Locarno Film Festival partnership
This week, Locarno Film Festival announced details of their upcoming retrospective programme ‘Great Expectations: British Postwar Cinema 1945-1960‘.
Produced in partnership with the BFI National Archive, the programme celebrates the wealth of filmmaking talent that flourished in the UK in the aftermath of the Second World War – from beloved classics by legendary filmmakers like David Lean, Carol Reed, and Powell and Pressburger to unheralded genre gems by lesser-known craftsmen like Seth Holt and Lance Comfort.
The programme will bring together digital restorations and archival prints from the collection of the BFI National Archive and be accompanied by an English-language book.
The 78th Locarno Film Festival will take place from 6-16 August 2025 and further details of the programme can be found here.
– Alex Prideaux, Marketing Manager (Our Screen Heritage)
Launch of the Bookworms Welcome! collection
I’m sure you noticed that Thursday 6 March was World Book Day: an event that’s become something of a phenomenon up and down the country. (Did you hop on the bus with the Gruffalo, or walk past Willy Wonka on the street? I did, but perhaps that’s what comes from living in close proximity to four different schools.) Back in the office, whilst we didn’t dress up, we did launch a new BFI Replay collection as part of our ongoing work to align with moments celebrated in the public library calendar. A brilliant team effort ensured the successful delivery of ‘Bookworms Welcome! Literature for Kids’; a collection showcasing the magic and power of reading through archive documentaries, magazine shows, government campaign films and more. You can pop into your library to enjoy the collection, take a trip to The Book Tower with the fourth Doctor, and get creative with our Bookworms activity sheet.
As if that wasn’t enough, we then rounded the week off in style with the news that you can now check if your local library hosts BFI Replay by using the search function on the brilliant LibraryOn website. This development comes as part of ongoing collaborative conversations with the LibraryOn team, so a huge thank you to them. If you’re looking for information on your local library, do visit the website, which is designed to connect communities with their local libraries and is powered by the British Library and funded by the Arts Council England.
– Sinéad Beverland, BFI Replay Engagement Officer
Capturing the Conservation Centre film lab
Did you know that the BFI National Archive produces brand new duplicate film prints?
Last week, we had the privilege of filming David Gurney and Chris Stenner in our Film Laboratory team, who took us through the various stages of print creation. This included a demonstration of our one-of-a-kind optical printer (pictured above), which the team use to re-photograph particularly deteriorated or vulnerable strips of film.
Look out for a new explainer video via our Inside the Archive YouTube playlist soon!
– Alex Prideaux, Marketing Manager (Our Screen Heritage)
The Inside the Archive blog is supported by the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery funding.
