David Farnor | On 12, Apr 2020

BFI Player is partnering with 6 regional cinemas across the UK to offer free trials to its subscription service.

With the coronavirus pandemic still spreading across the globe, UK cinemas remain closed to the public, which leaves exhibitors struggling to make ends meet and audiences struggling to find their cinematic culture fix. To help bridge that gap, the BFI is teaming up with Broadway, Nottingham, Glasgow Film Theatre, HOME Manchester, Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast, Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle, and Watershed, Bristol to give audiences an extended free trial and tailored access to British and global cinema.

The partnerships give regional audiences an extended four-week free trial of BFI Player’s subscription service, which usually offers a two-week trial to new subscribers. They also get a collection recommended especially for them by their trusted cinema programmers. For many, this also includes a rich and varied programme of archive content – specific to their respective regions.

Ben Luxford, Head of UK Audiences at the BFI, says: “Everyone is feeling the impact of this crisis and we wanted to find a way to ensure audiences across the UK could still feel connected to their venues, and continue to discover a brilliant selection of films.”

Jason Wood, Creative Director: Film and Culture at HOME and Visiting Professor at MMU and Visiting Professor at University of Salford, adds: “HOME has an intrinsic relationship with the BFI and the opportunity to collaborate with them on their BFI Player service is a natural extension of that. The HOME film team were able to curate a short selection which was an almost impossible task given the breadth and diversity of the titles available through the Player. I can vouch for the fact that our audiences have really appreciated being able to maintain access to a wider and deeper cinema culture. Partnerships keep the cinema flame alive and help to ensure that it is still burning in what will hopefully soon be a post-COVID-19 landscape.”

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