Folks in the UK are in for a treat.

The British Film Institute has added Britain on Film to its BFI Player.

What makes this stand out is the both the film collection and the search method.

Enter the site and you’re prompted to enter a place: favourite childhood holiday, where your parents met, favourite place in the UK.

Next, you are shown a map of the spot, surrounded by markers indicating place-specific films. On the right, you can refine the results by decade and subject or simply ‘See all the films.’

From the media release:

“Many of these films have never – or rarely – been seen since their first appearance and can now be searched for by specific UK locations through BFI Player’s ground-breaking new Film and TV Map of the UK, which also enables people to share films with their family, friends and communities.”

The only catch is that you have to have a UK IP address.

In the meantime, Canadians can make do with the National Film Board‘s excellent site, albeit with standard searching. (I thought Mudflats Living was fascinating, as Victoria currently debates ‘micro-housing.’)

My take: I love maps, so I particularly like the way Britain on Film organizes searches first by location, displaying the results on a map, and then by subject. I think it would be fascinating to geo-locate scenes from all movies this way. Hey Google, can you implement this feature on YouTube soon?