Committee Responsibilities
Showing Films
If your Club or Society wants to screen a film at one of your events, you need to think about licensing. Films are copyrighted material and you often need to pay a licensing agent a fee if you want to show films outside domestic (home) settings. This applies whether or not you intend to charge people to attend the event.
Similar rules apply to television shows, material on streaming sites like Netflix, commercial music, and theatrical scripts and songs. If your Club or Society is going to make use of any copyrighted material at your events and activities, it is your responsibility to research any licensing rules which apply to the material. This is easy to Google and we can also help if you're not sure.
The copyright owners and their agents do look online for any promotion of events using their material (e.g. a social media post promoting a Society movie night showing one of their films). Clubs and Societies failing to observe licensing rules could be contacted by copyright owners or their agents and legal action could be taken.
The Students' Union has an account with a licensing agent called Filmbankmedia. This agent looks after more than 13,000 films and you can browse their catalogue on their website. Clubs and Societies wishing to screen a film in the SU should check that it's available on Filmbankmedia and then complete the request form below. Please note the request must be received at least 10 working days before your planned screening. The fee you will pay depends on how many people are going to attend your screening, and how much you intend to charge them. Most screenings will incur a licensing fee of around £90 - £100. Larger screenings (e.g. in the Mandela Hall) could cost £150 - £160 to license. If you cancel your screening, you must inform us at least two working days before your planned screening date. This allows us to contact Filmbankmedia to enquire around refunding the fee. Please note that Filmbankmedia will not offer any refunds without adequate notice, and may retain an admin charge if they do issue a refund.
Outside the SU, you should manage licensing yourselves, as the Students' Union's Filmbankmedia account only covers SU spaces.