The BFI has confirmed that His Majesty King Charles III has retained his Patronage of the organisation, the UK’s lead body for film and the moving image and responsible for preserving the Royal Collection of film in the BFI National Archive.
The announcement comes as it also marks the 25th anniversary since the opening of BFI IMAX in Waterloo, London where King Charles III (then Prince Charles) cut the ribbon on 11 June 1999.
As a registered charity founded in 1933, the BFI has been governed by Royal Charter since 1983. In 2018 His Majesty visited the BFI Southbank to celebrate 40 years as the BFI’s Patron, where he met BFI employees including Chief Executive Ben Roberts, BFI Film Academy alumni and British film talent including actors Ruth Wilson, Hayley Atwell, David Oyelowo OBE and BFI Ambassador Tom Hiddleston. During this visit, His Majesty was shown Peter Sellers’ script from The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976), with handwritten notes by the comic actor, and promotional material from The Pink Panther, one of his favourite films.
Ben Roberts, BFI Chief Executive said: ‘We are honoured to have the Royal Patronage of HM King Charles III and grateful for the support he has already given us as Patron as The Prince of Wales for 45 years, showing his commitment and passion for film along the way. We take our responsibility for caring for the Royal Collection in the BFI National Archive very seriously and are dedicated to ensuring it is preserved for generations to come.”
The BFI is also in charge of preserving the Royal Collection of film. This film collection dates from 1931 with more than 1,000 individual reels of film. For decades the BFI National Archive has cared for this unique and personal collection, using the specialist skills of its archivists and controlled storage environment in its Master Film Store required to help the long-term preservation of archive film.