Looking back over the past 12 months, who could forget the Queen’s cameo role in the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics?

The opening ceremony also included many other references to British film, illustrating the power of film to promote British culture across the world.

Last year also marked the 50th anniversary of Bond and Skyfall, the 23rd official 007 film, became the highest-earning film in UK box office history.

The British Film Institute has recently published its annual review of statistics relating to British film for the past year and although it makes encouraging reading, there are warnings that more research is needed in to our viewing habits, especially with the increase in video on demand services as many people choose to watch films and TV on computers and handheld devices.

There are also ongoing warnings over the value of online film and piracy or people accessing content for free. At the same time, cinema admissions have been on a plateau for the past ten years and the challenge for the industry is to grow cinema audiences at a time when choice across all platforms continues to increase.

Reading through some of the statistics collected by the BFI, there are a few surprises. The over-45 age range represented the highest proportion of cinema goers (36 per cent) for the first time since their records began. The BFI put this down to a number of 2012 releases such as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Salmon Fishing In The Yemen.

Meanwhile, British films continue to do well internationally, especially in Europe and the USA with films such as The Woman In Black, The Iron Lady and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel doing particularly well. The same can also be said of British actors who played some of the most iconic superheroes of popular culture in 2012 – Batman (Christian Bale), Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield) and Superman (Henry Cavill).

As a City of Film, Bradford is keen to play our part in supporting new films such as The Selfish Giant which took the Cannes Film Festival by storm, but also to be in a better position to respond to an increasing number of filming requests as international productions continue to take advantage of the Governments tax credit scheme for film which has also recently been applied to high-end TV drama.

For more on City of Film, visit bradford-city-of-film.com.

David Wilson, director Bradford UNESCO City of Film