THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE

Registered charity 287780 · accounts filings on the Charity Commission register · also known as BFI

The BFI is the lead organisation for film in the UK. Our mission is to ensure that film is central to our cultural life, in particular by supporting and nurturing the next generation of filmmakers and audiences.

Causes: Education/training · Arts/culture/heritage/science · Grant history (this charity is a funder) · website · Get email alerts

Latest income

£128.1m

Latest spending

£117.8m

Registered

1983

Accounts read

FY2025

Financial health, per its FY2025 accounts

The accounts state that the BFI holds net free reserves of £8,031,000 (Group) and £6,926,000 (Charity) as of 31 March 2025, with unrestricted funds available to fund revenue initiatives and provide a reserve against unforeseen costs. The Group's total funds stood at £140,927,000, supported by a National Lottery Distribution Fund balance of £49,000,000 and cash holdings of £25,917,000. The auditor confirmed the appropriateness of the going concern basis with no material uncertainties identified.

Automated summary of the FY2025 accounts; the evidenced findings below carry the verbatim passages.

What the accounts disclose

Reserves policy: £2,700,000 designated for Screen Culture 2033 Strategy (held: £8.0m)

“The Board of Governors have Designated £2.7m of reserves to be set aside to fund business plans to deliver the Screen Culture 2033 Strategy” — page 172

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Trading subsidiary: British Screen Finance Limited

“Some of the net free reserves are held within British Screen Finance Limited and other subsidiaries, which are wholly owned by the BFI and have distributable reserves of £1,105,000”

Per its FY2025 accounts as filed with the Charity Commission.

Accounts audited by Comptroller and Auditor General. Discloses 4 of 6 completeness components.

In the news

Recent coverage mentioning this charity by name (automated match; headlines belong to their publishers).

Fairfield University and the British Film Institute (BFI) Announce a New Educational Partnership fairfield.edu · 16/09/2026
Bill Skarsgård Dead Man's Wire Q&A At The British Film Institute In London 13/11/25 #BillSkarsgård Galatasaray Vs Antalyaspor (AErdqc1mi1) mshale.com · 26/08/2026
University of Portsmouth showcase industry-ready filmmaking talent at the British Film Institute port.ac.uk · 17/07/2026
Six Governors have been appointed and four reappointed to the British Film Institute gov.uk · 26/06/2026
British Film Institute funding to further develop nationally significant film archive thebusinessdesk.com · 25/06/2026
The British Film Institute’s video archive will preserve the weird and wild sides of web culture tubefilter.com · 17/06/2026
The British Film Institute's New Online Video Archive Celebrates Memes, How-Tos, and a Head of Lettuce gizmodo.com · 16/06/2026
‘Charlie Bit My Finger’ Video Officially Preserved by British Film Institute petapixel.com · 09/06/2026

Leadership, per the charity’s website

Jay Hunt — Chair (source)

Listed on the charity’s own website when we last crawled it; roles may have changed. Pay-band disclosures above are anonymous statutory disclosures and are not attributed to any named individual.

Funders the charity credits

Named as funders/supporters on the charity’s own website (the charity’s claim, distinct from accounts-verified grants).

National Lottery — “We are a cultural charity, a National Lottery funding distributor, and the UK’s lead organisation for film and the moving image.” (source page)

Property (HM Land Registry)

7 registered titles in England and Wales held by the charity’s company or corporate body (0 freehold). All charity-held property. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright, OGL v3.0.

Public profiles (found on the charity’s own website): facebook (576,246 likes) · instagram (840K followers)

Structured financials (annual return, FY ending 31/03/2025)

Total income

£128.1m

Total spending

£117.8m

Cost of raising funds

£2.9m

Reserves (reported)

£8.0m

Employees

638

Reported reserves equal ~0.8 months of spending — in the bottom quarter for charities its size (median 2.7 months; benchmarks).

Per its annual return, largest income source: Other (39% of income) — components as reported reconcile to the return’s total income; not from the accounts narrative.

Per its annual return, cost of raising funds: 2.2% of total income — below the median for charities its size (2.9%) (benchmarks).

Trustees · trustee networks

Jay Huntchair
Declan Keeney
Edgar Wright
Eleanor Whitley
Elizabeth Karlsen
Ganan Kanagathurai
Hakan Orhan Kousetta
Jane Tranter
Laura Miele
Mark Herbert
Michael Birshan
Monica Chadha
Ryan David Prince
Tanya Rose Cordrey

Trustee list from the Charity Commission register (current, not historical).

Operates in: Northern Ireland · Scotland · Throughout England And Wales

Income and spending

Financial year end	Income	Spending
31/03/2025	£128.1m	£117.8m
31/03/2024	£126.0m	£108.8m
31/03/2023	£127.8m	£167.0m
31/03/2022	£132.3m	£134.3m
31/03/2021	£145.6m	£156.6m

Common questions

Is THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE financially healthy?

Per its FY2025 accounts: The accounts state that the BFI holds net free reserves of £8,031,000 (Group) and £6,926,000 (Charity) as of 31 March 2025, with unrestricted funds available to fund revenue initiatives and provide a reserve against unforeseen costs. The Group's total funds stood at £140,927,000, supported by a National Lottery Distribution Fund balance of £49,000,000 and cash holdings of £25,917,000. The auditor confirmed the appropriateness of the going concern basis with no material uncertainties identified. Its FY2025 accounts were audited by Comptroller and Auditor General.

Who funds THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE?

Funders whose own accounts filings name THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE as a grant recipient include BFI TRUST, UGGLA FAMILY FOUNDATION, REUBEN FOUNDATION, THE CORDON CHARITABLE TRUST, THE DAVID LEAN FOUNDATION.

Known funders

Grants to this charity found in funders’ own accounts filings.

Funder	Year	Amount	Purpose (as stated by the funder)
BFI TRUST	FY2022	£1.8m
UGGLA FAMILY FOUNDATION	FY2023	£500k
REUBEN FOUNDATION	FY2021	£472k
THE CORDON CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2025	£108k
THE DAVID LEAN FOUNDATION	FY2021	£69k
THE THOMPSON FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2023	£60k
THE CHARLES SKEY CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2022	£60k	Advancement of arts, culture, heritage or science
REUBEN FOUNDATION	FY2022	£53k
THE THOMPSON FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2025	£50k
UGGLA FAMILY FOUNDATION	FY2024	£42k	Interest free unsecured loan for film viewing app build/roll-out
THE CHARLES SKEY CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2023	£35k	Arts, culture, heritage or science
THE CHALK CLIFF TRUST	FY2025	£30k
THE CHALK CLIFF TRUST	FY2024	£25k
THE THOMPSON FAMILY CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2024	£25k
THE POLONSKY FOUNDATION	FY2023	£23k
PETER DUBENS FAMILY FOUNDATION	FY2025	£22k
PETER DUBENS FAMILY FOUNDATION	FY2024	£22k
OLD POSSUM'S PRACTICAL TRUST	FY2024	£20k
OLD POSSUM'S PRACTICAL TRUST	FY2023	£20k	Third award of 3-year commitment for Festivals Education Programme
THE CHALK CLIFF TRUST	FY2023	£20k
OLD POSSUM'S PRACTICAL TRUST	FY2025	£20k
OLD POSSUM'S PRACTICAL TRUST	FY2022	£20k	Support for the arts
THE CHARLES SKEY CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2025	£15k	Advancement of arts, culture, heritage or science
OLD POSSUM'S PRACTICAL TRUST	FY2024	£15k	Powell & Pressburger exhibition
THE JOHN S COHEN FOUNDATION	FY2023	£10k	Education & Academic
THE CHARLES SKEY CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2024	£10k	Advancement of arts, culture, heritage or science
REUBEN FOUNDATION	FY2023	£6k
THE JOHN S COHEN FOUNDATION	FY2024	£5k	Education & Academic
THE JOHN S COHEN FOUNDATION	FY2022	£5k	Education & Academic
CHAPMAN CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2023	£4k
CHAPMAN CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2022	£4k
THE WILLIAMS CHARITABLE TRUST	FY2022	£1k
THE TANAGRA FOUNDATION	FY2023	£410	To ensure that film is central to our cultural life, in particular by supporting and nurturing the next generation of filmmakers and audiences.

Government & lottery funding

Grants to this charity published as open data by government and lottery funders (360Giving).

Funder	Date	Amount	Purpose
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	11/10/2024	£250k	"#GROW Developing and nurturing a screen heritage workforce for the future"
UK government	12/07/2024	£52k	Public Sector Low Carbon Skills Fund (Phase 5)
UK government	02/07/2024	£329k	BFI National Archive Moving Image Conservation Research Laboratory (MICRL)
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	27/09/2023	£75k	"#Innovate Explore Sustainable Pathways"
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	25/05/2023	£249k	"#DYC Audit to Access"
UK government	23/02/2023	£919	Library storage facilities redesign & refurbishment at BFI National Archive Conservation Centre
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	12/12/2022	£24k	"Explore: Screen Heritage: A diverse future workforce"
UK government	01/04/2022	£151k	Library storage facilities redesign & refurbishment at BFI National Archive Conservation Centre
UK government	14/02/2022	£68k	Refresh and Upgrade the BFI Reuben Library & BFI Mediatheque research spaces
ARCADIA	10/11/2021	£10k	Towards core costs
UK government	08/07/2020	£17k	BFI Film Academy Network
UK government	01/04/2019	£17k	ALB - BFI - Education
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	09/01/2019	£37k	"Victorians on Film: Rediscovering Britain's Filmmaking Pioneers"
UK government	20/06/2018	£17k	Education Fund\Film Academy\Network
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	24/11/2005	£783k	"The Chaplin Studio at BFI Southbank"
The National Lottery Heritage Fund	12/02/1997	£9.1m	"British Film Institute - Twenty First Century Film And TV Archive"
UK government	—	£16k	ALB-BFI-Education Fund

Funders of similar charities

Funders whose accounts show grants to charities similar to this one (and no recorded grant to this charity) — a starting list for fundraisers.

Funder	Similar charities funded	Amount to them
THE DORFMAN FOUNDATION	1	£102k
SCREENSKILLS LIMITED	1	£59k
UBS UK Donor-Advised Foundation	1	£53k
THE JOICEY TRUST	1	£2k

Charities like this

Semantically similar by activities and financial character, from our analysed corpus. Compare with THE BRITISH FEDERATION OF FILM SOCIETIES.

THE BRITISH FEDERATION OF FILM SOCIETIES income £279k
BFI TRUST income £2.0m
THE BRITISH ACADEMY OF FILM AND TELEVISION ARTS income £29.3m
LEARNING ON SCREEN - THE BRITISH UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES FILM AND VIDEO COUNCIL income £1.3m
FILM NATION UK income £6.5m
BERWICK FILM & MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL income £339k

Side by side with its peers

Charity	Income	Top pay band	Staff >£60k	Reserves vs policy	Fundraising cost	Going concern
THE BRITISH FILM INSTITUTE	£128.1m	—	—	unclear	—	no doubt
THE BRITISH FEDERATION OF FILM SOCIETIES FY2025	£279k	—	0	unclear	—	no doubt
BFI TRUST FY2025	£2.0m	—	0	above	—	no doubt
THE BRITISH ACADEMY OF FILM AND TELEVISION ARTS FY2024	£29.3m	—	—	unclear	—	no doubt
LEARNING ON SCREEN - THE BRITISH UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES FILM AND VIDEO COUNCIL FY2025	£1.3m	—	—	unclear	—	no doubt
FILM NATION UK FY2025	£6.5m	—	—	above	—	no doubt

Each row is that charity’s latest analysed filing; every value is quote-backed on its own page.