The BFI Master Film Store

Underground lairs, vaults and secret laboratories are all calling cards of a screen villain. However, the BFI has its own state-of-the-art storage facility, one that protects something very valuable.

Located in Warwickshire, the BFI Master Film Store houses over 450,000 canisters of fragile film that would be lost forever if it wasn’t stored in the correct way, as the design team, Cullinan Studio, explains:

“A radical approach was needed to reach the right solution for the BFI Master Film Store. The collection is huge: 268,380 cans of acetate film, much of it at risk from ‘vinegar syndrome’, and 190,080 cans of nitrate film with a very low ignition temperature and fast burning rate.”

With today’s advances in technology, films are no doubt stored electronically, backed up on gigantic servers buried deep in secret locations. It’s reassuring that the treasures of the past won’t be lost thanks to the BFI and this facility.