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Counterpoint Systems recently announced that the British Film Institute (bfi), the national agency responsible for encouraging and conserving the arts of film and television, will be implementing Counterpoint's Movie Maestro software to ensure the proper allocation of rights and royalties in respect to the 11,000 titles within their Access Collection (a division of bfi).

Movie Maestro is a program designed for film companies to manage all aspects of their film catalog, from ensuring an accurate and organized accounting of a new project launch to aiding the management and exploitation of old titles for which the company grants licenses. The British Film Institute, the main archival repository of British film and international film, has an extraordinary need to standardize its rights management system in the most efficient way possible. Counterpoint Systems is the company providing that solution.

"Counterpoint Systems' Movie Maestro will give us the greatest accessibility and efficiency necessary for the bfi's large catalog of films," said Rod Molinare, Head of Sales, bfi Collections. "We were impressed with Counterpoint's ability to provide a solution that successfully addresses the complexities of our more than 11,000 titles spanning the record of cinematic history."

The British Film Institute encompasses all aspects of motion pictures. Some recent commercial box office ventures are revivals of Lindsay Anderson's 60's classic "If ... " and the MGM classic musical "Meet Me In St. Louis." Its vast documentary section has films from around the world including "South," (UK 1919, restored version UK 1998), the feature-length original footage from British explorer Ernest Shackleton's heroic Antarctic expedition of 1914-1916. Bfi also holds archival footage of Britain's history, such as the 1895 "Grand Derby."

"Counterpoint is excited to provide bfi with Movie Maestro. We believe it is the complete rights management tool required for managing a catalog of 11,000 film titles," said Amos Biegun, CEO of Counterpoint Systems. "The complexity and size of the bfi installation is an endorsement of Movie Maestro's ability to handle large film libraries such as those of America's major movie studios."

About the BFI

The British Film Institute (bfi) is a non-profit making organization, which promotes opportunities for people throughout the UK to gain access to, learn more about and enjoy the widest possible range of film and television culture.

Bfi organizes the Regus London Film Festival and contributes to other festivals in the UK and internationally and runs the National Film Theatre and the bfi London IMAX(R) Cinema, the UK's largest screen.

Bfi also holds the largest collection of film, television and associated items in Europe. The collections include over 275,000 feature films dating from 1894, 200,000 television programs, seven million photographs and 15,000 movie posters. Bfi has distribution rights for 11,000 films.

Bfi provides a variety of services to cinemas UK-wide (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) so they are able to show the widest possible range of films to local audiences.

Bfi provides an authoritative source of information on film and television through the bfi National Library and publishes a wide range of books, the film magazine, Sight and Sound and educational materials for a variety of audiences.