As part of this agreement, all staff and students are able to redeem their own subscription to the award-winning BFI Player. With access to hundreds of British, world and classic cinema titles, they can search collections including Black Stories, BFI Flare LGBTQIA+, Japanese cinema and visionary directors, and also access over 12,000 archive shorts and features from the BFI national and regional archives spanning the past 120 years. This is an exceptional addition to the Library’s streaming media services, Box of Broadcasts and Kanopy.

The partnership offers an extraordinary range of opportunities and initiatives to engage with film for staff and students at Lancaster University, enhancing employability and broadening the student experience. Founded in 1933, the BFI is the UK’s leading organisation for film and the moving image.

The BFI has access to a range of media industry professionals, from film directors to screenwriters, media marketing experts to exhibition and festival curators, and much more. These professionals can contribute to workshops on careers in the film and media industries, and on screenwriting as well as film and television production. There will also be possibilities for masterclasses on film and television journalism, field trips to the BFI archive in Berkhamsted, along with industry placements and work experience opportunities. Initially, two events are planned for early 2023: a Journalism Masterclass on 22nd February, and a BFI Careers Day on 8th March (more details available soon).

Simone Pyne, Senior Development Manager at the BFI said:

“We are delighted to add the University of Lancaster to our coterie of university partners. Alongside giving staff and students access to our award-winning BFI Player, we are committed to deepening our relationship with Lancaster over time to enrich student experience, support programmes of study and deliver career-focused opportunities for students.”

Dr Maryam Ghorbankarimi, Head of Film Studies at Lancaster, stated that “students interested in a career in the creative industries can benefit from workshops and masterclasses organised in collaboration with the BFI”.

Professor in Film Studies Richard Rushton, who helped to facilitate the partnership, observed that “BFI Player is fantastic, and our partnership with the BFI will offer a range of research possibilities for staff and students.”

More information can be found on the Library’s A-Z list of databases.

Staff and students can sign up for the BFI player by visiting https://player.bfi.org.uk/academic/sign-up

Access your BFI Player subscription in 3 easy steps:

1. Go to BFI Player and create an account OR sign in if you already have one by selecting 'Already have an account? Sign in'

2. Select Lancaster University from the dropdown list

3. Authenticate subscription using your university credentials

You can tick the box ‘I’d like to receive BFI Player newsletter’ for exclusive competitions, watchlists and other BFI opportunities via email.

FYI:

• Once you've set up your subscription, you can simply login on BFI Player for the remainder of this academic year. You don't need to use the subscribe link
• You will need to resubscribe at the start of each academic year
• BFI Player is unavailable outside the UK
• Rentals and festival events are not included in the subscription offer