British Film Institute
The BFI is currently managed on a day-to-day basis by its director, Amanda Nevill. Supreme decision-making authority rests with a chairman and a board of up to 14 governors. The current chair is Greg Dyke, who succeeded Anthony Minghella on 1 March 2008. The chair of the board is appointed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport who receives recommendations from the UK Film Council. Other board members are co-opted by existing board members when required. These appointments are subject to ratification by the UK Film Council.
The BFI operates with three sources of income. The largest is public money allocated through the UK Film Council from the funds given to it by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. In 2007, this funding amounted to approximately £16m. The second largest source is commercial activity such as receipts from the National Film Theatre and IMAX Theatre (2007, £5m), 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. donated around £1m in his will following his death in 2003).
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 much-delayed redevelopment of the National Film Theatre finally took place in 2007, creating in the rebranded "BFI Southbank" new education spaces, a 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.
The BFI has operated with the same level of government subsidy for the last four years (a cut in real terms). Despite that, it has achieved considerable success (for example, it is easily the most effective of any comparable national institution at engaging with people other than the usual white middle class beneficiaries of state-subsidised culture)[citation needed]. Its work at the National Film & Television Archive, though severely reduced by inadequate funding, is world-leading[citation needed]. Its innovative digital and mediatheque strategies are achieving some success in making the archive accessible to other than a tiny group of researchers, policies which are supported by its active DVD production work.
There are some signs that government is recognising this: an announcement of a £25 million capital investment in the National Archive Strategy was made by Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport at the opening night of the 2007 London Film Festival. It is expected that the bulk of this money will pay for long overdue development of the BFI National Archive facilities in Hertfordshire and elsewhere. The BFI itself is lobbying for the award of £200 million for the creation of a brand-new Film Centre, to replace the near-life-expired facilities at the National Film Theatre.
[
Chairs of the BFI's Board of Governors
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 Richard Attenborough (1982-1992)
Jeremy Thomas (1993-1997)
Sir Alan Parker (1998-1999)
Joan Bakewell (1999-2002)
Anthony Minghella (2003-2007)
Greg Dyke (2008- )
[
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 (1979-1987)
Wilf Stevenson (1988-1997)
John Woodward (1997-1998)
Jon Teckman (1998-2002?)
Adrian Wootton (acting, 2002-2003)
Amanda Nevill (2003- )
[
See also
- Screenonline is a website run by the BFI.
- BFI Top 100 British films
- 100 Anime, a BFI Screen Guide to the top 100 Japanese animated films and television programs.
- American Film Institute
- Australian Film Institute
- Finnish Film Foundation
- Swedish Film Institute
- Independent Cinema in the United Kingdom
[
External links
- BFI homepage
- About the BFI
- The BFI Royal Charter
- Optronica - BFI/Addictive TV
- Research Project on the history of the BFI
- The BFI's Top 100 Film List
- An independent blog dedicated to spreading the word about events affecting the BFI
- Broadway Media Centre homepage
For more information review our copyright contact and privacy policy.