BFI Southbank programming

Mr T Morgan made this Freedom of Information request to British Film Institute This request has been closed to new correspondence. Contact us if you think it should be reopened.

The request was successful.

Mr T Morgan
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Dear British Film Institute,

Can you please tell me what proportion of the films/titles screened at the BFI Southbank in the last 12 months were British?

Yours faithfully,

Mr T Morgan

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foi, British Film Institute

Dear Mr T Morgan

I acknowledge receipt of your FOI request made on 6th June.

We will respond to you, as soon as we can.

Regards

Joel Pullin
BFI FOI

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Mr T Morgan
Delivered

Dear Joel,

Thank you for your response. Just to clarify, the country of origin which I mean by “Britain” can also be called “UK”. For example, the BFI Southbank website lists the June screenings of Get Carter and Of Time and the City as “UK”. Therefore, this would appear to be the country description used by the BFI for films which are of British origin.

Yours sincerely,

Mr T Morgan

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foi, British Film Institute

Dear Mr Morgan,

Thank you for this clarification which will assist us with our investigation.

Regards,

Sian Harris
BFI Freedom of Information

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Dear Mr Morgan,

I've referred your enquiry to the team who would look after this information and they have asked for clarification on the below points.

By BFI Southbank, do you mean each film title shown in the year round programme or every screening shown at BFI Southbank as a Venue? Should this also include BFI London Film Festival and BFI Flare screenings?

Also could you please give specific dates for your enquiry. I would suggest for completeness of data we use 1st June 2022 to 1st June 2023 but please let us know what you would prefer.

Once we have these clarifications I'll pass back to the relevant team.

Regards,

Sian
BFI Freedom of Information team

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Mr T Morgan
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Dear Sian,

Thank you for your message. I feel it would be best to cover every screening with BFI Southbank as a venue, including those festivals, as they are programmed by the BFI, and not external organisations.

I am happy for the period used to be the one you suggested, 1st June 2022 to 1st June 2023, or the most recent calendar year, 2022, whichever is more convenient.

Yours sincerely,

Mr T Morgan

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foi, British Film Institute

Dear Mr Morgan,

Thank you for coming back to me so promptly. I will pass these clarifications back to the team handling your enquiry.

Regards,

Sian

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Mr T Morgan
Delivered

Dear Sian,

My response appears to be delayed. The BFI has not replied to my FOI request “BFI Southbank programming” promptly, as normally required by law.

I am therefore writing with a reminder to reply to my request please.

Yours sincerely,

Mr T Morgan

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foi, British Film Institute

Dear Theo,

Thank you for your email and I'm sorry you haven't received this.

I will chase this with the relevant teams as I know this was being looked at when I was on leave.

I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Regards,

Sian

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Mr T Morgan
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Dear Sian,

Thanks, I look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours sincerely,

Mr T Morgan

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foi, British Film Institute

Dear Theo,

Thank you for your Freedom of information request dated 6th June 2023.

We have reviewed our screenings database and for the period in question, June 2022-June 2023, of the 1560 titles screened, 285 are listed as having a UK credit as country of origin which makes it circa 18% of titles we have shown across this period. This includes our festivals and any short films or TV works we have shown too during this period.

I have been informed by the team that it is not possible to run a report which would provide this information at an individual screening level so we are unable to provide this breakdown as this is not information we hold.

Regards,

Sian
BFI Freedom of Information

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Mr T Morgan
Delivered

Dear Sian,

Thank you for this. When you refer to providing the information at “an individual screening level”, am I correct in thinking that you mean a breakdown based on the actual number of screenings for each film at the BFI Southbank? For example, there are two screenings of Brief Encounter (1945) on 10 and 20 August, but this is only one title being shown, whereas Face the Music (aka The Black Glove) (1953) is being shown once, on 22 August.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Mr T Morgan

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foi, British Film Institute

Hi Theo,

Yes, sorry I should have phrased it better - we're unable to provide a breakdown based on the actual number of screenings per film title at the BFI Southbank so they are counted in the manner your example suggests.

Regards,

Sian

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Mr T Morgan
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Hi Sian,

Thank you for clarifying. That is fine. My interest was in film titles, so I would consider this request fulfilled.

My thanks to yourself and the team for assisting with this request and providing the information asked for.

Yours sincerely,

Mr T Morgan

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Mr T Morgan
Delivered

Hi Sian,

Are you able to provide me with PDF copies of the BFI Southbank programme guides for the period covered please?

Yours sincerely,

Mr T Morgan

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foi, British Film Institute

Dear Theo,

Thank you for your further request. I will discuss with colleagues and come back to you as soon as I can.

Out of interest, as you mentioned you live in London I think, have you ever used the BFI Reuben Library at all for any of your research as I wonder whether there are resources there which would also assist in your queries?

Regards,

Sian

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Mr T Morgan
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Hi Sian,

Thank you. Yes, I have used the Reuben Library in the past.

The programme for June 2023 is on the website, but none going further back.

I have been able to download some older ones with the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, but not all.

I have found these programme guides:
June 2022
July 2022
August 2022
September-October 2022
October-November 2022
March 2023
April 2023
May 2023
June 2023

So I am missing guides for December 2022, January 2023 and February 2023, unless there were any others which spanned two months?

Yours sincerely,

Mr T Morgan

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Hi Theo,

Thank you for letting me know which guides you now require I'll see where I can find those pdf's and send them over as soon as I can.

Regards,

Sian

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1 Attachment

This message contains attachments delivered via Citrix.
- BFI_SB_Guide_2022-12_December.pdf 6.2 MB
- BFI_SB_Guide_2022-12_December_calendar.pdf 918.5 KB
- BFI_SB_Guide_2023-01_ January.pdf 5.8 MB
- BFI_SB_Guide_2023-02_February.pdf 4.8 MB
Download the attachments here - https://bfi.sharefile.com/d-s95b0e7729b6...
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Dear Theo,

Thank you for your patience. I've confirmed with colleagues that we don't have a webpage of our old Guides but they were able to source these pdf's for you to cover your requests.

Regards,

Sian

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Mr T Morgan
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Hi Sian,

Many thanks for sending this. I have downloaded the documents, so I believe I should now have all of the programme guides and calendars for the period covered by my FOI request.

Yours sincerely,

Mr T Morgan

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