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 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 (formerly the National Film Theatre (NFT)) and the BFI IMAX 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 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'' 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 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 frames 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 BFI Southbank 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, Jane and Louise Wilson and John Akomfrah. 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 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 and the Privy Council. In 1988, the BFI opened the London Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI) on the South Bank. 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, 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 UK Film Council 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. 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 (1946–1948) * Cecil Harmsworth King (1948–1952) * S. C. Roberts (1952–1956) * Sylvester Gates (1956–1964) * Sir William Coldstream (1964–1971) * Sir Denis Forman (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 (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 (2007–2016) * Josh Berger (2016–2021) * Tim Richards (2021–2024) * Jay Hunt (2024–)

BFI directors

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