Film Certificates

Here we have researched different film certificates and given the basics of the allowances of a 15 certificate film and an 18.

15
A film with a 15 certificate has no prohibited themes, providing the treatment is appropriate to a 15 year old audience, and frequent use of strong language is accepted, but some of the strongest terms, (e.g., ‘cunt’ are only acceptable where the context of the language justifies its use. In a 15, there are no constraints on nudity in an educational or non-sexual context, but nudity in a sexual context can only be shown without much detail. The same stands for sexual activity, it may be portrayed in a 15 but without strong detail. Strong violence is allowed but cannot dwell on the infliction of pain or injury and any sexual violence must be brief. Weapons that are easily accessible should not be glamorised and dangerous techniques such as suicide or combat should not dwell on imitable detail. In terms of horror, menace and strong threat are permitted, but the strongest gory images are unlikely to be. Drug use may be shown, but the film must not encourage or promote drug misuse.

18
An 18 allows for a lot more than a 15 certificated film, but does not allow detailed portrayal of violence, dangerous acts of illegal drug use. Other things unacceptable in 18 rated films are portryals of sexual violence and more explicit images of sexual activity, unless they can be justified by the context.

http://www.bbfc.co.uk/

The rating of our film.Our film will have a 15 certificate. One of the reasons for this is that a film certificated with a 15 rating has a larger target audience, as there is a wider range of people able to see the film. Also, the cinema is very popular within the 15-17 age range, so a film rated at 18 is missing out on a large percentage of its potential market.We have no desire to show the scales of violence or nudity that is only acceptable in an 18 certificate film. The extent of violence shown in out film will not be extreme, there will be no graphic blood or violence, and the extent of nudity and drug use will be within the boundaries of a 15 certificate film.Our film is of the spy genre, and after researching other films of the same genre, such as True Lies and Enemy of the State, which are rated at 15. There are no films of this genre rated higher than a 15, and Mission Impossible III was even rated at a 12A.
Using our research and ideas, we conclude that a 15 certificate is most appropriate for our film.