First Film Classified Using the BBFC’s Brand New Platform

The first film to be classified using the BBFC’s brand new, world leading classification platform has officially received its age rating certificate.

• Birds of Prey is classified using state of the art technology in the BBFC’s brand new classification platform
• Part of a move towards greater transparency between client and regulator
• All cinema films expected to be classified using the new platform by April 2020, and home entertainment by summer 2020

Birds of Prey is the first cinema release to be submitted and classified using the BBFC’s new client portal and tagging platform. The BBFC has been classifying content since 1912, and this is the biggest technology transformation the organisation has seen.

The transformation project, known as ‘Project Horizon’ is cloud based, and has been developed by a group of cutting edge technology partners including Amazon Web Services, Vidispine, GuideSmiths, NMR Consultancy Ltd and 100 Shapes.

Dave Barrett, Deputy CEO of the BBFC, said: “This is a radical shift in the way that we work with our clients to classify content. Along with our consultants, Remodus, who worked with us on the development of the platform, we have been working in close partnership with the film and home entertainment industries and our technology partners to design and build a flexible system that makes our classification process even more efficient and much easier for everyone involved.

“Everything submitted to the BBFC will still be seen by our highly trained team of compliance officers, it’s simply the tools that we use as a business which are changing. This is a move towards greater transparency between regulator and client – and we’re looking forward to migrating all our clients to the new system by summer 2020”

The key differences between the old system and the new platform include; a flexible and intuitive client portal for all submissions; a content tagging and data enrichment platform where classification is carried out; and reduces risk.

The new client portal offers all clients choice over dates and price structure, and greater control over their account management.

“Project Horizon was a large and complex challenge and GuideSmiths had the task of creating two bespoke cloud based apps in the Client Portal and Scheduling tool as well as the orchestration layer integrating the entire suite of apps. The result is incredible and I’m thankful to Dave Barrett and the BBFC team for the opportunity to collaborate on such a great project.” – Glenn O’Grady,GuideSmiths CEO