type non profit private company limited by guarantee founded 2004 headquarters london england uk website official website the independent film trust is a uk registered charity 1 which was set up to advance the cause of independent film making . it works with groups such as the british independent film awards and the raindance film festival in fostering promoting and celebrating independent film making in the uk . the ift is run by the board of trustees which has been chaired since 2006 by neil mccartney . it was founded in 2004 by elliot grove . its patrons include sir alan parker faye dunaway terence davies bill forsyth john irvin mike leigh samantha morton tim roth and nick broomfield . mission edit the ift supports ventures and initiatives that encourage an interest in film production and viewing and which help emerging film makers to develop and express themselves through financing activities such as basic film courses for the disadvantaged screenings of quality films that did not reach the audience they deserved and the provision of training scholarships for those who have demonstrated talent but need monetary or other help . however the ift does not directly fund the development or production of individual films themselves . the charity s first film making course was set up in 2010 when it ran an eight week programme 2 for adults recovering from mental health issues working jointly with the raindance film making organisation and westminster mind . in september one of these films night music a 12 minute animation by paul jacques was selected for inclusion in the shorts programme of the raindance film festival . 3 in 2011 the ift joined with raindance and staffordshire university to set up a programme that leads to an ma or msc in film by negotiated learning . 4 raindance ift was the first outside body to be validated by the university to deliver such a course having been approved in august 2012 as a franchise partner . 5 the creation of an online version of the programme which was launched in october 2012 makes it available to students based anywhere in the world with access to a broadband internet connection . in theory a student could progress all the way to a master s degree without ever attending a designated physical location or actually meeting any of their tutors . that is provided that they had handed in work and projects that met the assignment guidelines and postgraduate requirements and kept up to date on fees . the programme is highly flexible and allows the students to choose their own modules and design and deliver them through self directed learning with raindance supplying support tutorials and access to its wide and varied range of classes . 6 references edit uk charities commission register of charities the guardian vision shorts 13.04.10 raindance 2010 lineup announced 07.09.10 1 raindance website 2 staffordshire university website 3 raindance website external links edit independent film trust retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title independent film trust & oldid 738684195 categories film organisations in the united kingdom navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 10 september 2016 at 13 20 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view