Short answers, pulled from the story.
The British Film Institute was founded in 1933, following a recommendation in a government report on Film in National Life. It initially operated as a private company, though it received public money from the Privy Council and Treasury from the outset.
The BFI National Archive holds more than 50,000 fiction films, over 100,000 non-fiction titles, and around 625,000 television programmes, making it the largest film archive in the world. The majority of the collection is British material, with internationally significant holdings from around the world.
BFI Southbank and the BFI IMAX are both located on the south bank of the River Thames in London. BFI Southbank was formerly known as the National Film Theatre.
The BFI receives Grant-in-Aid from the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which totalled £74.31 million in 2021-22. Commercial activity and donations provide roughly £5 million each. The BFI also distributes all National Lottery funds allocated to film, a total that now exceeds £40 million per year.
The British Film Institute is led day-to-day by chief executive Ben Roberts and deputy chief executive Harriet Finney. Jay Hunt, a television executive, serves as chair after taking up the post in February 2024. Governors are appointed by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
The London Museum of the Moving Image (MOMI) was opened by the BFI on the South Bank in 1988. It was 'temporarily' closed in 1999 with assurances of relocation, but those assurances were not kept. By 2002, when a South Bank redevelopment was approved, MOMI's closure had become permanent.