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BFI to work with UK cinemas to serve regional audiences during lockdown

The BFI is teaming up with UK cinemas to serve audiences in various regions during the lockdown, which will help venues connect with audiences.

The six venues participating in the scheme include, all lead regional hubs as a part of the BFI Film Audience Network including Broadway, Nottingham; Glasgow Film Theatre; HOME Manchester; Queen’s Film Theatre, Belfast; Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle; and Watershed, Bristol.

Each cinema has been granted dedicated homepages on the BFI Player, which will give them the ability to curate content for regional content.

Jen Hall, film programme producer at HOME Manchester, said, “In a time when visiting the cinema isn’t a possibility, it is important to us that our audiences are still able to access a diverse range of films that push boundaries, reveal different perspectives and challenge perceptions.

“We’re really pleased that we were able to work with the BFI to curate a selection of their films to bring HOME programming to [audiences] at home. Although the cinema remains the best place to experience the moving image, it’s great to be able to work with such wonderful streaming services to bring the cinema to our audiences until we are able to re-open our doors.”

Ben Luxford, head of UK Audiences at the BFI, said, “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… What makes this offer to audiences really special, is their local venue programmers expertly creating collections of features and archive content especially for them.”

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