Film studies

BFI Player is a video-on-demand service from the British Film Institute, streaming acclaimed, landmark and archive films. BFI Player’s focus is on British and European independent films, as well as international releases. The availability of films is dependent on rights agreements with licensors.

Instructions for registering for access to our BFI Player institutional subscription: 

1. Go to https://player.bfi.org.uk/academic/subscribe and create an account using your UoE email address and a password of your choice OR sign in if you already have one by selecting 'Already have an account? Sign in'.
2. Select University of Edinburgh from the dropdown list and click "Link institution". 
3. Authenticate subscription using your university credentials.  

November title list

Any titles with less than 6 months remaining are highlighted in orange on the first tab.

Please note that you first need to register your BFI Player account via a web browser by visiting https://player.bfi.org.uk/help. Once your account is set up, you can log-in via pc, laptop, mobile devices (iOS: iOS 13 or higher ; Android: V11 or higher) and the following TV apps:

• Samsung Smart TV app (2015-2024)
• LG Smart TV app (2019-2024)
• Amazon Fire TV app
• Apple TV app
• Android TV app
• Chromecast with Google Play

Further details are available in the "Supported Devices” section at: https://player.bfi.org.uk/help 

Access on and off campus.

Bloomsbury Screen Studies offers a broad range of content to support moving-image studies. It comprises award-winning screenplays, presented in industry-standard studio format, from ‘Orlando’ to ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’. It also includes critical and contextual books on film from the late nineteenth century to the present, and an interactive timeline of cinema history. It is an essential resource for academics and students engaged in research and learning around film history, theory and practice.

BUFVC provides a range of services to promote the production, study and use of film and related media for education and research. Services and projects include:

• Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching (TRILT);
• News on Screen - a resource for the study of news reels and cinemagazines (1910-1983) complete with Pathe film clips where they exist;
• the subject-based Moving Image Gateway.

An archival research resource containing the essential primary sources for studying the history of the film and entertainment industries, from the era of vaudeville and silent movies through to the 21st century. The core US and UK trade magazines covering film, music, broadcasting and theater are included, together with film fan magazines and music press titles. Issues have been scanned in high-resolution color, with granular indexing of articles, covers, ads and reviews.

The Library has access to:

• EIMA1: Music, Radio and The Stage
• EIMA2: Cinema, Film and Television (Part 1)
• EIMA3: Cinema, Film and Television (Part 2)
• EIMA4: Rock, Folk and Hip-hop
• EIMA5: Video Gaming

Film Index International by ProQuest is the definitive online resource focusing on entertainment films and personalities. Produced in collaboration with the British Film Institute (BFI) it is based on the Summary of Film and Television (SIFT) database collated by the BFI over the past 70 years.

Film Index International provides in-depth indexing of over 125,000 films from the first silent movies to the latest blockbusters and biographical information for more than 900,000 personalities. Film Index International includes records on films from over 170 countries and has extensive coverage of international film awards and prizes. Its rich content also includes searchable plot summaries, full cast and crew lists as well as references to periodical articles on film and film-makers.

Volume II expands beyond classic and feature films with 500 new screenplays from StudioCanal, Ealing Studios, Newmarket Press, Warner Brothers, and others. Film origins go beyond American classic cinema to include more international and contemporary films. Users will find screenplays from well-known filmmakers, such as John Schlesinger’s Billy Liar, Bill Forsyth’s Comfort and Joy, Sam Peckinpah’s Cross of Iron, Michael Cimino’s The Deer Hunter, David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, Carol Reed’s The Third Man, David Lean’s Hobson’s Choice, Richard Fleischer’s The Jazz Singer, Alexander Mackendrick’s The Ladykillers, Nicholas Roeg’s The Man Who Fell to Earth, Robert Hamer’s Kind Hearts and Coronets, Mike Figgis's Leaving Las Vegas, Sidney Lumet’s Murder on the Orient Express, Bruce Beresford’s Tender Mercies, and Charles Crichton’s The Lavender Hill Mob. In addition, Film Scripts Online: Volume II features the British Film Institute’s Film Classics monographs. This series of critical works provides deep analysis of the most well-known classics in cinematic history. Each volume offers an opportunity to learn about the production and reception history of the films, why they are considered "classics," and an inside look into the author's personal response to the final film. Titles include critical assessments of Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Throne of Blood, Dr. Strangelove, Solaris, 8 ½, Bringing Up Baby, and many others.

In addition, Film Scripts Online: Volume II features the British Film Institute’s Film Classics monographs. This series of critical works provides deep analysis of the most well-known classics in cinematic history. Each volume offers an opportunity to learn about the production and reception history of the films, why they are considered "classics," and an inside look into the author's personal response to the final film. Titles include critical assessments of Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Throne of Blood, Dr. Strangelove, Solaris, 8 ½, Bringing Up Baby, and many others.

Gale Research Complete is a database cross-search platform which incorporates Gale Academic OneFile, General OneFile, Gale eBooks, Gale OneFile News, Gale Literature, and Archives Unbound in Gale Primary Sources. All these databases are individually listed in Databases A-Z. The resources within Gale Research Complete offer high quality, authoritative primary source and reference content from over 28,000 periodicals, 4000 Gale eBook volumes, 1.5 million items of literary criticism and full text literary works, and more than 13 million pages of rare primary sources from the world's great libraries. The resources address the needs of users at all academic levels, from the first year student to the experienced researcher, and cover every research area and discipline including history, literature, business and science and medicine.

Access on and off-campus.

Kanopy is an online streaming service for films and documentaries. Content includes popular documentaries, Oscar winners and nominees, classic films, and independent films. Edinburgh University users can have full access to several dozen films which the Library has purchased for teaching. These films will be displayed after you login in and can be accessed from any device including computer, IOS and Android devices. Individual films available to us are also findable by title and author (as director) search in DiscoverEd.

Developed cooperatively with scholars worldwide, Oxford Bibliographies offers exclusive, authoritative research guides. Combining the best features of an annotated bibliography and a high-level encyclopedia, this cutting-edge resource guides researchers to the best available scholarship across a wide variety of subjects.

Each subject area has an Editor in Chief, Editorial Board, and team of peer reviewers overseeing the development and updating of articles ensuring balanced perspective with scholarly accuracy and a robust updating program to keep researchers informed of advances in their field.

At the time of launch, each subject area includes approximately 50 articles; with an additional 50 to 75 articles added each year. New article topics are selected to ensure each subject area offers full and balanced coverage as determined by the Editor in Chief and Editorial Board, scholarly feedback, and research demand.

Access on and off campus.

PRAGDA STREAM is the film streaming platform from PRAGDA, a leading educational film distributor for the newest Latin American, Spanish, and Latinx cinema. PRAGDA STREAM provides access to hundreds of films, in Spanish, Portuguese, Indigenous languages, and more, representing 30+ countries, and covering over 50 important subjects. Films are provided with English subtitles and/or captions.