The situation
The British Film Database lists every British feature film since 1950, free and with no adverts, and has to stay current without anyone updating it. It is our own project, not a client's.
The British Film Database: more than 9,500 films on about 34,000 pages, rebuilt every week
More than 9,500 British films on about 34,000 pages, rebuilt every week from open data without anyone editing a film page.
- Client
- British Film Database (our own project)
- Sector
- Reference
- Live since
- October 2026
- Scope
- Data engineering, Website, Automation
- Built with
- Astro, Netlify, TinaCMS, Wikidata
- The live site
- british-film-database.org.uk
What we did
We built the site from open data: Wikidata for the films, and Wikimedia Commons for photographs, each credited.
We built it with Astro, host it on Netlify, and rebuild it every week, so nobody edits a film page by hand.
We set up TinaCMS as the visual editor for the features and the about page.
Headline results
- Main content on screen, mobileResult1.7 s
- PagesResult34,057
- Films listedResultMore than 9,500
How each figure was measured
- Main content on screen, mobile. Lighthouse 13.6.0 lab test, mobile profile, median of five runs (1.5 to 1.7 s), homepage. The same method gave 2.4 s on 28 October 2026. 30 October 2026.
- Pages. Count of pages in a full rebuild on 28 October 2026 28 October 2026.
- Films listed. Count of film records in the data 28 October 2026.
Other case studies
IFS CoatingsEnterprise scale, product data, and a migration without losing a pageWhat it covered: WordPress migration, Website, The editor
Photograph: © Jess Shurte Photography & Dunedin Consort.Matthew BrookSmall-site migration, self-editing, and design rangeWhat it covered: WordPress migration, Website, The editor
Last reviewed 30 October 2026.
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