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BFI National Archive
Stacks of film cans at the National Archive
The BFI National Archive is one of the world's greatest collections of film and television. The majority of the collection is British material but it also features internationally significant holdings from around the world. We also collect films which feature key British actors and the work of British directors. There is a wealth of material of every genre from silent newsreels to CinemaScope epics, from home movies to avant-garde experiments, from classic documentaries to vintage television, from advertisements to 3-D films, soap opera to football. The sheer size and diversity of the collection presents us with special challenges.
The archive contains more than 50,000 fiction films, over 100,000 non-fiction titles and around 625,000 television programmes.
As guardians of our vast and growing national film heritage we are acutely aware of the responsibility for ensuring its continued survival. We have made significant investment in new storage facilities in the last 18 months and have also upgraded our existing stores. We are proud of our achievements and believe that film and television have the power to enhance all our lives. The digital age has the potential to offer access to the Archive by greater numbers of people than ever before.
