Archive Futures: updated for 2018 - open for bookings

Discover the BFI’s world-leading approach to developing archive relevance and sustainability for the future.

Learn how to maintain collections, enhance processes and develop resources for the digital world.

This course offers professional development in both practical and leadership skills. We offer participants an unrivalled learning opportunity delivered by an exceptional team of BFI experts. For an information pack, including course outline and costs, please email: archivefutures@bfi.org.uk.

Download the full programme schedule below

New for 2018

Building an audience for archive content

Building new audiences for archive collections is at the forefront of the BFI’s strategic and integrated approach. Our expert team of curators, led by Robin Baker, have developed and delivered a wide range of projects across platforms that have enabled new audiences to watch, enjoy and share archive films.

By attending Archive Futures you will learn how the BFI’s pioneering digitisation and public access project Britain on Film has reached a staggering 60+ million people through careful curation, meaningful connection, intelligent marketing and use of social media. As world leaders in this field this is a wonderful opportunity to learn from those implementing continued and improved access to the UK’s film heritage.

Mass digitisation — TV and video

To ensure preservation and access, the BFI, together with other UK partners, is embarking on a mass digitisation project that will see 100,000 videos digitised by 2022. This urgent need to preserve old video formats through digitisation is faced by many moving image archives globally.

For 2018 we have refreshed Archive Futures, with an additional focus on TV and video. By attending you will gain an unrivalled, up-to-date understanding of how the BFI is addressing this preservation challenge.

Presentation and collaboration

For the 2018 Archive Futures course learn how the BFI’s restoration of Shiraz: A Romance of India (1928) was turned into a landmark event, crossed new boundaries in cultural diplomacy and formed a showcase moment in the UK/India year of cultural exchange in 2017.

The insightful and precious art of breathing new life in to old films continues to bolster the BFI’s international and creative relationships. Archive Futures offers a proactive, integrated toolkit of approaches that can support your own projects, small to large scale.