Some of you might remember that Keith posted a report on the BFI’s actions in deciding not to appoint a member governor in the last round of elections because the turnout of electors was too low. Keith asked us to write or email the BFI Governors asking them to clarify their position on Member Governors. I emailed the Secretary of the Board of Governors but did not receive a reply.

You may now be interested to know that on 12 March, the BFI announced that three new governors had been appointed. They are Andrea Wong, ‘President of International at Sony Pictures Entertainment’, Pete Czernin one of two partners in Blueprint Pictures a high profile UK film production company responsible for productions such as The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and the former presenter of BBC1’s Film programme, Jonathan Ross. The full list of BFI Governors is given in the Press Release that announced the new names and you can read their profiles on the BFI website. The surviving Member Governor is Peter Kosminsky, a respected writer and director of TV documentary and drama.

The pretence that the BFI is a cultural agency with a diverse membership seems now to be gradually fading into the background. I’m not sure which of the governors in any way ‘represents’ or speaks with experience about anything outside the bubble of the Home Counties media ecology. The BFI, lest we forget, is a UK-wide body, though in my view it is little more than the London Film Institute these days. Meanwhile, specialised film distribution is under threat from several quarters. But what do we know? We are only the punters who actually go to the cinemas in order to explore film culture.