LEGENDARY film director Martin Scorsese might have addressed the audience at the BFI London Film Festival awards last night to highlight the importance of preserving old films – but Danny Boyle believes that the future of the industry lies in digital technology.

Scorsese had earlier told the audience that he believed Britain to be a nation of cinephiles, but if the BFI’s film archive was not preserved “we would have to live in the knowledge of what we had lost.”

However, the Boyle disagreed with the Taxi Driver director, saying: “I don’t think we really are a cinema nation, but that’s OK because something’s going to change – you can feel it.

“Celluloid is dying and digital is coming – it is no longer about the high street or the shopping mall, soon film will be something that is in your pocket.”

Later he said that his comments were not meant as disrespectful to Scorsese, but that he felt the new digital technology would improve the quality of filmmaking in Britain.

“I have stole virtually everything from all of Scorsese’s films, but I had to disagree with him,” said the director. “I think it is going to make us better filmmakers.”