Sheffield City Council approves DocFest funding extension

Previous DocFests have included numerous premieres, documentaries about the Spanish Civil War and fashion designer Alexander McQueen, and talks by Ronnie O'Sullivan and Sir David Attenborough

Sheffield's council has approved £100,000 funding for the city's world-renowned documentary festival.

The local authority will pay the one-off grant to DocFest in 2023 while it reviews its long-term financial support for the event.

Funding for next June's festival is a £50,000 cut to the council's contribution in previous years.

DocFest, which will mark its 30th anniversary next year, brings an estimated £1.4m into the city.

The council's previous three-year grant to the festival came to an end in 2022.

At a meeting of the authority's finance subcommittee on Monday, councillors approved a delay in new long-term funding amid changes in DocFest's management and to allow for a review of the council's financial support.

They unanimously voted through a one-year extension to the event's grant, with the cut of one third due to pressure on the authority's budget already agreed.

Councillor Mike Chaplin, who sits on the committee, said he was concerned the reduced funding "might jeopardise the ability of DocFest to stay within Sheffield and continue year-on-year".

But Diana Buckley, the council's director of economic development, skills and culture, said the cut had been made "in consultation" with festival organisers and "at the moment they feel comfortable with that".

She noted the festival had other sources of funding, including the British Film Institute.

The 2022 edition of DocFest brought 135 films, including 38 world premieres, to Sheffield.

The first DocFest was held in the city in 1994, showing 42 films over two days.