through and incoherent. For example, the UK Film Industry has just had its best year ever, earning millions for our country, but the government is axing the UK Film Council without saying a what or who will do its important work"

Ben Bradshaw, shadow culture secretary

"Extremely disappointed. It’s taken a while for the Film Council to find its feet and become a real service – and they have done that now. It’s short-sighted to think that films would have been made without the organisation."

Stephen Woolley, director