The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves

filmmaking Filmmaking or film production is the process by which a Film, motion picture is produced. Filmmaking involves a number of complex and discrete stages, beginning with an initial story, idea, or commission. Production then continues through screen ...

and

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, distribution, and education. It is sponsored by the

Department for Culture, Media and Sport The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It holds the responsibility for Culture of the United Kingdom, culture a ...

, and partially funded under the British Film Institute Act 1949.

Activities

Purpose

The BFI was established in 1933 to encourage the development of the arts of

film A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

and the moving image throughout the United Kingdom, to promote their use as a record of contemporary life and manners, to promote education about film, television and the moving image generally, and their impact on society, to promote access to and appreciation of the widest possible range of British and

world cinema World cinema is a term in film theory in the United States that refers to films made outside of the American motion picture industry, particularly those in opposition to the aesthetics and values of commercial American cinema.Nagib, Lúcia. ...

and to establish, care for and develop collections reflecting the moving image history, heritage and

culture of the United Kingdom The culture of the United Kingdom is influenced by its History of the United Kingdom, combined nations' history, its interaction with the cultures of Europe, the individual diverse cultures of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and ...

Cinemas

The BFI runs the

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

(formerly the National Film Theatre (NFT)) and the

BFI IMAX The BFI IMAX is an IMAX cinema in the Waterloo district of London, just north of Waterloo station. It is owned and operated by the British Film Institute. From 2012 until 2022, it was operated by Odeon Cinemas. The cinema is located in the ce ...

cinema, both located on the south bank of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

in London. The IMAX has the largest cinema screen in the UK and shows popular recent releases and short films showcasing its technology, which includes IMAX 70mm screenings, IMAX 3D screenings and 11,600 watts of digital surround sound. BFI Southbank shows films from all over the world, particularly critically acclaimed historical and specialised films that may not otherwise get a cinema showing. The BFI also distributes archival and cultural cinema to other venues – each year to more than 800 venues all across the UK, as well as to a substantial number of overseas venues.

Education

The BFI offers a range of education initiatives, in particular to support the teaching of film and media studies in schools. In late 2012, the BFI received money from the

Department for Education The Department for Education (DfE) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for child protection, child services, education in England, educati ...

to create the BFI Film Academy Network for young people aged between 16 and 25. A residential scheme is held at the NFTS every year.

Festivals

The BFI runs the annual

London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the British Film Institute, BFI estim ...

along with BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival and the youth-orientated Future Film Festival.

Other activities

:''See also :British Film Institute films'' The BFI publishes the monthly ''

Sight & Sound ''Sight and Sound'' (formerly written ''Sight & Sound'') is a monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). Since 1952, it has conducted the well-known decennial ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time. ...

'' magazine, as well as films on

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

, DVD and books. It runs the BFI National Library (a reference library), and maintains the

BFI Film & TV Database The BFI Film & TV Database (ftvdb) is an online database created by the British Film Institute containing information related to movies, television shows, actors, production crew personnel, video games and fictional characters featured in visual ...

and Summary of Information on Film and Television (SIFT), which are databases of credits, synopses and other information about film and television productions. SIFT has a collection of about 7 million

still frame In filmmaking, video production, animation, and related fields, a frame is one of the many '' still images'' which compose the complete ''moving picture''. The term is derived from the historical development of film stock, in which the sequentia ...

s from film and television. The BFI has co-produced a number of television series featuring footage from the BFI National Archive, in partnership with the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, including '' The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon'', '' The Lost World of Friese-Greene'' and '' The Lost World of Tibet''. The BFI has also produced contemporary artists' moving image work, most notably through the programme of the BFI Gallery, which was located at

from March 2007 to March 2011. The programme of the gallery resulted in several new commissions by leading artists, including projects which engaged directly with the BFI National Archive, among which are Patrick Keiller's 'The City of the Future', Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard's 'RadioMania: An Abandoned Work' and Deimantas Narkevicious' 'Into the Unknown'. The Gallery also initiated projects by film-makers such as

Michael Snow Michael James Aleck Snow (December 10, 1928 – January 5, 2023) was a Canadian artist who worked in a range of media including film, installation, sculpture, photography, and music. His best-known films are ''Wavelength'' (1967) and '' La Rég ...

Apichatpong Weerasethakul Apichatpong Weerasethakul (; ; , born 16 July 1970) is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, film producer and Professor at Tama Art University in Tokyo. Working outside the strict confines of the Thai film studio system, Apichatpong h ...

, Jane and Louise Wilson and

John Akomfrah Sir John Akomfrah (born 4 May 1957) is a Ghanaian-born British artist, writer, film director, screenwriter, theorist and curator of Ghanaian descent, whose "commitment to a radicalism both of politics and of cinematic form finds expression in ...

. The BFI also operates a streaming service called BFI Player. This streaming service offers a variety of niche and art films.

Organisation

History

The institute was founded in 1933. Despite its foundation resulting from a recommendation in a report on ''Film in National Life'', at that time the institute was a private company, though it has received public money throughout its history. This came from the Privy Council and Treasury until 1965, and from the various culture departments since then. The institute was restructured following the Radcliffe Report of 1948, which recommended that it should concentrate on developing the appreciation of filmic art, rather than creating film itself. Thus control of educational film production passed to the National Committee for Visual Aids in Education and the British Film Academy assumed control for promoting production. From 1952 to 2000, the BFI provided funding for new and experimental film-makers via the BFI Production Board. The institute received a

royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, but ...

in 1983. This was updated in 2000, and in the same year the newly established

UK Film Council The UK Film Council (UKFC) was a non-departmental public body set up in 2000 to develop and promote the film industry in the UK. It was constituted as a private company limited by guarantee, owned by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and ...

took responsibility for providing the BFI's annual grant-in-aid (government subsidy). As an independent registered charity, the BFI is regulated by the

Charity Commission The Charity Commission for England and Wales is a non-ministerial department of His Majesty's Government that regulates registered charities in England and Wales and maintains the Central Register of Charities. Its counterparts in Scotland and ...

and the Privy Council. In 1988, the BFI opened the London

Museum of the Moving Image The Museum of the Moving Image is a media museum located in a former building of the historic Astoria Studios (now Kaufman Astoria Studios), in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens in New York City. The museum originally opened in 1988 as the Am ...

(MOMI) on the

South Bank The South Bank is an entertainment and commercial area on the south bank of the River Thames, in the London Borough of Lambeth, central London, England. The South Bank is not formally defined, but is generally understood to be situated betwe ...

. MOMI was acclaimed internationally and set new standards for education through entertainment, but it did not receive the high levels of continuing investment that might have enabled it to keep pace with technological developments and ever-rising audience expectations. The museum was "temporarily" closed in 1999 when the BFI stated that it would be re-sited. This did not happen, and MOMI's closure became permanent in 2002 when it was decided to redevelop the South Bank site. This redevelopment was itself then further delayed.

Today

The BFI is currently managed on a day-to-day basis by its chief executive, Ben Roberts. Supreme decision-making authority rests with a chair and a board of up to 15 governors. The current chair is Jay Hunt, a television executive, who took up the post in February 2024. Governors, including the Chair, are appointed by the

Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport The secretary of state for culture, media and sport, also referred to as the culture secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with overall responsibility for strategy and po ...

. The BFI operates with three sources of income. The largest is public money allocated by the

. For the year 2021–22, the BFI received £74.31m from the DCMS as Grant-in-Aid funding. The second largest source is commercial activity such as receipts from ticket sales at BFI Southbank or the BFI London IMAX theatre (£5m in 2007), sales of DVDs, etc. Thirdly, grants and sponsorship of around £5m are obtained from various sources, including National Lottery funding grants, private sponsors and through donations ( J. Paul Getty, Jr., who died in 2003, left the BFI a legacy of around £1m in his will). The BFI is also the distributor for all Lottery funds for film (in 2011–12 this amounted to c.£25m). As well as its work on film, the BFI also devotes a large amount of its time to the preservation and study of British television programming and its history. In 2000, it published a high-profile list of the

100 Greatest British Television Programmes The BFI TV 100 is a list of 100 television programmes or series that was compiled in 2000 by the British Film Institute (BFI), as chosen by a poll of industry professionals, with the aim to determine the best British television programmes of any ...

, as voted for by a range of industry figures. The delayed redevelopment of the National Film Theatre finally took place in 2007, creating in the rebranded "BFI Southbank" new education spaces, a contemporary art gallery dedicated to the moving image (the BFI Gallery), and a pioneering mediatheque which for the first time enabled the public to gain access, free of charge, to some of the otherwise inaccessible treasures in the National Film & Television Archive. The mediatheque has proved to be the most successful element of this redevelopment, and there are plans to roll out a network of them across the UK. An announcement of a £25 million capital investment in the Strategy for UK Screen Heritage was made by Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport at the opening night of the 2007 London Film Festival. The bulk of this money paid for long overdue development of the BFI National Archive facilities in Hertfordshire and Warwickshire. During 2009, the

persuaded the government that there should only be one main public-funded body for film, and that body should be the UKFC, while the BFI should be abolished. In 2010, the government announced that there would be a single body for film. Despite intensive lobbying (including, controversially, using public funding to pay public relations agencies to put its case forward), the UKFC failed to persuade the government that it should have that role and, instead, the BFI took over most of the UKFC's functions and funding from 1 April 2011, with the UKFC being subsequently abolished. Since then, the BFI has been responsible for all Lottery funding for film—originally in excess of £25m p.a., and currently in excess of £40m p.a. The BFI Film Academy forms part of the BFI's overall 5–19 Education Scheme. The programme is being supported by the

in England who have committed £1m per annum funding from April 2012 and 31 March 2015. It is also funded through the National Lottery,

Creative Scotland Creative Scotland ( ; ) is the development body for the arts and creative industries in Scotland. Based in Edinburgh, it is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the execut ...

and

Northern Ireland Screen Not to be confused with Screen Ireland. Northern Ireland Screen is the national screen agency for Northern Ireland. The agency's purpose is to promote the development of a sustainable film, animation and television production industry.About Us > ...

. On 29 November 2016, the BFI announced that over 100,000 television programmes are to be digitised before the video tapes, which currently have an estimated five-to-six-year shelf life, become unusable. The BFI aims to make sure that the television archive is still there in 200 years' time. The BFI announced in February 2021 that it is teaming up with American diversity and inclusion program #StartWith8Hollywood founded by Thuc Doan Nguyen to make it global.

Leadership

The BFI is currently chaired by Jay Hunt and run by CEO Ben Roberts and deputy CEO Harriet Finney.

BFI Chair

* George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 5th Duke of Sutherland (1933–1936) * Sir Charles Cleland (1936–1937) * Sir George Clerk (1938–1939) * William Brass, 1st Baron Chattisham (1939–1945) *

Patrick Gordon Walker Patrick Chrestien Gordon Walker, Baron Gordon-Walker, (7 April 1907 – 2 December 1980) was a British Labour Party politician. He was a Member of Parliament for nearly 30 years and twice a cabinet minister. He lost his Smethwick parliamenta ...

(1946–1948) *

Cecil Harmsworth King Cecil Harmsworth King (20 February 1901 – 17 April 1987) was Chairman of Daily Mirror Newspapers, Sunday Pictorial Newspapers, and the International Publishing Corporation (1963–1968), and a director at the Bank of England (1965–1968). B ...

(1948–1952) * S. C. Roberts (1952–1956) * Sylvester Gates (1956–1964) * Sir

William Coldstream Sir William Menzies Coldstream, CBE (28 February 1908 – 18 February 1987) was an English realist painter and a long-standing art teacher. Biography Coldstream was born at Belford, Northumberland, in northern England, the second son of co ...

(1964–1971) * Sir

Denis Forman Sir John Denis Forman (13 October 1917 – 24 February 2013) was a Scottish executive in the British television industry long associated with the ITV contractor Granada, and with various charitable and governmental bodies in the arts. Career F ...

(1971–1973) * Lord Lloyd of Hampstead (1973–1976) * John Freeman (1976–1977) * Enid Wistrich (Acting) (1977–1978) * Sir Basil Engholm (1978–1981) * Lord Attenborough (1981–1992) *

Jeremy Thomas Jeremy Jack Thomas (born 26 July 1949) is a British film producer. He is the founder and chairman of Recorded Picture Company. He produced Bernardo Bertolucci's '' The Last Emperor'', which won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Picture. In 20 ...

(1992–1997) * Sir

Alan Parker Sir Alan William Parker (14 February 1944 – 31 July 2020) was an English film director, screenwriter and producer. His early career, beginning in his late teens, was spent as a copywriter and director of television advertisements. After abo ...

(1997–1999) * Joan Bakewell (1999–2002) *

Anthony Minghella Anthony Minghella (6 January 195418 March 2008) was a British film director, playwright, and screenwriter. He was chairman of the board of Governors at the British Film Institute between 2003 and 2007. He directed ''Truly, Madly, Deeply (film), ...

(2002–2007) * Roger Laughton (Acting) (2008) *

Greg Dyke Gregory Dyke (born 20 May 1947) is a British media executive, football administrator, journalist and broadcaster. Since the 1960s, Dyke has had a long career in the UK in print and then broadcast journalism. He is credited with introducing " t ...

(2007–2016) * Josh Berger (2016–2021) * Tim Richards (2021–2024) * Jay Hunt (2024–)

BFI directors

* J. W. Brown (1933–1936) * Oliver Bell (1936–1949) *

(1949–1955) * James Quinn (1955–1964) * Stanley Reed (1964–1972) * Keith Lucas (1972–1978) * Anthony Smith (1978–1987) * Wilf Stevenson (1987–1997) * Jane Clarke (acting, 1997) * John Woodward (1997–1999) * Jon Teckman (1999–2002) * Adrian Wootton (acting, 2002–2003) * Amanda Nevill (2003–2020) * Ben Roberts (2020–present)

References

External links

* * website {{Authority control 1933 establishments in the United Kingdom Department for Culture, Media and Sport Film archives in the United Kingdom Film organisations in the United Kingdom History of television in the United Kingdom Non-departmental public bodies of the United Kingdom government Organisations based in the London Borough of Camden Organizations established in 1933 Television organisations in the United Kingdom Television archives in the United Kingdom