Over the course of the last academic year, Professor Xavier Mendik from the School of Games, Film and Animation, has led the successful development of a five-year strategic partnership between Birmingham City University and the British Film Institute. Our partnership now forms part of a scheme that the BFI launched in 2020 to collaborate with higher education institutions with strengths in film education, research and innovation, and film-based activism.
BCU is one of nine high profile institutions involved in the scheme, including the University of Cambridge, The National Film and Television School and King’s College London. At the heart of the scheme is the BFI Player: an award-winning online educational film resource, where students have access to over 700 British, world and classic films. Over the past year, access to this film collection has proved to be an invaluable tool that has allowed film teaching at BCU to excel throughout the pandemic. Due to its transformative impact on the online learning undertaken by BCU students, the BFI Player has subsequently been integrated as a core teaching resource for BA and MA film modules.
Alongside access to this invaluable film resource, our partnership with the BFI also enables students to undertake a range of BFI courses and placements. As Professor Mendik states: “These are bespoke collaborative arrangements that are developed to reflect the individual strengths of each participating institution. BCU’s partnership with the BFI is focused on key objectives around film teaching, film innovation and film research. This remit will see BCU students undertaking a range of BFI courses and placements, while the partners are also seeking to develop new MA, MRes and short courses that reflect shared commitments to equality, diversity and inclusion in film. Additionally, BCU and the BFI will look to develop new research initiatives that enhance the status of the subject area within the region.”
During its first year of delivery, the BCU Film Futures/BFI partnership has provided a range of student and staff enrichment activities. This included MA Film Distribution and Marketing students undertaking research and development work on the BFI Player, with their findings being used by the BFI to drive an expansion of the resource within the educational sector. MA students also benefitted from internships and marketing training at the BFI Academy, which is an outlet devoted to developing film literacy amongst teenagers. BA Film and Screenwriting and BA Filmmaking students also directly benefitted from the partnership, having undertaken an exclusive week of online training with leading screenwriters, film critics and industry figures.
Moving forward, the upcoming second year of our partnership with the BFI focusses more fully on research and diversity objectives. Plans here include the development of a BCU Faculty of Arts, Design and Media wide Film Industries, Practices and Traditions research group that will see theorists, practitioners and educators collaborate with BFI figures on a range of exciting projects. This period also sees the development of new diversity training sessions for our BA and MA cohorts, where students will be awarded with BFI certificates of attendance in film equality, diversity and inclusion.
Commenting on the development of the partnership, Simone Pyne from the BFI stated: “Despite the challenges brought about by Covid-19 the BCU / BFI partnership has thrived over the last year. The partnership has laid the foundation for a transformative relationship between two well-aligned organisations wholly committed to supporting a shared vision around the development of skills, expertise and understanding. It’s proven to be innovative and adaptive, serving as a shining example of how the higher education sector and UK Film Industry can benefit by working together. Working with the Games, Film and Animation staff and students alike has been a profoundly positive experience for the BFI, and we look forward to building upon this further in coming years.”
To find out more about the BFI higher education partnership scheme click here.
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