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The top 10 black British performances of all time

Find out which British actors won the most votes in our Black Star poll.

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Risk, reward and revolution — the black star as activist

In the fourth of the BFI’s weekly podcasts looking at black filmmakers we pay tribute to Pam Grier: the figurehead of the Blaxploitation movement and a star who became one of the only black women to take the fight to the men in the action genre.

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Hear previous episodes of the Black Star podcast
Elstree 1976

This intimate and beguiling documentary focuses on a group of masked extras who appeared in Star Wars and looks at how George Lucas’s sci-fi space opera changed their lives.

Watch Elstree 1976 on BFI Player
Desierto

The ever compelling Gael García Bernal gives an impressively physical performance in Jonás Cuarón’s nail-biting sophomore feature.

Watch Desierto on BFI Player
Napoleon

Abel Gance’s revolutionary silent epic, restored and featuring a newly recorded Carl Davis score, comes to cinemas, BFI Blu-ray and BFI Player this November.

Find out more
Buy tickets for BFI Southbank screenings
Buy the Blu-ray/DVD
Sight & Sound: December 2016

Actor of the moment Adam Driver on working with Jim Jarmusch, Martin Scorsese, Lena Dunham (and JJ Abrams). Plus Jarmusch on his two new movies – Paterson and Gimme Shelter, the epic resurrection of Abel Gance’s Napoleon and film noir’s debt to black culture.

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Black Star collection

The UK’s biggest ever celebration of black screen talent.

Elstree 1976

Intimate, revealing documentary about extras who appeared in Star Wars.

Desierto

Jonás Cuarón’s stunning sophomore feature is a work of nail-biting suspense.

My Scientology Movie

Louis Theroux returns with a provocative new documentary.

Celebrating the range, versatility and power of black actors.
- Explore the Black Star programme
- The Best Black Performances of All Time
- The Black Star podcast
- 10 great blaxploitation movies
  
  From Shaft to Super Fly, these 1970s crime movies put blackness front and centre. Can ya dig it?

1,000s of films, preserved.
120 years of British life, many unseen for decades.
- Explore Britain on Film map
  Discover. Watch. Share.
- Britain on Film
  
  Hidden histories and forgotten stories of people and places from the UK’s key film and TV archives.
- 20 sobering snapshots of Belfast during the Troubles
  
  The true picture of Ulster’s divided city.
- 20 pictures revealing the mystery of the farm on the M62
  
  Farm, farm, farm on the autobahn…

BFI Shop

From the BFI Shop

Napoleon (Blu-ray & DVD box sets)

The restored masterpiece with Carl Davis' epic score.

£34.99
Buy now

Pioneers of African American Cinema (Blu-ray & DVD box sets)

Newly restored collection of rare and nearly forgotten films.

£39.99
Buy now

Ghost Stories for Christmas (DVD box set)

All of the legendary BBC productions - an essential Christmas purchase.

£25.99
Buy now

Paris Blues (Dual Format Edition)

Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier star as two jazz musicians in Martin Ritt’s 1962 drama.

£14.99
Buy now.

Odds Against Tomorrow (Dual Format Edition)

Harry Belafonte and Robert Ryan star in this excellent, politically-charged film noir.

£14.99
Buy now

Dissent & Disruption: The Complete Alan Clarke at the BBC (Blu-ray box set)

This collection finally brings together all twenty-three of Clarke’s surviving stand-alone BBC TV dramas.

£110.00
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Explore film & TV

Latest from the BFI

Amma Asante: ‘The issue of mixed relationships still isn’t comfortable for a lot of people’

Monday 21 November 2016
Where to begin with Robert Altman

Friday 18 November 2016
50 modern classics on BFI Player – a watchlist

Friday 18 November 2016

All news, features and opinion

20 sobering snapshots of Belfast during the Troubles

Thursday 17 November 2016
The Black Star poll: the top 10 black British performances of all time

Wednesday 16 November 2016
Denzel Washington: 10 essential films

Tuesday 15 November 2016
20 pictures revealing the mystery of the farm on the M62

Tuesday 15 November 2016
In praise of Whoopi Goldberg in Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple

Sunday 13 November 2016

All news, features and opinion

Explore film & TV

Watch talks, interviews and trailers

Earl Cameron CBE in conversation

In an in-depth discussion, veteran actor Earl Cameron tackles everything from racial prejudice to his lengthy acting career and his friendship with Sidney Poitier.

Sunday 23 October 2016

All talks, interviews and trailers

Gemma Arterton on Blitz comedy-drama Their Finest: “It was real time of liberation for women”

Saturday 15 October 2016

Xavier Dolan on his Cannes prizewinning family drama It’s Only the End of the World

Friday 14 October 2016

Lady Macbeth: Florence Pugh on her dark and dangerous turn in 19th-century drama

Friday 14 October 2016

Michael Fassbender on Trespass Against Us: “The script was like a slap in the face”

Friday 14 October 2016

The Ghoul director Gareth Tunley: “We were galvanised by Ben Wheatley”

Friday 14 October 2016

The Autopsy of Jane Doe: Trollhunter director André Øvredal dissects his morgue-set shocker

Thursday 13 October 2016

All talks, interviews and trailers

What’s on

Showing today

Voici le temps des assassins
NFT1, 8.45pm

A Raisin in the Sun
NFT2, 8.40pm

In the Heat of the Night
NFT3, 8.30pm

See what's on at BFI Southbank

What’s on

Highlights at BFI venues

Black Star at BFI Southbank

A season of film, TV and special events which celebrates black screen talent.
The Cult of John Carpenter

This season celebrates a true alchemist of sound and vision, and the maker of cult classics such as Halloween.
Doctor Strange at BFI IMAX

Benedict Cumberbatch joins the Marvel universe as Doctor Strange, a brilliant surgeon who unveils mystical new powers and trains them on evil forces which threaten to destroy the world.

Film of the week: Your Name

Young Japanese anime talent Shinkai Makoto makes it big with a sparkling body-swap teen romance that mixes wit, heart and wondrous spectacle, says Kate Stables.
Kate Stables
Friday 18 November 2016