Reading room facilities include:
- formal study area (with power supply for laptops)
- informal drop-in area ideal for group work
- free Wi-Fi
- digital scanners to access information held on microfiche and roll film
- book scanners for copying library material, within copyright regulations
There are six public access research terminals. Here you can access the full content of the library’s networked digital resources such as:
- BFI Collections Search
- Film & TV Literature Index with Full Text
- Screen Studies Collection, which includes the American Film Institute catalogue and International Federation of Film Archives International Index to Film Periodicals database
Research terminals are provided for accessing our databases and searching the library’s collections. During particularly busy periods, use of the terminals may be time-limited to ensure fair access for all visitors.
During term time, the library regularly welcomes organised student study visits, typically between 11am and 1pm. The library remains open to all visitors during these sessions, although the space may be busier than usual.
The Edwin Fox Foundation Reading Room is available for private hire. Contact us for further information.
Our collections cover all aspects of film and television and are available to anyone with an interest in moving image culture, from students and researchers to industry professionals and film enthusiasts. Resources include theses, annual reports, festival files and pamphlets. In addition, we hold millions of press cuttings dating back to the 1930s, which can be accessed digitally on our research terminals.
Visitors can also browse the latest issues of leading film and television journals, including Animation: An Interdisciplinary Journal, Broadcast, British Cinematographer, Cahiers du Cinéma, Edge, Empire, Film Quarterly, Sight & Sound and Screen International.
We regularly feature themed book displays that complement BFI Southbank seasons and events.
Reading room book collection
This collection covers the history of moving image from its origins to the present day. Material includes but is not limited to:
- animation
- audiences
- directors
- film theory
- comedy
- film noir
- horror
- musicals
- science fiction
- westerns
- practical filmmaking guides
- marketing
- stars
- television programmes
- different national cinemas from around the world
- major collections on British and American cinema
Reading room serials collection
Our serials collection includes periodicals, annuals and festival catalogues each represented in their own way in the reading room.
The majority of our annuals collection is held at our Conservation Centre, however a small selection of annual reports, directories and yearbooks useful for finding contact, statistical or biographical information can be found on the reading room bookshelves. These include The Kinematograph Yearbook (1914–1971), the Knowledge, the British Video Association Yearbook, Quigley’s almanacs, the Hitchcock annual, Variety reviews and Obituaries in the Performing Arts.
From the earliest festival to date, the London Film Festival programmes can be found in the periodicals sequence bound and filed together with the NFT/BFI Southbank Guide programmes. For all other festivals please enquire at the desk.
Our periodicals collection includes current journals to browse, entire runs of key hard copy journals, and a range of e-journals which can be accessed via the research terminals in the library.
Below is a list of periodicals held in the reading room that can be easily accessed. Bound volumes of these current journals are kept on the shelves, up to and including these volumes and dates. Journals in bold are no longer published. Journals marked * are also available digitally on reading room terminals.
Animation Journal*: 1995-2017
Asian Cinema: 2011-2019
Black Film Bulletin: 1993-2000
Black Filmmaker: 1998-2006
Black Film Review*: 1986-1991
British Cinematographer: 2002-2019
Broadcast: May 1985 — June 2022
Cahiers du Cinema: 1951-2020
Cahiers du Cinema in English: 1966-1967
Cineaction*: 1986-1994 (No. 35)
Cineaste*: 1967-2019
Cinefantastique*: 1970-2006
Cinefex: 1981-2023
Cinema Business: 2004-2009
Cinema Papers: 1974-2001
Cinema Scope*: 1999-2007 (No. 32)
Classic Images (previously Classic Film Collector): 1965-2023 (Dec)
Creative Screenwriting: 1995-2011 (Vol. 18, No. 4)
DGA Magazine: 1994-2004 (No. 29)
DGA Quarterly: 2005-2015 (Vol. 10, No. 4, Winter)
Documentary News Letter (continued as Documentary Film News): 1940-1949
DOX: 1993-2014
Empire: 1989-Dec 2023
Exposure: 1997-2010
Fangoria: 1987-2015
Feminist Media Studies: 2001-2022
Film Comment*: 1962-2002
Film Dope: 1972-1994
Film Ireland* (previously Film Base News): 1988-1998/1999 (No. 68 )
Filmmaker: 1992-2009
Film Quarterly (previously Quarterly of Film Radio and Television)*: 1951-2000 (Vol. 54)
Film Review (previously ABC Film Review): 1951-2008
Films & Filming: 1954-1990
Film Score Monthly*: 1992-2005
Films Illustrated: 1971-1982
Films in Review*: 1950-1997
Films of the Golden Age: 1995-2018
Historical Journal of Film Radio and Television*: 1981-1990 (Vol. 10, No. 3)
IF (Inside Film)*: 1998-2009
Imagine: 2001-201½012
In Camera: 1988-2013
Infinity: 2017-2022
Interview: 1969-2018
In The Picture: 1983-2008
Journal of British Cinema & Television* (previously Journal of Popular British Cinema): 2004-2017
Journal of Chinese Cinemas*: 2007-2017
Journal of Film & Video (previously Journal of University Film Association)*: 1959-2000 (Vol. 51)
Journal of Popular British Cinema (continues as Journal of British Cinema & Television*): 1998-2002
Journal of Popular Film and TV*: 1972-2014
Media & Technology Digest (previously Screen Digest): 2013-2018
Metro*: 1979-2017
Monthly Film Bulletin*: 1934-1991
National Film Theatre Programmes (continues as BFI Southbank Guide): 1957-June 2022
New York Motion Picture Critics Review: 1944-1945
Positif*: 1952-2019
Post Script*: 1981-2006 (Vol. 25, No. 3)
Premiere (UK): 1992-1997
Premiere (US): 1989-2007
Revue du Cinema/Image et Son: 1983-1992
Science Fiction Film and Television*: 2008-2019
Screen*: 1969-2019
Screen Africa: 1998-2016
Screen Digest (continues as Media and Technology Digest): 1971-2011
Screen Finance: 1988-2009
Screen International: 1993-2021
Sight & Sound*: 1932-2023
South Asian Cinema: 2001-2004
Spectator: 1988-2017
Starburst: 1979-2008 (Oct)
Studies in Documentary Film*: 2007-2017
Television Business International: 1988-2018 (Jan)
Televisual*: 1982-2001
Total Film: 2014-2018 (Aug)
Vanity Fair: 2010 (Oct) -2020 (May)
Velvet Light Trap*: 1971-2000 (No. 46)
Vertigo (UK): 1993-2008
Wide Angle: 1976-1999
Written By: 1998-2009