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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, distribution, and education. It is sponsored by the
The BFI runs the
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, and partially funded under the British Film Institute Act 1949.
Purpose
It was established in 1933 to encourage the development of the arts of film, television 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 andworld cinema
World cinema is a term in film theory 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. "Towards a positive de ...
and to establish, care for and develop collections reflecting the moving image history and heritage of the United Kingdom.
BFI activities
Archive
The BFI maintains the world's largestfilm archive
An archive is an accumulation of Historical document, historical records or Historical source, materials – in any medium – or the physical facility in which they are located.
Archives contain primary source documents that have accumula ...
, the BFI National Archive
The BFI National Archive is a department of the British Film Institute, and one of the largest film archives in the world. It was founded as the National Film Library in 1935; its first curator was Ernest Lindgren. In 1955, its name became the N ...
, previously called National Film Library (1935–1955), National Film Archive (1955–1992), and National Film and Television Archive (1993–2006). The archive contains more than 50,000 fiction films, over 100,000 non-fiction titles, and around 625,000 television programmes. The majority of the collection is British 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.
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 UK, specialising in seasons of classic, independent and non-English language films. It is operated by the British Film Institute.
His ...
(formerly the National Film Theatre (NFT)) and the BFI IMAX
The BFI IMAX is an IMAX cinema in the South Bank district of London, just north of London Waterloo railway station, Waterloo station. It is owned and operated by the British Film Institute. From 2012 until 2022, it had been operated by Odeon Cin ...
cinema, both located on the south bank of the River Thames
The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the R ...
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 3D screenings and 11,600 watts of digital surround sound. BFI Southbank (the National Film Theatre screens and the Studio) 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 theDepartment for Education
The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England.
A Department ...
to create the BFI Film Academy Network for young people aged between 16 and 25. A residential scheme is held at the NFTS
The National Film and Television School (NFTS) is a film, television and games school established in 1971 and based at Beaconsfield Studios in Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire, England. It is featured in the 2021 ranking by ''The Hollywood Repor ...
every year.
Festivals
The BFI runs the annualLondon Film Festival
The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and sho ...
along with BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival and the youth-orientated Future Film Festival.
Other activities
The BFI publishes the monthly ''Sight & Sound
''Sight and Sound'' (also spelled ''Sight & Sound'') is a British monthly film magazine published by the British Film Institute (BFI). It conducts the well-known, once-a-decade ''Sight and Sound'' Poll of the Greatest Films of All Time, ongoing ...
'' magazine as well as films on Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...
, 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 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 sequenti ...
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 #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon
''The Lost World of Mitchell & Kenyon'' is a BBC documentary series produced in conjunction with the British Film Institute. Three one-hour episodes were broadcast on BBC One in January 2005 and released on Region 2 DVD soon after.
The episodes ...
'', ''The Lost World of Friese-Greene
''The Lost World of Friese-Greene'' is a BBC documentary series produced in conjunction with the British Film Institute. Three one-hour episodes were broadcast on BBC Two in spring 2006.
The series, presented by Dan Cruickshank, retraces a ro ...
'', and ''The Lost World of Tibet
''The Lost World of Tibet'' is a BBC documentary film produced in conjunction with the British Film Institute. The 90-minute film was broadcast on BBC Two in November 2006.
The film is presented by Dan Cruickshank and features footage shot in ...
''.
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
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 ...
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: Patrick Keiller
Patrick Keiller (born 1950) is a British film-maker, writer and lecturer.
Biography
Keiller was born in 1950, in Blackpool and studied at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. In 1979 he joined the Royal College of Art ...
's 'The City of the Future', Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard
Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard are British artists and filmmakers.
Life and work
Forsyth and Pollard met and began working collaboratively while studying Fine Art and Art Theory at Goldsmiths College, graduating together in 1995. They initially f ...
's 'RadioMania: An Abandoned Work' and Deimantas Narkevicious
Deimantas is a Lithuanian masculine given name
A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as well, and differentiates that perso ...
' 'Into the Unknown'. The Gallery also initiated projects by film-makers such as Michael Snow
Michael Snow (born December 10, 1928) is a Canadian artist working in a range of media including film, installation, sculpture, photography, and music. His best-known films are '' Wavelength'' (1967) and '' La Région Centrale'' (1971), with the ...
, Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Apichatpong Weerasethakul ( th, อภิชาติพงศ์ วีระเศรษฐกุล; ; ) is a Thai independent film director, screenwriter, and film producer. Working outside the strict confines of the Thai film studio system ...
, 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—from the Privy Council and Treasury until 1965 and 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 theBritish Film Academy
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
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 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 (London), Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI) on the South Bank. MOMI was acclaimed internationally and set new standards for education through entertainment, but subsequently 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 14 governors. The current chair is Josh Berger, who took up the post in February 2016. He succeeded Greg Dyke, who took office on 1 March 2008. Dyke succeeded the late Anthony Minghella (film director), who was chair from 2003 until 31 December 2007. The chair of the board is appointed by the BFI's own Board of Governors but requires the consent of the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. Other Governors are co-opted by existing board members when required (but if one of these is appointed Deputy Chair, that appointment is subject to ratification by the Secretary of State). The BFI operates with three sources of income. The largest is public money allocated by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. In 2011–12, this funding amounted to approximately £20m. 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 (Paul Getty, J. Paul Getty, Jr. donated around £1m in his will following his death in 2003). 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 theDepartment for Education
The Department for Education (DfE) is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for child protection, child services, education (compulsory, further and higher education), apprenticeships and wider skills in England.
A Department ...
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 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 recently announced that it is teaming up with American diversity and inclusion program #StartWith8Hollywood founded by Thuc Doan Nguyen to make it global.
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) * Sydney Castle Roberts, 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) * Basil Engholm, Sir Basil Engholm (1978–1981) * Richard Attenborough, Lord Attenborough (1982–1992) * Jeremy Thomas (1993–1997) * Sir Alan Parker (1998–1999) * Joan Bakewell (1999–2002) * Anthony Minghella (2003–2007) * Roger Laughton (Acting) (2008) * Greg Dyke (2008–2016) * Josh Berger (2016–2021) * Tim Richards (2021–)BFI directors
* J. W. Brown (1933–1936) * Oliver Bell (1936–1949) * Denis Forman (1949–1955) * James Quinn (BFI Director), James Quinn (1955–1964) * Stanley Reed (1964–1972) * Keith Lucas (1972–1978) * Anthony Smith (producer), Anthony Smith (1979–1987) * Wilf Stevenson, Baron Stevenson of Balmacara, Wilf Stevenson (1988–1997) * Jane Clarke (acting, 1997) * John Woodward (1998–1999) * Jon Teckman (1999–2002) * Adrian Wootton (acting, 2002–2003) * Amanda Nevill (2003–2020) * Ben Roberts (2020–present)See also
* BFI The Top 50 Greatest Films of All Time * BFI 75 Most Wanted – the most sought-after films currently missing from the BFI archive * BFI Flipside – the DVD/Blu-ray collection dedicated to telling the alternative history of British film * BFI Top 100 British films * BFI TV 100 – a list of the best British television programmes * British Film Institute Fellowship, Fellows of the British Film Institute * Cinema of the United Kingdom * Independent Cinema in the United Kingdom * Screenonline – a history website run by the BFI external link below * List of film institutes * Association of European Film Archives and Cinematheques * Sutherland Trophy annual BFI award for "the maker of the most original and imaginative film introduced at the National Film Theatre during the year"References
External links
* {{Authority control 1933 establishments in the United Kingdom British Film Institute, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Film archives in the United Kingdom Film organisations in the United Kingdom History of television in the United Kingdom IMAX venues 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