BFI National Archive

The majority of the collection is British originated material, but it also features internationally significant holdings from around the world.

The J. Paul Getty, Jr. Conservation Centre in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, named after its benefactor, is the base for much of the restoration work, while approximately 140 million feet of unstable nitrate film and all the master film collection held on acetate or other media is kept separately at a BFI storage site at Gaydon in Warwickshire.

In recent years the BFI National Archive has completed a number of much anticipated restorations of a diverse range of film titles.

This has included the Mitchell and Kenyon collection, which consists almost entirely of actuality films commissioned by travelling fairground operators for showing at local fairgrounds or other venues across the UK in the early part of the twentieth century.

In addition to moving image materials the Special Collections hold the records of filmmakers and institutions.