Jarl Russnes, one of the regular Norwegian visitors to the Blackpool convention, has written about his visit to the 2026 British Film Collectors’ Convention, held at Oxted on 30th May 2026. Many thanks to Jarl for permission to reproduce his text and pictures.
Once again, it was time for the BFCC (British Film Collectors’ Convention) just outside London – the 67th of its kind, taking place three years after the previous one and 50 years after the very first. As the numbers suggest, it was held twice a year for many years, but after 2016 there was a hiatus until 2023, and now 2026. Times were tough and the organizers grew old, but now younger forces have stepped up, and there is a renaissance in the air. The evening news talks about how youth today are drawn toward the tangible and authentic – the analogue – and it looks like that includes real film, too. Is this the moment it happens?
I headed over a few days early to get a little extra out of the trip while I was crossing over. First, the journey took me to Hackney to visit the famous film shop Umit & Son, which has been there for a long time but has made it big in recent years with its 16mm film club, CINÉ-REAL. I had the pleasure of experiencing a screening with them in 2023 to a packed cinema, using more or less the same techniques we use in the Oslo FilmrullKlubb. That was encouraging back then, but I was no less heartened when Umit told me they are now in such high demand that they screen in five different locations, with more coming soon. When I met up a bit later with my old projectionist friend Svein, and he showed off the super-hip Rio Cinema – adding that they are starting up with 35mm again now – I felt the renaissance even more. Umit and his shop will also soon be seen in the film The Last Picture Shop.
Then it was time to leave the melting pot of the city, and it was a relief to escape the heatwave, as the convention itself was to take place in Oxted, further south. Close to London, but far enough out to get that English village feel. I stayed in Westerham, so there was time for a bit of history too, including a visit to Chartwell. The English experience is also incomplete without some wonderful pubs, and I had the pleasure of meeting my English collector friends John, Paul, and Simon at a pub that shares its name with the most famous pub in Drammen. A joy in its own right, but then Simon showed off an authentic, brand-new, hyper-modern Polaroid camera, demonstrating how it worked and showing that the results were second to none. Once again, the renaissance comes knocking on the door.
And then the day itself arrived, and it was an early start to see what was what. Naturally, the usual questions began to surface: What’s there? Is there anything good? Maybe nothing? The excitement builds. For many, it is mostly a social event—and for me too—but there’s no getting away from the fact that a big point of this whole trip is to find something nice to bring back that can also be shown at Oslo FilmrullKlubb [ film club that runs in Oslo]. What I found, I can tell you when you come to a screening, but I can say that the event felt like an unqualified success. There was a good turnout of both sellers and attendees, including a fair number of genuine young people, which allows me to mention the renaissance yet again. The screening program also went very well, featuring demonstrations of highly impressive analogue technology.
A film was presented with footage from the BFCC’s first year, where some of the faces in the audience could be spotted again in somewhat older versions. Exciting segments followed one after the other, but perhaps most interesting was the presentation by Film is Fabulous, a relatively new organisation dedicated to saving film collections from being lost after their owners pass away because the heirs don’t know what to do with them. They do this by helping the heirs sell the films to the right person, finding them a new home so these treasures can live on.
However, there is another important point. Much of our film and television heritage is considered lost, largely because the studios themselves chose not to preserve the material at the time. Yet, there are many stories of things turning up from the collector community after many years, and it is believed there is still a lot out there to be found. It would be a tragedy if this ended up in a landfill. Therefore, the team is permitted by the heirs they partner with to go through the collections in search of such treasures, which has recently borne great fruit—particularly by finding and making available lost episodes of Doctor Who. At the convention, they were able to present newly discovered footage featuring Tom Jones and Eric Sykes.
The whole event was rounded off with nothing less than Last Action Hero on 35mm. Everyone left highly satisfied, and the undersigned looks upon the future of celluloid film more brightly than in a very long time.
For the last time: the renaissance is here!
Blackpool Film Collectors' Convention 