Ben Roberts
Ben Roberts is the Chief Executive of the BFI, responsible for the organisation’s strategic and cultural direction and providing leadership for the UK’s screen industries. Since being appointed to the role in February 2020, Ben has steered the organisation and the industry through five years of unprecedented change – from the impacts of the pandemic, strikes and cost of living crisis to navigating major changes in audience behaviour and a focus on diversity and inclusion. With the launch of the Screen Culture 2033, a 10-year plan for the BFI, Ben has set out how it will advance its knowledge, collections, programmes, National Lottery funding and leadership, to build an inclusive UK screen culture that benefits all of society and drive growth for the screen sectors and the UK economy.
Under Ben’s leadership, the BFI has been a galvanising force for the industry. Having made the case for more support for independent film in the UK, the BFI successfully orchestrated the introduction of a game-changing enhanced tax relief for films (core expenditure up to £15m/budgets under £23.5m) from April 2024. With the creation of the 120 member Screen Sector Taskforce from across the UK, the screen sectors were supported in getting back up and running safely and swiftly during the pandemic with the ground-breaking Production Restart Scheme, support for independent cinemas via the Culture Recovery Fund, quarantine exemptions for film and TV workers, new Covid-safe Production Guidelines and the launch the UK Global Screen Fund to support UK films and companies internationally.
Ben is focused on keeping the BFI at the forefront of the cultural conversation around film, democratising its programmes and reaching new audiences whilst driving a commercial approach.
Under his leadership, the BFI has invested heavily in the growth of the BFI Player; brought the BFI IMAX back under BFI operation with a wide-ranging programme; moved the BFI London Film Festival to a new home at the Royal Festival Hall and posted record audience numbers; and attracted a growing young audience to the BFI Southbank.
Ben has placed the work of the BFI National Archive at the heart of the organisation’s mission, with an ambition to make it the most open moving image collection in the world. A new archive platform is now available in libraries across the UK, and the BFI has undertaken major restorations and retrospectives including Horace Ove (Pressure) and Powell and Pressburger (I Know Where I’m Going) During Ben’s tenure, the BFI has honoured Tilda Swinton, Christopher Nolan, Spike Lee, Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson with BFI Fellowships.
Ben joined the BFI as Director of the BFI Film Fund in 2012 and was promoted to Deputy CEO in October 2018, overseeing all the BFI’s National Lottery investments in development, production, filmmaker talent programmes and audience development across the UK, along with the BFI’s international activities. During this time Ben developed and introduced the BFI’s Diversity Standards, a framework for inclusivity and representation that has since been adopted across the industry.
Ben has over 20 years’ experience in the film industry, across international sales, studio acquisitions, UK distribution and film finance. He was previously CEO of Protagonist Pictures, and before that at Universal Pictures and independent UK distributor Metrodome. Ben is a member of the Executive Branch of AMPAS and on the Board of Trustees of The Terrence Higgins Trust. His first job in film was as an usher at Showcase Cinemas in Coventry.