BFI Film on Film Festival

Spanning film formats including 16mm, 28mm, 35mm, 70mm and nitrate, this festival delves deep into the BFI’s priceless archives to present rare prints of films, screening across the BFI Southbank and BFI IMAX world-renowned cinemas.

While the majority of contemporary cinema screenings are digital, the BFI's Film on Film Festival is a celebration of the medium of ‘film’ itself, where every film, without exception, is projected from a print.

The festival provides a unique, cinematic experience that enables audiences to enjoy film in all its glory, exploring its aesthetics and celebrating the skills required to work with it. For many diehard fans it's also a unique opportunity to watch much-loved classics in just the same visual quality as when they were first released in cinemas.

Highlights of this year’s Film on Film programme include: a glorious dye-transfer original British release print of STAR WARS (1977), a 15 perf/70mm IMAX print of 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968), created under the supervision of Christopher Nolan, and an original 1929 nitrate print of Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí’s Surrealist masterpiece UN CHIEN ANDALOU (1928).

Accompanying the film screenings is a rich programme of events led by experts from the BFI National Archive and the BFI’s projectionist teams, plus a closing night screening of a pristine 35mm print of the original US Pilot episode of David Lynch’s TWIN PEAKS presented in person by special guest Kyle MacLachlan.

Tickets for the BFI Film on Film Festival are on sale from the following times and dates:

BFI Patrons – Tuesday 6 May (from 12pm)

BFI Members – Wednesday 7 May (from 12pm)

General sale – Friday 9 May (from 12pm)