Rule Britannia

British Film Institute Makes its Archive Available Online

The first forays into film by directors including Tony and Ridley Scott and Stephen Frears are to be made available for download, as the British Film Institute puts its massive archive online.

For a charge of a few pounds, works that are rarely seen as well as more famous movie releases such as Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract will be made accessible to fans.

There are 230,000 films, short films and documentaries in the National Film and Television Archive which the BFI administers, in addition to 675,000 television programmes.

Source

The only downside is that budget constraints are going to make it slow-going. Only 35 titles will be available to start...