filmarchives online provides free and easy access to moving image collections of film archives from all over Europe. Via the multi-lingual web gateway, film works can be searched for by content, filmographic data and physical characteristics. Search results provide information on existence and location of the materials as well as contact details to facilitate access.

filmarchives online aims at user groups ranging from the area of scientific research to the professional media and film production domain. The database's content focuses on non-fiction-material, i.e. documentary and educational film, newsreels, travelogues, commercial advertising, scientific, industrial, experimental, sports as well as animation films. Selected films have been digitised and are viewable online. In addition, numerous film stills and screenshots are presented in image galleries. Users interested in viewing, licensing, or obtaining a moving image item can get in touch with the archive holding the copy directly.

filmarchives online is the result of the MIDAS project (Moving Image Database for Access and Re-use of European Film Collections). MIDAS has been initiated in 2006 as a pilot project in the MEDIA Plus programme ofthe European Commission. It ran for three years and was carried out by 18 institutions dedicated to collecting and preserving film heritage in Europe. MIDAS was coordinated by the Deutsches Filminstitut - DIF.

The project partners contribute extracts from their local archive databases directly to filmarchives online. Each participating institution continously enriches, improves and supplemets its data independently. Thus, filmarchives online is emerging as a central point of reference for searching and locating archival moving pictures in Europe.

Locations of filmarchives online partners: