The BFI National Archive is a department of the

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

, and one of the largest

film archives An archive is an accumulation of historical records or materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located. Archives contain primary source documents that have accumulated over the course of an individual or ...

in the world. It was founded as the National Film Library in 1935; its first curator was

Ernest Lindgren Ernest Lindgren (3 October 1910 – 22 July 1973) was a British film archivist and writer. Career Lindgren joined the British Film Institute in February 1934 as Information Officer, and became the first curator of the National Film Library ...

. In 1955, its name became the National Film Archive, and, in 1992, the National Film and Television Archive. It was renamed BFI National Archive in 2006. It collects, preserves, restores, and shares the

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmospher ...

s and television programmes which have helped to shape and record British life and times since the development of cine film in the late 19th century. The majority of the collection is British originated material, but it also features internationally significant holdings from around the world. The Archive also collects films which feature key British actors and the work of British directors. The collections themselves are accommodated on several sites. The J. Paul Getty, Jr. Conservation Centre in

Berkhamsted Berkhamsted ( ) is a historic market town in Hertfordshire, England, in the Bulbourne valley, north-west of London. The town is a civil parish with a town council within the borough of Dacorum which is based in the neighbouring large new to ...

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For gov ...

, named after its benefactor, is the base for much of the restoration work, while approximately 140 million feet of unstable

nitrate film Nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate, flash paper, flash cotton, guncotton, pyroxylin and flash string, depending on form) is a highly flammable compound formed by nitrating cellulose through exposure to a mixture of nitric acid and ...

and all the master film collection held on acetate or other media is kept separately at a BFI storage site at Gaydon in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avo ...

BFI New Master Film Store Gaydon - offices

Preservation

Berkhamsted, The BFI National Archive Kingshill site - geograph

Film preservation Film preservation, or film restoration, describes a series of ongoing efforts among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images they contain. In the wid ...

is an ongoing project among filmmakers, historians, archivists, museums, and nonprofit organisations to rescue deteriorating

film stock Film stock is an analog medium that is used for recording motion pictures or animation. It is recorded on by a movie camera, developed, edited, and projected onto a screen using a movie projector. It is a strip or sheet of transparent ...

and preserve the recorded image. In recent years the BFI National Archive has completed a number of much anticipated restorations of a diverse range of film titles. This has included the

Mitchell and Kenyon The Mitchell & Kenyon film company was a pioneer of early commercial motion pictures based in Blackburn in Lancashire, England, at the start of the 20th century. They were originally best known for minor contributions to early fictional narrative ...

collection, which consists almost entirely of actuality films commissioned by travelling fairground operators for showing at local fairgrounds or other venues across the UK in the early part of the twentieth century. Other notable recent restorations include: *

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

's nine surviving silent feature films *'' Love, Life and Laughter (1923)'' *'' The Epic of Everest'' (1924) *'' The Great White Silence (1924)'' *'' Shooting Stars'' (dir. Anthony Asquith, 1927) *'' The Battles of Coronel and Falkland Islands'' (1927) *'' Shiraz: A Romance of India (1928)'' *'' The First Born (1928)'' *'' Underground'' (dir.

Anthony Asquith Anthony William Landon Asquith (; 9 November 1902 – 20 February 1968) was an English film director. He collaborated successfully with playwright Terence Rattigan on ''The Winslow Boy'' (1948) and '' The Browning Version'' (1951), among oth ...

, 1928) *'' The Informer (1929)'' *'' The Private Life of Henry VIII (1933)'' *'' Hell Drivers (1957)'' *'' Night of the Demon (1957)'' *'' The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)'' *'' Women in Love (1969)'' *'' Jabberwocky (1977)''

Collections

The collection now known as the BFI National Archive was founded as the National Film Library in 1935 by

, who was the first curator. The BFI National Archive now comprises over 275,000 titles in total consisting of feature, non-fiction, short films (dating from 1894), 210,000 television programmes and some artists' films. It is one of the largest film collections in the world. Notable collections include: *

collection * GPO Film Unit collection * Central Office of Information (COI) film collection * Chaplin Out-Takes collection The archive holds 20,000 silent films including,

Cecil Hepworth Cecil Milton Hepworth (19 March 1874 – 9 February 1953) was a British film director, producer and screenwriter. He was among the founders of the British film industry and continued making films into the 1920s at his Hepworth Studios. In ...

's ''

Alice in Wonderland ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (commonly ''Alice in Wonderland'') is an 1865 English novel by Lewis Carroll. It details the story of a young girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatur ...

'' (1903), and actively collects artists' moving images. In addition to moving image materials the Special Collections hold the records of filmmakers and institutions. Significant collections include: *

Michael Powell Michael Latham Powell (30 September 1905 – 19 February 1990) was an English filmmaker, celebrated for his partnership with Emeric Pressburger. Through their production company The Archers, they together wrote, produced and directed a seri ...

and Emeric Pressburger *

Carol Reed Sir Carol Reed (30 December 1906 – 25 April 1976) was an English film director and producer, best known for '' Odd Man Out'' (1947), '' The Fallen Idol'' (1948), ''The Third Man'' (1949), and ''Oliver!'' (1968), for which he was awarded the ...

David Lean Sir David Lean (25 March 190816 April 1991) was an English film director, producer, screenwriter and editor. Widely considered one of the most important figures in British cinema, Lean directed the large-scale epics ''The Bridge on the River ...

Ken Loach Kenneth Charles Loach (born 17 June 1936) is a British film director and screenwriter. His socially critical directing style and socialist ideals are evident in his film treatment of social issues such as poverty ('' Poor Cow'', 1967), homelessn ...

Derek Jarman Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman (31 January 1942 – 19 February 1994) was an English artist, film maker, costume designer, stage designer, writer, gardener and gay rights activist. Biography Jarman was born at the Royal Victoria Nursing Home ...

Alan Parker Sir Alan William Parker (14 February 1944 – 31 July 2020) was an English filmmaker. His early career, beginning in his late teens, was spent as a copywriter and director of television advertisements. After about ten years of filming adverts ...

Films and television programmes are acquired mainly by donation or, in the case of independent television, via funding direct from the TV companies. Emphasis is placed on British productions but whenever possible important and popular movies from overseas are also acquired. Films from the Archive have also acted as material for the BFI's programme of artists' moving image commissions, most notably through the programme of the

BFI Gallery The BFI Gallery was the BFI's contemporary art gallery dedicated to artists' moving image housed within BFI Southbank, the British Film Institute's flagship venue in London (previously known as the National Film Theatre). The space was funded by t ...

, the contemporary art space dedicated to artists' moving image active at

BFI Southbank BFI Southbank (from 1951 to 2007, known as the National Film Theatre) is the leading repertory cinema in the UK, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films. It is operated by the British Film Institute. His ...

between 2007 and 2011, including Patrick Keiller, Deimantas Narkevicious, Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard, Susan Pui San Lok.Fabrizi, Elisabetta, 'Is This Cinema?', in Balsom, E., Perks, S., Reynolds, L., (Ed.), 'Artists' Moving Image in Britain from 1989', Paul Mellon Foundation/Yale University Press, 2019.

References

External links

British Film InstituteBFI National ArchiveEuropean Film archives
{{Authority control 1935 establishments in the United Kingdom Archives in the United Kingdom Berkhamsted National Archive Film archives in the United Kingdom Film organisations in the United Kingdom History of television in the United Kingdom Television organisations in the United Kingdom Television archives in the United Kingdom Organizations established in 1935 The National Archives (United Kingdom)

Preservation

Collections

See also

References

External links