The BBFC and Film Certificates

The 'BBFC' stands for the British Board of Film Certification. The company states it's main aim is to 'helping children and families choose well when providing them with the guidance they need to help them choose what's right for them and what's not.' so the BBFC is a regulatory board that creates rules to categorise film's ensuring audiences are provided with information before a child watches a film. Society is conscious of the exposure children have to adult themes so the board help ensure parents are aware of what their children are watching. 

All films require a film certification to be released in the cinema. The process of getting a film certified includes a production team sending their edited film to the BBFC and then waiting to see their response. Sometimes, a film studio will want the age rating to be lowered so they will edit the film again and exclude some of the aspects that will make the rating higher. The BBFC make the rules as to what is seen as acceptable and unacceptable for certain age groups. The certificates include: Universal, Parental Guidance, 12A, 12, 15, 18 and R18.

Before arriving at a certificate, the BBFC will consider: 

- Scenes that include violence

- Scenes that include sex and/or nudity

- Scenes that include expletives

- Scenes that include discriminatory slurs 

- Scenes with self harm

- Scenes with criminal activity

- Scenes with behaviour that is considered to be dangerous 

- Scenes with drug use, alcohol and cigarettes

- Scenes with child characters and actors 

- Scenes with strobe lighting

For example the 'Wolf Of Wall Street' (2013) starring Leonardo Di Caprio, Jonah Hill and Margot Robbie featured the most expletives ever in a film, a record number of 715 expletives. As a result of the obscene language the film was certified an 18. 

In addition, the way an issue is handled will come into how a film is certified. If drug use is glamourised or encouraged it will receive a higher rating but if it is discouraged and seen as negative the certification may be lowered. 

Despite the strict regulations set by the BBFC, audiences can often complain to the board with concerns that the certification is wrong and should be changed. Films that fall into this category include: The Woman In Black, The Joker, Logan and Peter Rabbit. 

For our film, we discussed what the age rating would be taking into consideration the aspects that would raise a film's certification. Our film opening, is not designed for for children as it is horror film and our aim is for the film to be harrowing. Our film does not include any expletives or dangerous behaviour but the character does come across a scene where violence has taken place with blood and guts everywhere. The scene features a pig heads on a stake and this notion of violence would raise the certification. So, taking all of this into account, we believe the film would be given a 15 rating. Due to the opening scene not visually featuring a killing on camera, it would perhaps be given a lower rating than the film in it's entirety.