BFI Player dons sharp new look in time for sci-fi season

The BFI Player has been updated with a sharp new look making it easier to find on-demand arthouse movies and archive TV. 

Taking cues from 1,000 customers, the BFI’s redesign aims to make it easier for you to sift through the digital vaults and stream well-known Hollywood blockbusters alongside some more obscure content. 

Boasting a more visual layout and more prominent search than the old-style BFI Player, the new look will also make regular collections, including the BFI and O2’s current ‘Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder’ season, more visible. 

Throughout November, the BFI Player will be hosting sci-fi classics including E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the Back To The Future films alongside 1961’s The Day The Earth Caught Fire and 1917’s Ever Been Had from 1917. 

Edward Humphrey, director of digital at the BFI said: “BFI Player is uniquely placed to join the dots of film, taking audiences on an expertly curated journey from the very earliest films to the very latest releases. 

“Growing audiences for British independent and specialised films is core to everything the BFI does and we recognise that audiences are seldom offered a real diversity of choice in the on-demand market. The revamped BFI Player continues our path towards a richer, more rewarding digital film experience for UK audiences.” 

Other content launched on the revamped BFI Player includes ‘BFI Flare’, showing LGBT content from the BFI’s archive and ‘Inside Film’ featuring documentaries and special programmes about the British filmmaking industry.

The ‘Unavailable on DVD’ destination includes content that’s hard to see anywhere else in the UK, albeit legally. 

The BFI Player was launched online in October last year, after it debuted on Samsung Smart TVs in August. 

In other highbrow on-demand news, Shakespeare’s Globe recently launched Globe Player, a streaming service that lets you watch 50 Shakespeare plays shot at the Globe Theatre from £3.99 per play. 

Roughly 60 per cent of the content available on BFI Player is free to rent or download, while the rest will cost between £1 and £10. Prices for most films start at £2.50.