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Winners of the bfi Publishing Best Film Book Poll In August we asked you what are your favourite books on film to celebrate bfi Publishing's 21st anniversary and to compile a poll of the top five film books since 1980. As a reminder we didn't want self-promoting tie-ins nor did we want the vote to be swayed by favourite films and directors. We wanted votes for books - excluding screenplays, interviews, autobiographies and memoirs. So what are the best books on cinema? The winning line-up makes for compulsive reading, from the academic tome to Hollywood bean-spilling, from the step by step guide to who's who in the world of film to a definition of mise-en-scène: it's all here in the top five film books of the bfi Publishing poll: 1. The Cinema Book -- Pam Cook and Mieke Bernink (bfi Publishing) 2. The Biographical Dictionary of Film -- David Thomson (Andre Deutsche) 3. Easy Riders, Raging Bulls -- Peter Biskind (Bloomsbury) 4. Adventures In The Screen Trade -- William Goldman (Abacus) 5. Film Art -- David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson (McGraw-Hill) Topping the list is The Cinema Book edited by Pam Cook and Mieke Bernink. First published in 1985, this book is now in its second edition. Joining its ranks at number five on the list is Film Art an introduction to the art and analysis of cinema, now in its sixth edition. Both look at the fundamentals of serious film study. Back in the 80s film publishing was only just beginning to flourish and just a decade earlier film studies didn't exist. There was film journalism and amateur scholarship but no real major UK textbooks about the cinema. Now film publishing is so popular that film books are topping the best-seller charts and making their way into airport lounges. Easy Riders Raging Bulls, number three on our list tells the story of New Hollywood in the making. Our number four, Adventures in the Screen Trade, makes for equally gratifying reading. The most nominated authors and subjects certainly feature some names to be reckoned with. David Thomson, number two in the line up for The Biographical Dictionary of Film, was also nominated many times for The Big Sleep, Rosebud and Suspects. David Bordwell was nominated over and again for such titles as Narration in the Fiction Film, Classical Hollywood Cinema with Kristin Thompson et al and Post-Theory with Noel Carroll. Books on Hitchcock appear time after time: English Hitchcock - Charles Barr, Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho - Stephen Rebello, Art of Alfred Hitchcock - Donald Spoto, and Hitchcock's Films Revisited - Robin Wood. Robin Wood also cropped up more than a few times with Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan. The spread of nominated books is equally as fascinating, books on silent film are there, Burning Passions - Paolo Cherchi Usai, Early Cinema: Space Frame and Narrative - Thomas Elsaesser. French critics - Gilles Deleuze's series Cinema 1 and 2 appeared frequently. Feminist takes on film, Chick Flicks - Ruby Rich, Hard Core - Linda Williams, Women in Film Noir - E. Ann Kaplan. Many couldn't do without their desk-top reference works: BFI Film and Television Handbook - Eddie Dyja, Halliwell's Film Guide and the Time Out Film Guide. Our own BFI Film and Modern classics were often nominated including The Big Heat - Colin McArthur, The Big Sleep - David Thomson, The Birds - Camille Paglia, Chinatown - Michael Eaton, Citizen Kane - Laura Mulvey, Crash - Iain Sinclair, The Exorcist - Mark Kermode, L'avventura - Geoffrey Nowell-Smith, The Magnificent Ambersons - V.F. Perkins, Once Upon a Time in America - Adrian Martin, Performance - Colin MacCabe, Taxi Driver - Amy Taubin, The Wizard of Oz - Salman Rushdie. The early film studies icon Peter Wollen nearly made it into the top five with Signs and Meaning in the Cinema. Which brings us back to the beginning. In 1969 we co-published this book with Secker and Warburg. Signs and Meaning in the Cinema went on to sell 35,000 copies and was translated into Chinese among other languages. And in 1980 the bfi set up a permanent publishing arm. Film studies was born. 21 years later we're celebrating our anniversary and going from strength to strength. This poll serves as a wonderful reminder that film publishing has now grown from its humble roots and bfi Publishing remains firmly at the heart of publishing on the cinema for students, academics and film-lovers around the world. For further information look at: www.bfi.org.uk/21 <http://www.bfi.org.uk/21> or contact: Rebecca Watts Marketing and Sales bfi Publishing Tel. 020 7957 4817 Fax. 020 7636 2516