BFI in America – Friends of the BFI

US taxpayers may be interested in supporting the Friends of the British Film Institute (BFI), a California-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation that supports the work of the BFI around the world.

About the BFI

The BFI is a unique organisation.

We are the UK Government’s strategic lead body for film and the moving image – ensuring the best conditions for filmmaking in the UK, including our investment in education, talent and skills.

The BFI is also a cultural charity. We run the BFI London Film Festival, the UK’s national cinematheque at the BFI Southbank and the BFI IMAX, which is the largest screen in the UK. We publish Sight & Sound magazine, the longest running film magazine in the world.

We are also custodians of the BFI National Archive – one of the largest and most significant collections of film and television anywhere in the world, which has been recording the evolution of the moving image since 1935. We are passionate about film heritage, about preserving the cinema experience and ensuring future generations can be inspired by great works of art.

Our expert teams at the BFI National Archive undertake vital film conservation and restoration work. Restoration projects include landmark British films such as the first nine features directed by Alfred Hitchcock; the first ten features directed by David Lean; the first full-length film by a Black British filmmaker, Horace Ove’s Pressure (1976); as well as landmark international titles including Abel Gance’s Napoleon (1927) and Franz Osten’s Shiraz (1928).

More recently, we have been working with Thelma Schoonmaker and Martin Scorsese’s Film Foundation on a major programme of work to restore and represent the work of Powell + Pressburger, and we are currently running the largest retrospective of their work ever staged, including a major exhibition, at the BFI Southbank.

The Archive has also created 100 pristine new 35mm prints of landmark titles including Spike Lee’s Malcolm X (1992) and Nicholas Ray’s Rebel Without a Cause (1955) so that audiences worldwide can continue to watch great films projected on film.

Discover the BFI

Explore what we've achieved, what we're doing currently and what we're aiming for in the future. Together we can do even more.

Find out more

The Friends of the BFI

Over the next decade, the BFI will transform access to screen culture and jobs, sharing our passion for cinema, TV and the moving image, as well as our expertise in screen heritage, cultural programming, inclusion and skills development on an international stage.

We also need to invest heavily into the BFI National Archive, to ensure that we can continue to operate world-class preservation and conversation work and deliver on our ambition of making it the most open-moving image collection in the world.

We will only achieve these ambitions through increased partnership and philanthropic giving, including in the US.

The Friends of the BFI is a California-based 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation that welcomes donors in the US who are connected through a love of film. Through their tax-effective gifts, our supporters effect change within the areas of the BFI’s work that inspire them.

To be part of our future, don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Donations

If you would like to donate online, please visit our online giving page.

To donate by check or wire transfer, or for more information on how to support the Friends of the BFI, please contact Vicki Kelsall on: 

Telephone: +44 (0)20 7173 3225

Email: AFBFI@bfi.org.uk

Friends of the British Film Institute is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Donations to it are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law. EIN: 95-4334449.