Collections

Discover the best contemporary Russian cinema in a month-long online festival in collaboration with ROSKINO. 

The brightest of our national cinema, from established classics to new wonders.
 

Three restored Czech classics presented in collaboration with the Czech Centre London, Národní filmový archív, Prague, as part of the 25th Made in Prague Festival, 7 November – 10 December 2021, organised by the Czech Centre London.

Here are the pioneers, the iconoclasts, the brave - from landmark LGBTIQ+ portraits to the next generation of queer classics from the BFI Flare festival.

Following the visionary director's progression from arthouse award-winners to brooding blockbusters.

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3 of the best from the world's greatest filmmakers, themes and cinematic movements.

Consider these films as milestones on a long and winding road. 

A selection of penetrating masterworks from one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.

A selection of the best in contemporary Arab cinema.

We showcase the direct and observational voice of this important director, whose films celebrate the rich tapestry of Central and Eastern European life.

One of the key figures in cinema history, Rossellini initiated a new movement and evolved the language of film.

Pump up the volume for this selection of music-themed films; compiled in a long-player with copious sleeve-notes.

BFI Player is the home of BFI London Film Festival all year round. And with Subscription you have a festival pass - allowing unlimited screenings of favourites from festivals past.

Films from one of the most distinctive and audacious American directors.

A collection of the bold and the banned; causes célèbre and succès de scandale to incite, provoke and arouse.

From the New Wave to poetic realism and cinéma vérité, French cinema takes many forms and offers endless delights.

Inspirational and diverse works of great cinema; all originating from women with a movie camera.

Showcasing the best of Black culture in film and TV history.

Lies, ties and samurais: the films that rang out from the last 12 months...

Stories with hunger, lust and courage, adventures from the community to rouse and inspire…

Chaos, hostility and murder are, said one of these directors, our common denominator. Another had scandal as a hobby and human nature as a focus. 

Fellini, Antonioni, Pasolini, Rossellini – the melodic names that conjure up the greatest era of Italian cinema.

Reclaiming the history and identity of British South Asians - through film.

Celebrating a world of side-splitting cinema, from slapstick legends to today's anarchic voices.

It is the most respected of guides: a census of cinema’s best, as voted for by the most respected names in the business. Here's a selection.

Bringing together films and videos by artists that have transformed our experience of the moving image. Our collection includes films from outside the sphere of experimental filmmaking, including the celebrated surrealists and challenging works of narrative fiction.

From actuality to direct cinema and the film essay, the documentary form is one of cinema’s pre-eminent mediums.

Highlighting the sly, subversive wit and cool but compassionate intelligence of the great Spanish director.

Defiance and compassion: celebrating the work of a true original and a pioneer of Czech cinema.

Film is the medium for Mark Jenkin, the filmmaker who has championed celluloid throughout a highly distinctive career.

Ten classics from cinema’s master of humanity and compassion.

The restless and the curious are Wim Wenders’ congregation, and they gather to play out some of best stories we have, told on the road or in the city, but always from the heart.

Dead by 37, openly bi-sexual, constantly controversial: Rainer Werner Fassbinder was arguably post-war Germany’s greatest filmmaker.

Strange odysseys, straw bears and swan-shaped pedalos suffuse these singular works from Britain’s cinema’s most celebrated surrealist.

Startling and subversive works from an inspirational figure in British cinema.

The leading light of New German Cinema who has progressed to become something of an international treasure, Herzog is famed for making all types of films - in all sorts of strange places.

Celebrating the extraordinary, convention-defying career of the chameleonic performer.

Cinema’s perpetual provocateur has been inciting audiences for over half a century. From his early shorts to his most recent feature, we chart the advances of film's most enduring revolutionary.

Controversial, iconoclastic and erotic, the works of Walerian Borowczyk have inspired censure and acclaim in equal measure.

A collection of films exploring the great American director’s connection to a rich vein of cinema history...

Tales of carnal bargaining, conspiracy, subversion and rage. Peter Greenaway's maverick work embodies all of these and more.

Who Can You Trust?

Trust few and fear all in a collection of films packed with paranoia and conspiracy.

The extraordinary performer selects the films that inspire her from BFI Player Subscription.

Few genres stretch like science fiction, a marketplace for idle prediction, utopia, apocalypse and wonder.

Our Love collection highlights the range of cinematic romance from sweeping love affairs to quirky rom-coms and tales of obsessive desire.

Tales of terror have been embraced by cinema since its birth, and horror remains one of the most popular genres in world cinema.

Exploring the films and filmmakers that broke the rules of cinema in the 1990s.

 A collection of films lit up by the charisma  of working-class stars; a celebration of fine actors and remarkable leading roles.

A celebration of the glorious potential of black and white.

Incorporating fantasy, horror and science fiction, the French fantastique genre offers many weird and wonderful delights.

The red carpet remains forever unfurled in this selection from the world’s most famous film festival.

From the samurai thrillers of Kurosawa to the beautiful melodramas of Naruse, this collection celebrates the extraordinary diversity of Japanese cinema.

This is a man who brought Asian cinema to the world with the release of Rashomon, and was named 'Asian of the Century' by AsianWeek magazine. Discover his astonishing range of works, from early classics to avowed masterpieces such as Seven Samurai.

Along with Kurosawa, the director Yasujirō Ozu is a true master of Japanese cinema whose work has its place among the all-time greats. 

Ghost cats, killer children and cursed videotapes comprise just some of the terrors that Japan has gifted our nightmares.

Charting the wilder extremes of Japanese cinema: twisted visions, deranged erotica, and badass women.

Celebrating the renegade spirit that powers the most exciting Japanese cinema.

Despite the accessibility of erotica, audiences still seek out the more substantial approaches to sex that only narrative cinema can offer.

Celebrating the outsiders and mavericks whose independent methods rewrote the rulebook for American cinema.

The first three decades of cinema gave us some of the greatest films ever made, which had to tell their stories purely visually, giving us countless unforgettable images.

First impressions count. These features launched some of cinema's highest achievers, showing the themes and techniques to which many would return.

Filmmakers love it, audiences live it. The rites-of-passage film enables us the chance to relive the past with wisdom, but not angst.

Filmmaking is a team sport, and these creative partnerships have proved consistently rewarding.

The camera flips inward to film the creative process. Discover the lives behind the artists and obsessives who make movies what they are.

Perverse fairytales and wayward visions meet, as Pasolini, Rivette, Cocteau and their fellow dreamers create films that burrow into memory.

From the seedy streets of '60s Soho to the city's metropolitan sheen.

Welcome to the London collection.
 

Literature has inspired some of the greatest films ever made.

Cinema's ultimate prize, the Academy Awards. These nominees and winners show the medium at its electric best.

With garlands and glamour, cinema’s spirit of self-congratulation has long fascinated, allowing great works to gain recognition and reach wide audiences.

Be beguiled by cinema's smooth talkers and teasing temptresses.

When asked what a government most fears, one prime minister declared, "Events, dear boy. Events". These films chart events and people, real and imagined, who dared to ask for change, for power and for more.

The classics that cut through in 2019 – here are the year’s most popular subscription titles.

The classics that cut through in 2018 – here are the year’s most popular subscription titles.

The classics that cut through in 2017 – here are the year’s most popular subscription titles.

The classics that cut through in 2016 – here are the year’s most popular subscription titles.

The Doc Society Climate Story Unit supports transformative storytelling to advance a climate just and biodiverse future.