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BFI

BFI

156 films on Best Blurays

Based in United KingdomFounded 1933shop.bfi.org.uk ↗

Founded in 1933, the British Film Institute is a London charity that runs the BFI National Archive and publishes Blu-rays for the UK market. Releases lean on archive restorations of British cinema, silent film, documentary and world classics, usually with booklets and short films as extras. The BFI Flipside line, launched in 2009, revives overlooked British films, and UHD discs began with The Seventh Seal in 2021.

Aliases: bfi

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Directors: Cecil M. Hepworth & Percy Stow

Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI Alice (1988) Blu-ray

Directors: Lois Weber & Phillips Smalley

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best Video:

No comparison available, three options:

Director: Henry Lehrman

Best English-Friendly & Video:

Flicker Alley or BFI Chaplin at Keystone DVD

Sources: silentera.com (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

Flicker Alley or BFI Chaplin at Keystone DVD restoration conflation of two 35mm nitrate prints held by the BFI, see silentera

Director: D.W. Griffith

Best English-Friendly:

Twilight Time Blu-ray

Director: Charlie Chaplin

Best English-Friendly:

BFI Charlie Chaplin Mutual Comedies Blu-ray boxset

Best Video:

BFI or Flicker Alley Charlie Chaplin Mutual Comedies Blu-ray boxsets

Video Notes:

BFI or Flicker Alley Charlie Chaplin Mutual Comedies Blu-ray boxsets use the same restoration, no comparison available

Additional Info:

BFI Blu-ray has commentaries while Flicker Alley doesn't

Director: Oscar Micheaux

Best English-Friendly:

BFI Pioneers of African American Cinema Blu-ray

Best Video:

BFI Pioneers of African American Cinema boxset

Video Notes:

BFI Pioneers of African American Cinema boxset is much better than Kino Lorber Blu-ray boxset

Director: Oscar Apfel

Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI Pioneers of African American Cinema boxset Blu-ray 

Video Notes:

BFI Pioneers of African American Cinema boxset Blu-ray is likely better than Kino Lorber boxset

Director: F. W. Murnau

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

MoC and BFI differing restorations and scores

Best Video:

2006 Restoration: Eureka Blu-ray
1995 photochemical restoration: BFI Blu-ray

Video Notes:

2006 Restoration: Eureka Blu-ray
1995 photochemical restoration: BFI Blu-ray that some may prefer

Best Audio:

Eureka with Murnau institute restoration featuring score based on original score, BFI uses Photoplay restoration with James Bernard score

Additional Info:

Both Eureka and BFI Blu-rays are worthy of owning. Each restoration has unique positives and extras. The James Bernard score on the BFI is outstanding and the image tinting is different to how the Murnau institute official restoration was done. The Eureka MoC Blu-ray is stuffed with extras and remains one of the best-made Blu-rays of all time. Whatever you do: AVOID THE Kino Lorber Blu-ray!!! It uses the same Murnau institute restoration but drops frames for the whole feature - thus it loses a significant portion of the film! This was never acknowledged or addressed. The Kino Lorber Blu-ray remains one of the worst Blu-rays of all time for this reason.

Director: Oscar Micheaux

Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI Pioneers of African American Cinema boxset Blu-ray

Video Notes:

BFI Pioneers of African American Cinema boxset Blu-ray should be better than Kino Lorber boxset

Director: Sergei Eisenstein

Best English-Friendly & Video:

2012 BFI Blu-ray

Sources: slow.pics (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

The 2025 BFI Blu-ray isn't a new remaster, and itonly has a Pet Shop Boys score. it's somehow more cropped than the 2012 BFI Blu-ray.

See caps https://slow.pics/c/MaYpZjsV 2012 BFI Blu-ray > 2025 BFI Blu-ray (cropping) > 2010 Kino Lorber Blu-ray (worse PQ)

For the length it's also different and not just intros:

  • BFI 2025: 1:15:06

  • BFI 2012: 1:08:49

  • Kino Lorber: 1:12:12 the Russian intertitles playlist is 1:11:48

Director: Rupert Julian

Best English-Friendly:

BFI Blu-ray or OOP fixed Image Entertainment Blu-ray

Best Video:

1925 silent version: BFI Blu-ray for HD reconstruction (complete 1925 print is lost)
1929 silent version: OOP fixed Image Entertainment Blu-ray

1930 sound version: 2003 Image Entertainment DVD (excellent transfer, but severely compromised by indiscriminate over-use of the restoration process)

Director: Richard E. Norman

Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI Pioneers of African American Cinema boxset Blu-ray

Sources: loc.gov (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

BFI Pioneers of African American Cinema boxset Blu-ray is likely better than Kino Lorber boxset

Library of Congress also have an official HD Streaming https://www.loc.gov/item/2021604060/

Director: Lotte Reiniger

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly & Video:

No comparison between Milestone (Kino Lorber) and BFI but Milestone has a lot of shorts

Directors: Anthony Asquith & A.V. Bramble

Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI Blu-ray

Video Notes:

(sold through Kino Lorber in US)

Director: Anthony Asquith

Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI DVD

Sources: dvdcompare.net (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

BFI PAL DVD is likely the original source, especially considering Kino Lorber DVD is PAL converted to NTSC.
See https://www.dvdcompare.net/comparisons/film.php?fid=36341 

Director: Luis Buñuel

Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI Blu-ray

Directors: James Gist & Eloyce Gist

Best English-Friendly & Video:

BFI Pioneers of African American Cinema boxset Blu-ray 

Sources: loc.gov (opens in a new tab)

Video Notes:

BFI Pioneers of African American Cinema boxset Blu-ray is likely better than Kino Lorber boxset

Library of Congress also have an official HD Streaming https://www.loc.gov/item/2021604059/

Director: Luis Buñuel

Best English-Friendly:

BFI Blu-ray or unreleased 4K restoration

Sources: filmlinc.org (opens in a new tab)

Best Video:

4k transfer, no disc https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2019/films/lage-dor/ 

Directors: Robert Siodmak & Edgar G. Ulmer

Video format: 1080p Blu-ray

Best English-Friendly:

BFI vs Criterion?

Best Video:

BFI and Criterion

Video Notes:

BFI and Criterion same HD resto, no comparisons

Director: Clarence G. Badger

Video format: No Home Media

Best Video:

According to the George Eastman Museum 2015 Book "The Dawn of Technicolor, 1915-1935", the BFI National Archive holds a 35mm incomplete nitrate print 160 ft.

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