Jeremy Thomas donates personal archive to the BFI

Jeremy Thomas, one of Britain’s most prominent independent producers and founder of Recorded Picture Company, has donated a significant portion of his personal collection of films and materials to the BFI National Archive.

The archive’s content spans Thomas’ entire career as a producer and executive producer from his first film, Phillipe Mora’s Mad Dog Morgan (1976) to High Rise (2015), directed by Ben Wheatley.

The contents of the donation consist of 35mm prints, production material and international posters from some of his most prominent works, including the Oscar-winning The Last Emperor (1987) and JG Ballard’s Crash (1996).

Once catalogued fully, the paper-based materials (including stills, posters and designs) will be known as The Jeremy Thomas Collection. The collection also includes 35mm prints of Thomas’ films such as The Sheltering Sky (1990) and Thomas’ own directorial film All The Little Animals (1998) starring John Hurt and Christian Bale.

This donation follows Record Picture Company and HanWay Films recent moving of its London headquarters from Soho to Notting Hill, which left the collection needing a new home.

The Jeremy Thomas Collection will be accessible, once cataloguing is complete, by appointment through BFI Special Collections at the BFI Reuben Library.

BY EMMA KIELY 27 AUGUST 2019