AustLit

Children's Entertainment Films (CEF) was set up in 1943 by J. Arthur Rank (1888-1972). Under the direction of Mary Field (1898-1968), it produced and exhibited short films for children that were screened (largely on Saturday mornings) throughout much of England. In 1947, the company produced its first feature film, Bush Christmas, which was filmed entirely in Australia.

The financial burden placed on Rank by the CEF became unsustainable by the late 1940s. In 1951, he set up the Children's Film Foundation (CFF), a unique collaboration between film industry producers, exhibitors, and technical unions. The CFF's aim was to provide films for not just Rank cinemas, but all of Britain's picture houses. Mary Field was made the CFF's first chief executive, in which role she oversaw the CFF's first feature film, The Stolen Plans (1953). Continuing until the 1980s, the CFF produced more than eighty films. Many prominent directors, notably Michael Powell (q.v.), worked at one time for the CFF.