diff --git a/src/search_filter/file_filter.py b/src/search_filter/file_filter.py
index 6aa7db78..45677bf6 100644
--- a/src/search_filter/file_filter.py
+++ b/src/search_filter/file_filter.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ import re
 import fnmatch
 import time
 import logging
+from collections import defaultdict
 
 # External Packages
 import torch
@@ -20,10 +21,15 @@ class FileFilter(BaseFilter):
 
     def __init__(self, entry_key='file'):
         self.entry_key = entry_key
+        self.file_to_entry_map = defaultdict(set)
         self.cache = LRU()
 
-    def load(self, *args, **kwargs):
-        pass
+    def load(self, entries, *args, **kwargs):
+        start = time.time()
+        for id, entry in enumerate(entries):
+            self.file_to_entry_map[entry[self.entry_key]].add(id)
+        end = time.time()
+        logger.debug(f"Created file filter index: {end - start} seconds")
 
     def can_filter(self, raw_query):
         return re.search(self.file_filter_regex, raw_query) is not None
@@ -57,7 +63,10 @@ class FileFilter(BaseFilter):
         # Mark entries that contain any blocked_words for exclusion
         start = time.time()
 
-        included_entry_indices = [id for id, entry in enumerate(raw_entries) for search_file in files_to_search if fnmatch.fnmatch(entry[self.entry_key], search_file)]
+        included_entry_indices = set.union(*[self.file_to_entry_map[entry_file]
+                for entry_file in self.file_to_entry_map.keys()
+                for search_file in files_to_search
+                if fnmatch.fnmatch(entry_file, search_file)], set())
         if not included_entry_indices:
             return query, [], torch.empty(0)