DCMS to invest £25million in national and regional archives

The BFI and its partners in the UK Film Heritage Group are delighted to have been awarded a capital investment of £25 million by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in support of the UK Screen Heritage Strategy. This settlement follows the Government’s Comprehensive Spending Review that was announced on 9 October.

Established by the UK Film Council, the UK Film Heritage Group is a BFI-led consortium of archive and UK screen organisations. Together they have developed a national archive strategy in the UK that embraces regional archives as well as the national collections and which will see greater public access to film heritage, regardless of where people are or where the material is held.

This very welcome announcement is the result of three or more years of hard work spent demonstrating the public value of archive film but also convincing Government that the UK’s film collections need greater investment. It is probably the biggest ever single investment made in the BFI National Archive and represents a huge vote of confidence by the UK Government.

The money contributes towards stabilizing the national collection and building a digital infrastructure to make content available from archival collections across the UK.

The BFI thanks the many individuals and organisations who have been working alongside it in lobbying for this much needed injection of funds into the UK’s film archives. It is a major step forward in ensuring that the UK’s moving image heritage can be accessed for learning, research and enjoyment by future generations.