Boron nitride (BN) films have been grown on nickel substrates by a hot filament assisted rf plasma chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Characterization by infrared (IR) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the formation of cubic phase strongly depends on the filament temperature. The stoichiometric films with a content over 80% of c-BN phase can be grown at the temperatures ranging from 2000 to 2200 degrees C. Out of this temperature region, the c-BN content in the resulting films decreases dramatically. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed that fairly uniform grains with the regular shape are well packed in the films deposited at the optimum filament temperature.