Organisations can apply for support to enrich their collections, better represent the UK’s diverse communities and make screen heritage available to the public.
The BFI’s National Lottery Funding Plan 2023-2026 allocates £7.9m of National Lottery funding over three years to the BFI National Lottery Screen Heritage Fund to help achieve these aims.
There are three funding strands:
- Resilience funding, for eligible applicants based in England
- Project funding, for eligible applicants based anywhere in the UK
- Skills funding – this strand will open in 2024
About the fund
Through investments made by the BFI National Lottery Screen Heritage Fund we want to see:
- More people, from a wide and diverse range of backgrounds, engaging with their screen heritage
- Screen heritage collections becoming more reflective of the diverse communities of modern Britain
- An inclusive screen heritage sector workforce that is representative of our population
- A move towards reduction in the carbon emissions and broader ecological impacts of care for screen heritage collections
- Expanded outreach, and audience engagement including co-curation with local communities
- More resilient screen heritage organisations with clearly articulated, long-term plans for organisational sustainability and development
- Knowledge sharing and collaboration across archives and with broader cultural partners
- Strengthened capacity, resources and skillsets for collecting today’s moving image heritage
- Expanded ability to collect new moving image works (“contemporary collecting”)
Who can apply
To be eligible to apply for project and/or resilience funding, you must be the lead non-profit screen heritage delivery partner for your region. These lead partners are identified in bold in Appendix A of the guidelines.
We can only accept applications by the identified lead non-profit delivery partners. Other Significant Screen Heritage Collections as listed in Appendix A can seek to work through their identified regional lead delivery partner to deliver one or more activities within an application.
We can provide assistance to applicants who have access requirements and need some support in order to make an application. See Access support for BFI funding applicants.
When you can apply
Resilience awards (single application window covering 2023 to 2026)
Applications are now closed.
Project awards (application windows during 2023 to 2026 to open annually)
Application window has now closed and will reopen in 2024.
Read the fund guidelines in full before applying.
If you have any questions about the application, or would like to discuss your project in advance of submitting an application, please email: ScreenHeritageFund@bfi.org.uk
About BFI National Lottery Funding
Since the very first National Lottery draw in 1994, public support – raised directly through National Lottery ticket sales – has funded more than 670,000 projects, raising more than £46 billion for good causes.
As a recipient, it is important to publicly acknowledge the source of this funding throughout the lifespan of the project. Effectively communicating it is supported by BFI National Lottery funding ensures that those engaging with the work recognise the value and benefit of this unique Good Cause funding.
Therefore, if your application is successful, you will be responsible for prominently crediting BFI National Lottery funding and thanking National Lottery players.
As such, you are encouraged to ensure that elements of your project/s which have the potential to engage a broad public audience are capitalised on, in order to communicate this message. More details will be supplied once an award has been made.