BFI selects Red Bee for audio description and captioning at key film festivals

The British Film Institute (BFI) selected global media services company Red Bee Media as its official access services provider for two major film festivals in 2021.

Red Bee delivered audio description and captioning for the 2021 BFI Flare Festival and provided similar support for the BFI London Film Festival from 6 to 17 October 2021.

The BFI conducted an extensive competitive evaluation, ultimately awarding Red Bee the contract based on its experience with complex and specialised feature film content and its track record of innovative editorial approaches.

“The content at Flare and the BFI London Film Festival is extremely wide-ranging and requires a unique expertise to match the audio description and captions with the visual and audio narrative,” said Olivia Howe, BFI festivals producer, BFI. “With topics ranging from light-hearted to documentary to drama, this is no easy task. Finding one company able to handle this diverse range of film-making and genre is hard, but Red Bee has proven themselves as the one-stop resource in this area.”

Red Bee has worked with the BFI previously, delivering audio description and captioning for the BFI collection ‘Unlimited: Disability on Screen,’ which examined the portrayal of disability in British film and television across the last century. That previous collaboration, combined with Red Bee’s growing portfolio of access service capabilities,  played a vital role in the BFI’s selection.

“Audio description and captioning are unique types of storytelling,” commented Louise Seddon, head of global access services operations at Red Bee Media. “You’re crafting a parallel story that makes the larger narrative accessible to all audiences. With more events streaming online and audiences now accustomed to viewing content on multiple platforms and devices, brands and their followers expect the same level of accessibility as they would on linear broadcasts.”