#1Two codependent best friends become addicted to the heroin-like touch of an alien narcissist who may or may not be trying to take over the world.
Touch Me
★ 5.52026
The British Film Institute runs BFI Player, and since 2013 it has built a library you simply will not find anywhere else: restored classics, the UK national archive, independent arthouse cinema and documentaries that no recommendation engine would ever surface. Its own director calls the service an antidote to the algorithm, and that label fits. The catch for anyone in the US is that the standalone player with the full catalogue is UK-only, so a stateside IP address hits a geo-block.
The direct subscription costs £6.99 a month or £65 a year, a slice of the archive is free, and new releases can be rented one at a time. Finland and Sweden have had it since 2025 as an Amazon Prime Video Channels add-on, yet the full catalogue stays British. Surfshark switches your location to a British server, the app then reads you as sitting in London, and the catalogue loads in 1080p. You do not get the subscription for free, you simply reach content you already pay for.
BFI Player actively blocks VPNs. Only certain providers reliably bypass the detection.
| VPN Service | Price | BFI Player | Tested | Action |
|---|---|---|---|---|
SurfsharkBEST | From $1.78/mo | ✓ Works | June 11 | Try it |
ExpressVPN | From $2.79/mo | ✓ Works | June 11 | Open |
NordVPN | From $2.99/mo | ✓ Works | June 13 | Open |
ProtonVPN | From $3.59/mo | ~ Partial | June 13 | Open |
Private Internet Access | From $1.79/mo | ~ Partial | June 12 | Open |
CyberGhost | From $1.75/mo | ~ Partial | June 9 | Open |
IPVanish | From $2.19/mo | ~ Partial | June 12 | Open |
Takes about 2 minutes. Works on your phone, tablet, TV, PC, or laptop.
BFI Player is only available in the United Kingdom. To access it from anywhere else, use a premium VPN.
BFI Player is blocked in the United States, in Australia, in Canada, in New Zealand and in Ireland, plus in 186 more countries. To access it, use a premium VPN like Surfshark.
BFI Player is a paid British streaming service from the British Film Institute, the London body that launched it in 2013. It concentrates on curated arthouse and independent film, classics, documentaries and titles from the national archive. Alongside a subscription it offers single rentals of newer releases, and opens part of the archive for free. Many titles arrive with essays, interviews and context, closer to a film education than a catalogue. The standalone player with the full catalogue is UK-only (player.bfi.org.uk), and since 2025 the service also reaches Finland and Sweden through Amazon Prime Video Channels. From elsewhere it is geo-blocked unless you connect through a UK server.

5 tips from our BFI Player testing team · Updated June 13, 2026
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Everything you need to know before subscribing to BFI Player.
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