David Francis

David John Francis first joined the BFI's National Film Archive in 1959, when he was appointed Television Acquisitions Officer by Ernest Lindgren. He left to work for the BBC in 1965, and came back in 1974 as the archive's Curator, a year after Lindgren's death. Between 1974 and 1989, he initiated an ambitious 24-year plan to duplicate decaying nitrate film, oversaw the building of the archive's J. Paul Getty Jr Conservation Centre in Berkhamsted, and was one of the leaders of the team behind the Museum of the Moving Image the Museum of the Moving Image in London. He went on to become the Chief of the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division at the Library of Congress (1991-2001).

He sat on the FIAF Executive Committee from 1977-1993, and served as Vice-President from 1979 to 1985. In 1978, he hosted the FIAF Congress in Brighton and oversaw the organization of it famous symposium "Cinema 1900-1906". He was elected FIAF Honorary Member in 2001. He is currently the co-curator, with his partner Joss Marsh, of the Kent Museum of the Moving Image in the village of Deal.