The YFA

The Yorkshire Film Archive is a registered charity which finds, preserves and provides public access to moving image made in or about the Yorkshire region.

Our growing collections currently contain over 16,000 titles, ranging from films made by the early film pioneers of the late 1890s, to recent footage of changing landscapes and life in our region. Whether you’re interested in seeing Queen Victoria visiting Sheffield in 1897, taking a sentimental journey on the Scarborough to Whitby railway line in 1965, visiting the Bradford Festival Mela in 1998, or anything in between, you’ll find that our collections really do offer something for everyone.

We’re based at York St John University, where our purpose-built premises include temperature and humidity controlled film vaults, for safeguarding the collections, and specialist viewing and editing facilities to help us in our work to make the collections accessible for everyone to see and enjoy. We also have a public viewing room, where you can – by prior appointment – research films from our collections.

However, you don’t need to visit YFA to experience a taste of Yorkshire life on film: view over 60 hours of YFA Online footage right here, explore our catalogue to discover what else is in our collection, or find out how you can deposit your films with us.