Members of the association are drawn from the film section of the entire press of West Bengal composed of dailies, periodicals and film journals in various languages published from Kolkata.
Film correspondents and critics working for any newspaper or periodicals published outside Bengal having their base in Kolkata were also eligible to be members of this association.
The association was the first to institute awards in an endeavor to promote and encourage the production of better films, when in 1938, a year after its inception, the 1st Motion Picture Congress was held in Faridpur (now in Bangladesh).
In 1952 when India staged the First International Film Festival, a large exhibition was held in Kolkata Maidan.
To the members of BFJA, cinema, apart from its basic function of providing clean entertainment, is a strong social, cultural and artistic force to help the progressive development of the nation.