We want everyone to develop a meaningful relationship with film and the moving image, regardless of their background or circumstances. Representation, accessibility and accountability lie at the centre of this strategy.
We believe in long-term interventions which are measurable, iterative and adaptable. By working in partnership with communities and marginalised groups, we can draw on their lived experience to deliver our work authentically and accessibly.
Our priorities are:
Race equality
Long-standing discrimination across the screen sectors has created barriers for Black, and ethnically diverse people. Sadly, this includes the experiences of colleagues at the BFI. By working with experts to embed anti-racism and accountability into our processes and provide training for our people, we hope to create long-term, sustained interventions. These will enable us to dismantle racism and champion best practice for the wider sector.
Disability equality
Prioritising disability and d/Deaf equality is a key but historically underdeveloped area of inclusion work. There remains a significant gap in understanding ableism and its negative impacts on representation. We have adopted the social model of disability including neurodivergence and relevant mental health diagnoses in our definition. We also partner with our Disability Screen Advisory Group to influence and shape our activity. We are led by the disabled community’s mantra, “Nothing about us without us”
Promoting a culture of access and accessibility
We want everyone to feel included in the activity of the BFI, and that means looking at access and accessibility in the broadest sense. We consider physical access to our buildings, online access to our digital programmes and ensuring our work is felt in every region and nation of the UK crucial. We are committed to improving access to our digital platform and add closed captioning to all digital video services. And we will continue to remove the financial barriers that limit anyone’s ability to participate.
Developing an inclusive industry
Our long-term inclusion efforts are led by our Diversity Standards and our Guidance and Principles to prevent Bullying, Harassment and Racism, and we are committed to the development and expansion of these policies.
We ask all our partners to engage with us in these areas and we are committed to reporting against our Inclusion Targets using self-declared data from our people and those we fund. This will continue to help us identify specific areas of focus for under-representation where progress in our industry has been particularly slow, such as ethnicity and disability. While we are also aware of the progress still needed in achieving gender equality, and ensuring all members of the LGBTQIA+ community are supported and represented. Intersectionality is key, recognising that personal identities are individual, intertwined and complex.