WHAT THE BFI IS
The British Film Institute is the UK's lead organisation for film and the moving image. It is a charity that receives government funding through the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and distributes National Lottery money through its Film Fund to support British film production. Founded in 1933, it now operates across film preservation, funding, education, exhibition, distribution, and digital access — which makes it one of the most structurally important organisations in UK culture, and one of the least understood by the audiences it serves.
WHAT IT ACTUALLY DOES
Film preservation and archive: The BFI National Archive is one of the world's largest film and television archives — over a million items, including the most complete collection of British film and television history in existence. The BFI preserves and restores films that would otherwise be lost — not just the canonical British classics, but the ephemeral films, the newsreels, the early British cinema, the work that doesn't have commercial champions to fund its preservation. Without the BFI Archive, a substantial portion of British film and television history would not exist.
Film funding: The BFI Film Fund distributes National Lottery money to support British film production, development, and distribution. The films it has supported include significant portions of the contemporary British independent cinema tradition — the Ken Loach films, the work of Steve McQueen, Andrea Arnold, Joanna Hogg, and the broader range of British independent production that doesn't have commercial studio backing. Without the Film Fund, much of what is considered British cinema would not have been made.
Film Hub Network: The BFI administers a network of Film Hubs across the UK — regional organisations that support independent cinema exhibition, film education, and audience development outside London. Film Hub North covers the North of England; Film Hub Wales covers Wales; and so on across the regions. The Film Hub Network is the infrastructure that keeps independent cinemas outside London operating and programming seriously.
Education and skills: The BFI runs programmes aimed at young people's film education — BFI Film Academy, which offers training to young filmmakers, and various school-based film education initiatives. It also runs the BFI Certification system, which verifies whether a film qualifies as a British film for tax relief purposes, which is the administrative mechanism that makes the UK Film Tax Relief system function.
BFI SOUTHBANK AND BFI IMAX
The BFI Southbank on the South Bank of the Thames in London is the BFI's primary public cinema — a four-screen cinema programming archive film, world cinema, retrospectives, and new British and international releases. It operates as a cultural institution rather than a commercial cinema: the programme is curated rather than commercially driven, and the BFI Southbank hosts the London Film Festival, BFI Flare (the LGBTIQ+ film festival), and various other BFI-organised events. BFI IMAX on the South Bank is a separate commercial operation, the largest IMAX screen in the UK.
BFI PLAYER
BFI Player is the BFI's streaming platform — the most comprehensive streaming source for British cinema in the UK, and a serious home for international art cinema, documentary, and archive film. It operates on subscription with a free tier for limited content and a subscription tier for full archive access.
The subscription is worth understanding for what it supports financially as well as what it provides: BFI Player revenue contributes to the BFI's broader operations, including the preservation work and the Film Hub Network. Subscribing is one of the most direct ways a UK cinema audience member can financially support the infrastructure that keeps independent film culture functioning outside London. The full guide to what BFI Player carries and how to use it is here.
Without the Film Fund, much of what is considered British cinema would not have been made.