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World War One commemoration ceremony of the United Nations with film material from EFG1914

2014-07-08| With a ceremonial event, the United Nations will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the beginning of the First World War in the presence of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Tuesday, 8 July 2014, 6:30 pm local time, at the UN headquarters in New York. The event will be the only commemoration of WW1 that will bring all the Member States of the United Nations together. A clip with film material digitised by the EFG1914 partners will be shown to several hundred international diplomatic representatives as introduction to the event. European film archives participating in the EFG1914 digitisation project provided the trailer to the UN. It shows original footage from and about WW1, which was digitised with support by the European Commission over the last two years.
 
Organised by the Permanent Missions of France and Germany, the event commemorates the tragedy of the First World War and sends out a joint message of peace and reconciliation through a speech by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. „We very much appreciate that footage from the valuable films digitised by EFG1914 partners can now be seen on the central commemoration event of the United Nations“, says Claudia Dillmann, Director of the EFG1914 project coordinator Deutsches Filminstitut.
 
A live webcast of the event will be available 8 July 2014 at 18:30 EDT (0:30 CEST): http://webtv.un.org/
 
Read the official press release here.
 
Watch the official EFG1914 project trailer and find out more about the project here.

 

Virtual exhibition "European Film and the First World War"

2014-03-24| On occasion of the current commemorations of World War One, the European Film Gateway is now presenting a virtual exhibition about the history of film during the war years. Users can view ca. 120 clips from historical films as well as selected film posters and other film-related materials, arranged in thematic sections such as "Advertising the war" or "Cameramen at the front". All clips were taken from films that 21 archives from all over Europe have digitised within the framework of the EFG1914 project since 2012.
 
Through seven key themes the exhibition gives insights into the film history of the First World War: Various sorts, genres and subjects, productions from belligerent and from neutral countries, conventional and experimental works, films promoting the war as well as films opposing it, reflect the full range of film production in the 1910s and its transformations resulting from the war. From each clip a link refers to the full-length film at the European Film Gateway.
 
Explore the exhibition here:
 
http://exhibition.europeanfilmgateway.eu/efg1914 For more information about First World War films available on EFG, please visit:
www.europeanfilmgateway.eu/1914

 

IDFA 2013 - The First World War: The First War on Screen

2013-11-13| This year’s edition of the International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam (20 November to 1 December 2013) will feature a series of films about World War One. The programme section The First World War: The First War On Screen  was curated by Elif Rongen-Kaynaci (EYE Film Institute), David Barnou from NIOD (Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies), and Bert Hogenkamp (Sound and Vision). On this occasion, Elif Rongen- Kaynaci will present Moving tales from the trenches: EFG1914, featuring several films from archives participating in the EFG1914 project.

The documentaries shown in the scope of the programme section are also at europeanfilmgateway.eu: 

A Day in the Life of a Munition Worker   [GB 1917]

Friedensverhandlungen in Brest-Litowsk [DE 1918]

Hochseefischerei der Deutschen Marine [DE 1918]

Holland neutraal, de leger- en vlootfilm [The Netherlands 1917]

Lille im dritten Kriegsjahr [DE 1917]

Der Magische Gürtel [DE 1917]

Met onze jongens aan den IJzer [ Belgium, 1928]

Mrs. John Bull Prepared  [GB 1918]

 

On 24 November 2013 at 10:30, Elif Rongen- Kaynaci will present a special programme Moving tales from the trenches: EFG1914, featuring 12 films from EYE's collection.

 

More information and the programme schedule are available at the IDFA website.

More information about the EFG1914 project and access to more films from and about the First World War.

 

Call for Papers: “Unlocking Sources – The First World War online & Europeana”

2013-06-17| On 30-31 January 2014, the international conference “Unlocking Sources – The First World War online & Europeana” will discuss the new digital offerings around the First World War and Europeana as well as the mediation of history online in 2014. The three EU-funded projects "EFG1914", “Europeana Collections 1914-1918″ and “Europeana 1914-1918” have digitized hundreds of thousands of sources from archives, museums, libraries, and individuals. These will, for the first time ever, be made available to the general public for free via the virtual library Europeana. The two-day conference will be jointly organised by the project co-ordinating institutions Berlin State Library, the Department of History at the Humboldt University in Berlin, the Deutsches Filminstitut – DIF, and the Europeana Foundation. It will address interested scientific audiences and the public.

Deadline for submission of papers is 15 July 2013.

Find more information about the conference here: www.europeana-collections-1914-1918.eu/unlocking-sources/

 

New web portal on Lithuanian newsreels launched

2013-06-13| The Lithuanian Central State Archive just launched their new online portal "e-Kinas - Lithuanian documentaries on the Internet" providing free access to several hundreds of videos. E-kinas is the result of a three-year project funded by the EU Structural Funds. The objective of the project is the preservation of Lithuanian documentary heritage through digitisation as well as free access for everyone via the Internet.

Visit e-kinas.lt

 

Registration open for ARRI ARCHIVE WORKSHOP

2013-04-18| ARRI's annual archive & restoration event will take place at the company's headquarters in Munich on Tuesday, 11th June & Wednesday, 12th June 2013. The workshop will inform about different solutions for dealing with the earliest colour films, specialists from restoration companies will present their current projects and discuss challenges that are faced by the world’s leading archives. Participants will have the opportunity to browse new technologies in ARRI's exhibition hall and enjoy a special and exclusive screening of Alfred Hitchcock’s restored classic "The Lodger".

Registration is now open
Visit ARRI's website for more information on the workshop
  

Films from and about First World War online

2013-04-18| Since February 2013, the European Film Gateway gives access to a growing number of films from and about World War One that a total of 20 European film archives are currently digitising and making available freely online in the scope of the EU-funded EFG1914 project. The majority of the available films are  non-fiction, but some fictional content can be found as well. By the end of the EFG1914 project in February 2014, 650 hours of WWI-related moving images, formerly unknown to the wider public, will be available via the European Film Gateway.

Visit the European Film Gateway to watch the films currently available

Visit the EFG1914 project website to find out more about the project

 

Filmoteca Española – New online platform

2013-02-04| Filmoteca Española has recently given free online access to the Spanish newsreel NO-DO (Noticiarios y Documentales, 1943 – 1981).  Users can also find a selection of feature films, shorts and documentaries, among them several films related to  First World War, which Filmoteca Española will also contribute to EFG portal. The videos were published in co-operation with Radio Televisión Española – RTVE.

www.rtve.es/filmoteca

 

Europeana’s huge cultural dataset opens for re-use

2012-09-12 |Opportunities for apps developers, designers and other digital innovators will be boosted today as the digital portal Europeana opens up its dataset of over 20 million cultural objects for free re-use. This release, also including around 500'000 records from the European Film Gateway portal, is by far the largest one-time dedication of cultural data to the public domain using CC0. It sets an important new international precedent, a decisive move away from the world of closed and controlled data.

Read Europeana's official press release
Visit the Europeana portal
Visit the European Film Gateway

 

Registration open for "Economies of the Commons 3: Sustainable Futures for Digital Archives" Conference

2012-07-20 |The international conference "Economies of the Commons 3: Sustainable Futures for Digital Archives" focusing on the challenges and future of archives will take place in Amsterdam on 11 & 12 October 2012. It is announced to be the biggest ‘eCommons’ conference yet with two streams of extraordinary keynotes, presentations, hands-on workshops and plenty of networking. The conference will look at two themes in particular: a) The challenge of large numbers: Digitization and restoration of film, A/V and photography and b) The future of archives: The Economies of Sharing & Sustainable Futures for Digital Archives. Organisers of the conference are the "Images for the Future" project partners The Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, Nationaal Archief, EYE Film Institute Netherlands and Kennisland.

The full conference programme and the registration form can be found at http://ecommons.eu

 

Austrian Film Museum Publishes “Kinonedelja – Online Edition”

2012-06-18 |The Austrian Film Museum has recently published its flagship online video project: “Kinonedelja – Online Edition”. 14 of the original 43 issues of the early Soviet newsreel series “Kinonedelja” (Kino-Week) survive in the Austrian Film Museum’s collection. The newsreels, which date from the years 1918 and 1919, are not merely significant for their depiction of life in the young Soviet Russia during the civil war, but also because they represent Dziga Vertov’s first contribution to cinema.

The films were digitised in the scope of the EU-funded EFG1914 project and are available via the European Film Gateway.

 

EFG1914 - Film digitisation project on First World War launches

2012-03-14 |With EFG1914, a major European co-operation project enters a new phase: Within the last three years (2008-2011), The European Film Gateway (EFG) became a frequently used web portal for finding films and film-related material from the film archives and cinémathèques of Europe, making available more than 500.000 objects to date.

Now, the follow-up project EFG1914 was kicked off. It will digitize up to 650 hours of film from and about World War I, and make the digitized film collections available on the Internet through the EFG Portal www.europeanfilmgateway.eu  and the European digital library Europeana (www.europeana.eu).

During the 1910s, a considerable amount of film material was produced, covering the events of the Great War. Today, the largest part of this historical material is considered lost: About four fifths of the contemporary film production are estimated to not have survived until today. Many of the preserved films still rest only on analogue film. This enables the archives to effectively preserve the material. However, access to these films still remains a cumbersome and costly task. With the help of EFG1914, this task is now made easy and efficient by digitizing the film material. The films are expected to become available over the next two years, just in time for the 2014 centenary. At the same time, the project serves as a means of facilitating good practices of film digitization and digital preservation by pooling the individual archives’ considerable experience in this field.

Read the full press release
Visit the project website: www.project.efg1914.eu

 

Europeana launches redesign

2011-10-13 |Europeana.eu, Europe’s digital library, museum and archive, launched a redesign with new functionality. The new interface has more visual appeal and has been adapted for iPads and Android touchscreens, bringing all the benefits of touch to Europe’s online treasury. The portal's makeover has been shaped by its users, who have helped to create the services they wanted around their cultural heritage. The Europeana portal gives access to currently more than 19 million images, texts, audio files and films from over 1000 European heritage institutions, including film archives.

Explore www.europeana.eu
Read the official press release about the redesign.

 

“Digital cinema: What Does the Future Hold for Cinematheques?” - International Symposium at La Cinémathèque française

2011-09-06 |On 13 and 14 October, international film makers, technicians, producers, curators and historians will meet in Paris at La Cinémathèque française to discuss the radical transformation from analogue to digital and its effects on the founding missions of cinémathèques (to collect, conserve, restore and show). The speakers will assess the current situation, talk about the lifespan of a film today, techniques in use and their development as well as about recommendations on restoration and conservation of data.

Read the full programme here

 

European Film Gateway Portal is Online

2011-07-26 | The European Film Gateway portal, which gives access to digital collections of 16 European film archives, is now online. Search through about 400,000 films, images and texts, find hidden treasures from the pre-cinema era till today. Check out beautiful magic lantern slides, rare shorts by famous filmmakers like Antonioni or Carl Th. Dreyer as well as an abundance of film posters and photos. The portal is the result of the EU-funded project named "EFG - The European Film Gateway, which started in September 2008 with 21 partners from 15 European countries. Until the end of the EFG project in August, further collections will be added and are waiting to be discovered. Everything on the EFG is also searchable via Europeana.eu.

Visit the EFG portal at www.europeanfilmgateway.eu.

Read the full press release.

Find out more about the project behind the EFG portal here.

Go to www.europeana.eu.

 

Second EUscreen International Conference on Use and Creativity

2011-07-07 | EUscreen, the best practice network for Europe’s television heritage, organizes its Second International Conference on Use and Creativity. The conference takes place in Stockholm on 15 and 16 September 2011. The conference will explore creative approaches to enhance online accessibility of European television heritage.

The goal is to expand methods to reach a wide range of users and to increase their engagement with online heritage materials. The programme consists of two workshops, a plenary session with keynotes and case studies by renowned experts in the field. Attendance is free of charge, but registration is required. For more information about the conference and to register please go to: http://euscreen2011.eventbrite.com.
  
Read the official press release here.

 

New Video on Demand Platform for Dutch Film and Audiovisual Heritage

2011-04-07 | Ximon.nl, the new online streaming platform of the Dutch film and TV heritage institutions, was launched today. Over 650 hours of high quality feature films, documentaries and TV drama are now available for online viewing. The earliest work dates from 1901 and the latest productions were made in 2010. Prices start from 0.99 eurocents for a video. Ximon’s platform automatically adjusts the quality of the video stream, even up to full HD (1080p), depending on the end-users’ bandwidth and local computer power. Initiators EYE Film Institute Netherlands (Film) and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (TV) plan to make their whole digitised repository available through Ximon in the next couple of years.

Visit Ximon.nl

 

Call for Filmmakers with Mediterranean Projects

2011-03-30 |Storydoc is a training programme with the focus on the development of documentary projects – www.storydoc.gr. The Projects wanted should have a strong Mediterranean connection.  The call is open to filmmakers from the Region, other filmmakers with a project that deals with the area as well as to Palestinian and other filmmakers from the region. 20 projects will be selected, plus 5 from Greece and STORYDOC will offer 5 scholarships to the selected projects.

Deadline for submission of projects is April 26.
Find more information here.

 

World War I in Everyday Documents - Pictures, Letters and Memorabilia Wanted

2011-03-24 | The Europeana project “The First World War in everyday documents” is launched today with a call to the public in Germany to participate in building a digital European archive by contributing private memorabilia from the First World War. Europeana are looking for photographs, letters, diaries, short films, audio recordings, objects and their stories. Following the launch of the project, four roadshows take place in Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Munich and Stuttgart. The project is a partnership between Europeana, the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek and Oxford University. People are asked to bring World War 1 memorabilia to the roadshows. They will be digitised professionally and added to the online archive, along with corresponding descriptions. Independently of the roadshows, everyone can contribute their digitised images and information to the website www.europeana1914-1918.eu.

Here is the video of the campaign:


Otto & Bernard International version from europeana on Vimeo.

 

Swedish Films Online

2011-02-22 | The Swedish Film Institute and the National Library of Sweden recently launched the new web site www.filmarkivet.se, which offers the opportunity to see unique archival moving image material from Sweden that otherwise are rarely accessed. The films available for online viewing are mainly shorts, non-fiction films, news-reels and commercials. They are films that reflect the transformation of Swedish society over the last century. Some 300 films are available at the moment, a figure that will doubled before the end of the year.

www.filmarkivet.se
Swedish Film Institute
National Library of Sweden

 

EYE Film Institute Netherlands Launches Website "Instant Cinema"

2011-02-07 | EYE Film Institute Netherlands launched a global platform for experimental and art films with its new website. The goal of the project, initiated by filmmaker and multimedia expert René Daalder, is to make the remarkable works of experimental filmmakers and artists accessible to audiences worldwide. The website features both classics from the experimental genre as well as new films by young filmmakers. Instant Cinema was launched yesterday during the International Film Festival Rotterdam.

Visit "Instant Cinema".

Read the full press release here.

 

Guidelines for Copyright Clearance and IPR Management

2011-02-03 | In order to bring archival materials held in film archives online and giving access to them, rights clearing is one of the central topics tackled by the European Film Gateway (EFG) project. EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam, leader of the work package dedicated to copyright issues in the EFG project, has established Guidelines for Copyright Clearance and IPR Management. The report includes also an overview of legal frameworks in EU countries for the film sector, copyright basics (moral rights vs. exploitation rights, orphan works etc) and guidelines on how to clear rights related to film works.

The EFG project's main aim is to build a single access point to the digital collections of 16 European film archives. The portal will allow to search for pictures, texts and films and will go online in the next few weeks.

The report can be downloaded here.

For comments or questions on the report, please contact:
Eye Film Institute, Amsterdam
Department Legal & Access
Leontien Bout (LeontienBout(at)eyefilm.nl)
Geraldine Vooren (GeraldineVooren(at)eyefilm.nl)

To find out more about the European Film Gateway go here.

 

Cineteca di Bologna Launches CINESTORE

2011-02-03 | Videos and photos from the diverse collections of the Cinteca di Bologna as well as books and DVD editions published by the Cineteca are now available online. The amount of materials offered by CINESTORE will increase periodically. An English version of the website is coming soon.

http://cinestore.cinetecadibologna.it

 

Danish Film History online

2011-02-03 | The Danish Film Institut in Copenhagen published an English version of Peter Schepelern’s cruise through Danish Film History from 1896 to 2009. Decade by decade, readers can discover all tendencies and genres, from escapism to social realism, from family comedies to the Dogme film, from mainstream to avant-garde, from action flicks to documentaries.

http://www.dfi.dk/English/News/January-2011/Learn-more-about-Danish-Cinema.aspx

 

Register Now for ‘Screening the Future 2011’

2010-12-17 | PrestoCentre, a new, self-sustaining organisation continuing the work of the Presto projects, will launch at its first European conference in Amsterdam on 14 -15 March 2011. “Screening the Future – New Strategies and Challenges in Audiovisual Archiving” aims to connect AV archives, service providers, vendors, funders, policymakers, and educators by tackling some of today’s most urgent issues such as digital preservation strategies and technologies, funding mechanisms and policy making.

For programme details and registration please visit http://screeningthefuture.eventbrite.com

 

Digitising the First World War Recollections

2010-12-17 | Europeana is working with die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek and the Great War Archive at Oxford University to create an archive of stories from the different sides of the First World War. One of the objectives for the alliance is to bring important User Generated Content into Europeana; another is to begin to co-ordinate information in advance of the centenary of the 1914-18 conflict.

Read the press release here.

 

The European Commission Continues to Put Much Value upon Europeana

2010-11-25 |The European Commission issued a press-release on 18 November 2010 in respect of Europeana.eu. Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission for the Digital Agenda acknowledged the value of the on-line digital collection now containing 14 million objects from Europe’s cultural institutions. Further contributions were welcomed to ensure full representation of European cultural heritage.

Please read the press-release.

 

"Rescue the Hitchcock 9" - The British Film Institute seeks Support

2010-07-23 | Curators of the BFI National Archive have identified a collection of films in desperate need of restoration with nine of Alfred Hitchcock's early silent films being the first to seek rescue through the Support the BFI campaign. They have launched a campaign for collecting funds through their web site:

www.bfi.org.uk/saveafilm.html
www.bfi.org.uk/nationalarchive/hitchcock/

 

Digital Agenda: European film heritage – will it be there for future generations?

2010-07-06 |A report published today by the European Commission's Information Society and Media Directorate General sounds the alarm over the survival of Europe's film heritage. 80% of silent films are estimated to have been lost already but even new digital era films are at risk. Although the digital era provides new means of making and presenting films, it also imposes new challenges to the traditional ways of collecting and preserving films. Digital technologies are constantly evolving and what seems cutting-edge today may be obsolete in 2020 as cassette tapes or video recorders are already today. Film heritage institutions need to keep up, take up and advance new technologies to preserve Europe's films.

The report released today, compiled by the Commission's Information Society and Media Directorate General, stresses that Europe's film heritage institutions should take a new approach to the way they safeguard and provide access to Europe's film heritage. The traditional model - conserving fragile film materials in sealed boxes in vaults - cannot guarantee their preservation for posterity or accessibility. The report suggests that in the digital age, a new access model is needed so that future film makers and audiences can continue to enjoy European film culture.

The results presented in this report are only a first evaluation of the challenges and opportunities of the digital era for European film heritage. The Commission has launched an independent study, which will look in further detail into this issue. After reviewing the results of the study, the Commission will consider whether a revision of the Film Heritage Recommendation could be an appropriate means of addressing this issue.

Read the report and the official press release here.

 

ACE Elects New Executive Committee

2010-07-06 |During the Cinema Ritrovato Film Festival in Bologna, on 1 July 2010, the General Assembly of the Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE) elected a new Executive Committee for the term 2010-2012. New members of the EC are Thomas Christensen (Danish Film Institute, Copenhagen), Sandra den Hamer (Eye Film Institute Netherlands, Amsterdam), Tadeusz Kowalski (Filmoteka Narodowa, Warszaw), Mikko Kuutti (National Audiovisual Archive, Helsinki). Re-elected were Claudia Dillmann (Deutsches Filminstitut -DIF, Frankfurt), Gian Luca Farinelli (Cineteca del Comune di Bologna), Mimi Gjorgoska-Illievska (Kinoteka na Makedonija, Skopje), Maria Komninos (Greek Film Archive, Athens), and Dinko Tucakovic (Yugoslovenska Kinoteka, Belgrade).

Claudia Dillmann, director of the Deutsches Filminstitut, was reappointed President and new Treasurer of ACE. The office of the Secretary General is held by Thomas Christensen, curator at the Danish Film Institute.

Learn more about ACE here.

 

Assessment of the Orphan works issue and Costs for Rights Clearance

2010-06-30 |The European Commission recently assessed the orphan works issue and costs of rights clearance on the basis of the replies to a questionnaire sent to a number of cultural institutions or organisations from all sectors. The survey was held in the context of the Digital Libraries initiative, based on the fact that for digitisation and online accessibility of cultural content appropriate measures are needed to deal with orphan works i.e. material still in-copyright but whose right holders cannot be identified or located. The assessment is a fact-finding exercise and does not prejudge of the outcome of the Commission's work in this area.

Read the full report here.

Learn more about the Digital Libraries Initiative here.

 

Study on "Challenges of the digital era for film heritage institutions"

2010-06-28 | The European Commission has launched a call for tenders in order conduct a study on the "Challenges of the digital era for film heritage institutions". The call for tenders is published in the  OJ 2010/S 108-163209 of 05/06/2010. The aim of the study is to provide a detailed description of the challenges that film heritage institutions are facing in relation to all areas of their activities, as well as the opportunities that digital technologies offer. The deadline for receipt of tenders is 1 September 2010 at 4 p.m..

All tender documents can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/avpolicy/info_centre/tenders/index_en.htm

A summary of the objectives and the methodology of the study is available here.

 

New website on Carl Theodor Dreyer online

2010-06-20 | In May the Danish Film Institute, a partner in the European Film Gateway project, launched a new website about Carl Theodor Dreyer and his work. Carl Theodor Dreyer (1889-1968) is regarded as one of the international cinema's giants. The website offers a rich collection of original material and fresh perspectives contributed by Danish and international advocates of the filmmaker's legacy.

The website is available here.

Europeana publishes White Paper

2010-06-02 | Europeana's first White Paper looks at the key role linked data will play in Europeana's development and in helping Europe's citizens make connections between existing knowledge to achieve new cultural and scientific developments. Europeana.eu is a website that links you to cultural and scientific material from Europe’s libraries, museums, audio-visual collections and archives. Launched as a prototype in November 2008, it offers access to over 7 million digitised items. Europeana’s fully operational service will launch later in 2010, giving access to 10 million items. Without linked data, Europeana could be seen as a simple collection of digital objects. With linked data, the potential is far greater, as the author of the white paper, Prof. Stefan Gradmann, explains.

Read the White Paper here.

 

Lithuanian documentaries on the Internet

2010-05-31 | On 3 May, 2010 the Lithuanian Central State Archive, a data contributor of filmarchives online and partner in the current EFG - The European Film Gateway project, started implementation of a 30-months project called "Lithuanian documentaries on the Internet". The archive has received support of about 2.8 million for this project from EU Structural Funds. The objective of the project is the preservation of Lithuanian documentary heritage by digitisation as well as its accessibility for everyone via the Internet. It is expected that the project will digitize and transfer to the Internet 1000 titles of Lithuanian documentaries, created in the period between 1919-1960.

Find more information here.

 

East Silver Market / Call for submissions 2010

2010-04-21 | The 7th edition of East Silver documentary market specialized in Eastern and Central European documentary is now open for submission. Interested filmmakers can submit their films to the biggest internationally recognized database of creative feature and television documentary films from Central and Eastern Europe. The call is for completed documentaries produced 2009 – 2010 with English subtitles or with English voiceover. Submissions deadline is 31st of July 2010.

For more information and an online entry form visit: www.eastsilver.net

 

WCF Initiates Restoration of Film From Hungarian National Film Archive

2010-03-28 |One of the latest restoration projects initiated by Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Foundation (WCF) is devoted to an early work of Hungarian-American filmmaker André de Toth, 'Two Girls in the Street' ('Két Lány Az Utcán') from 1939. While the Foundation will bear all costs for the restoration and preservation of 'Two Girls in the Street', the actual work will be carried out by the Cineteca di Bologna's L'Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory, official restoration partner of the WCF. After the restoration is completed, the Hungarian National Film Archive will receive a brand new 35mm copy later this year. Both, the Cineteca di Bologna as well as the Hungarian National Film Archive are making available parts of their holding's catalogue information available via filmarchives online. Scorsese established the World Cinema Foundation together with other distinguished international filmmakers in 2007 to call attention to the global cause of film preservation and to preserve and restore neglected films from around the world - but in particular from countries in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Central Asia, which often lack the financial and technical ability to do so.

For further information on the WCF, please visit www.worldcinemafoundation.net.

 

Virtual exhibition "A Roma Journey" now online

2010-03-08 |This week The European Library launched a new virtual exhibition called "A Roma Journey". It provides content about Roma’s rich cultural heritage across Europe; you can view a unique collection of full-text books, rare manuscripts, photographs, paintings, sound recordings and videos from the world of the Roma. Rarities on offer include the first ever dictionary written in Romani-Serbian-German in a concentration camp during WWII, traditional songs and tales, and letters exploring the experiences of a Roma family in Scandinavia.

Visit A Roma Journey

Visit The European Digital Library

 

Producers and Film Archives Agree on New Arrangements for Voluntary Deposit of Films in European Archives

2010-02-24 |After several years of negotiating, film producers worldwide, represented by FIAPF and European film archives, represented by ACE, signed a framework agreement setting out new arrangements for voluntary deposit of film and film materials in European archives. The purpose of the new arrangements is to update the 1971 FIAPF model contract for voluntary deposit to take into account the new digital environment and the enlargement of the European Union. The framework agreement serves as a reference for voluntary deposit of films and film materials and is complemented by a model contract for bilateral negotiation between the depositor and the individual film archive. The negotiations between ACE and FIAPF were supported by the European Commission's Audiovisual and Media Policy Unit. ACE's president Claudia Dillmann as well as FIAPF's president Luis Alberto Scalella welcome this agreement as a further consolidation of the co-operation between producers and film archives, which will also better support the work of European film archives than the 1971 contract.

The agreement can be downloaded here:
www.acefilm.de
www.fiapf.org
 

 

Dutch Film Organisations merge into Eye Film Institute Netherlands

2010-01-31 |On 31 December 2009, the Netherlands Filmmuseum (which contributes data to filmarchives online), Holland Film, the Netherlands Institute for Film Education (NIF), and the Filmbank pooled their resources to form a new organisation – the eye Film Institute Netherlands. With this merger, the Dutch film world has gained a sector-wide umbrella institute that works to support national cinema culture.

The establishment of eye was initiated by Education, Culture and Science Minister Ronald Plasterk, whose aim was to unite the sector in a nationwide institute, comparable to national sector institutes such as the Netherlands Music Center, the Netherlands Theater Institute (TIN) or, on international level, to colleague institutions such as the Danish Film Institute. The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has promised to support the new institute, which is managed by former Filmmuseum director Sandra den Hamer, with € 350,000.

Eye’s ambitions go beyond the original responsibilities of the participating organisations in the field of film archiving, presentation, distribution, education, and promotion. Eye will develop initiatives to stimulate the Dutch cinema climate, becoming the face of Dutch cinema both at home as well as abroad and functioning as ambassador of national film culture.

In 2011 eye will move to its new headquarters (4 screens and 1,200 m² of exhibition space) in the Overhoeks neighbourhood, located across Amsterdam Harbour.

For more information please visit www.eyefilm.nl.
 

Publication "Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for Digitization for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums"

2009-12-23 | Digital communications technologies have led to fundamental changes in the ways that cultural institutions fulfil their public missions of access, preservation, research, and education. Institutions are developing publicly-accessible websites in which users can visit online exhibitions, search collection databases, access images of collection items, and in some cases create their own digital content. Digitization, however, also raises the possibility of copyright infringement. "Copyright and Digitization" aims to assist understanding and compliance with copyright law across libraries, archives and museums. It discusses the exclusive rights of copyright owners, the major exemptions used by cultural heritage institutions, and stresses the importance of risk assessment when conducting any digitization project. It also includes two cases studies, examining digitizing oral histories and student work.

The publication by Peter B Hirtle, Emily Hudson and Andrew T Kenyon is available for free download at

http://papers.ssrn.com

 

Read about Europeana from the US perspective

2009-12-23 | In her article, Ricky Erway of OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) provides a detailed and highly insightful outsider’s view on the Europeana project. Erway looks at Europeana from many vantage points: mandate and funding; branding and public relations; learning from others; aggregation; cooperation; content; rights; metadata; technology; access; user feedback; and sustainability – offering valuable advice for the Europeana community in doing so. Erway’s observations were originally presented during the LIBER/EBLIDA digitisation workshop in October and have now been published in the recent edition of LIBER Quarterly, the Journal of European Research Libraries.

A selection of the data collected in filmarchives online will be contributed to Europeana by summer 2010.

Find the complete article here:

http://liber.library.uu.nl

 

Europeana receives Eramus Award for Networking Europe

2009-10-19 | At the Erasmus EuroMedia Awards 2009 ceremony at the City Hall in Vienna on 16 October 2009, Europeana.eu was awarded the Erasmus Award for Networking Europe. The jury selected 3 Erasmus awards from 62 nominations out of around 230 applications. The award is given by the European Society for Education and Communication. All 62 nominees were also awarded the Erasmus Seal of Approval for excellent quality and educational value. The prize is a strong endorsement for Europeana, given by an objective international jury from the world of learning and research. To win the award, Europeana had to prepare an application showing how Europeana fitted criteria relating to the promotion of understanding and learning in Europe, and provide a short demo. Max Kaiser from the National Library of Austria and co-ordinator of EuropeanaConnect attended the awards ceremony and delivered an acceptance speech on behalf of Europeana. filmarchives online will contribute data and content beginning of next year to the Europeana web portal via the the project EFG - The European Film Gateway, which is currently working towards a web portal where film archives and cinèmathèques will give access to digitised materials (text, image, sound, moving image) from their collections.

Visit www.europeana.eu
Visit www.europeanfilmgateway.eu

 

 

Draft European Standard for Cinematographic Works

2009-09-18 |The CEN (Centre Européen de Normalisation) enquiry on the second of the European standards mandated by the Commission on interoperability of film databases finalised on 26 July 2009. Of the 25 CEN Members, 14 agreed with the possibility of adopting the draft "Film identification - Enhancing interoperability of metadata - Element sets and structures (prEN 15907)" as a European standard. The CEN Technical Committee (CEN/TC 372) responsible for this standard is meeting on 29/30 October in Frankfurt in order finalise the draft standard for its submission to the "formal vote" and final adoption.

The project "EFG - The European Film Gateway" has decided to use the future EN 15907 as a part of their semantic interoperability strategy for filmographic records.

More information: www.filmstandards.org

 

Registration for Joint BAAC (Baltic Audiovisual Archival Council) and LCSA (Lithuanian Central State Archive) Annual Conference 2009 now open

2009-07-28 |Under the title "Aggregation and Management of Audiovisual Content in the Digital Space" this year's edition of the conference aims at promoting the visibility of the Baltic heritage in a digital environment by sharing best practices and encouraging collaborative networks with national and Trans-European initiatives. The conference will be held in Vilnius, Lithuania, October 4-7, 2009 and is hosted by the Lithuanian Central State Archive together with the Institute of Library and Information Science at the University of Vilnius.

An early bird accreditation fee is available until 4th of September 2009.

Find the online registration form, the preliminary programme, and other relevant information at www.baacouncil.org.

 

Framework Agreement between ACE and FIAPF on Procedures for Voluntary Deposits of Films with Preservation Archives

2009-07-09 | After several years of negotiations, ACE (Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (Association of European film archives))and FIAPF (Fédération Internationale des Associations de Producteurs de Films (International Federation of Film Producers Associations)) settled on a framework agreement for voluntary deposit of films in film preservation archives. The agreement text had been approved at the FIAPF General Assembly in Cannes (May 2009) and later at the ACE General Assembly in Bologna (July 2009). The European Commission DG Information Society and Media supported the negotiations between both parties. Aim of the agreement is to substitute an older contract with the FIAPF from 1971 and to adapt it to a new digital environnement as well as to the enlargement of the European Union. The framework agreement is not binding but shall serve as a reference for voluntary use by the members of both parties. In addition to the agreement a model contract for bilateral negotiations will be set up.

 The framework agreement regulates:

    * Conditions of deposit

    * Initiative for Preservation and Restoration

    * Access and Use by the Producer and the Archive

    * Permant Withdrawal

Framework_Agreement_090701 (English version)

 

BFI seeks Project Manager

2009-06-17 | The British Film Institute is seeking a Project Manager to ensure the successful delivery of a new Collections Management System for the BFI National Archive - one of the world's most renowned film and television heritage Collections.

>>Official job advertisement (Note: Deadline for applications has passed beginning of July)

 

Magyar Nemzeti Filmarchívum:
The Rescue of "Hyppolit, the Butler"

2009-03-11 | Shot and premiered in 1931, "Hyppolit, the Butler", an immortal piece of Hungarian film history, reaping success in Hungary and abroad over decades, has been restored and saved for posterity with the support of the Hungarian Development Bank.

Directed by István Székely, "Hyppolit, the Butler" is an evergreen of Hungarian film history. After almost a decade of it’s completion in July 1945 it was played again in the movies. The 25th anniversary of Hungarian sound film was celebrated by its revival in October 1956. The next return was on 8 June 1972: In that year more than one million people saw it. Each time it was revived, the success was the same. According to the 1980 statistic data of Mokép, "Hyppolit" had attracted more than three and a half million viewers after its revival in 1956. In the 77 years since its making it lost nothing of its appeal, it has remained an unfading favorite of the Hungarian public. Its significance in Hungarian film culture is equivalent to the place of Mihály Kertész’s film "Casablanca" in global film culture.

Recorded on flammable nitro raw material, the sound and picture negative has luckily survived in the collection of the Hungarian National Film Archive. But in the almost eighty years since the shooting it has shrunk as badly as to become unsuitable for any copying by the traditional contact technology.

The Hungarian National Film Archive has restored the film with the support of the Hungarian Development Bank. The Hungarian Film Laboratory performed the digitzation and restoration of the motion picture material, and the Hungarian Film Archive carried out the digital cleaning of the sound. The restored picture and sound negative as well as a copy were generated in the Hungarian Film Laboratory.

 

Laterna Magica slides available online

2009-02-06 | The Cinémathèque Française holds a collection of 17’000 magic lantern slides from the 18th century to 1920. Now, the website www.laternamagica.fr gives access to a first selection of these slides. Since 1936, archivists of the Cinémathèque as well as several private collectors, among them Will Day (1873-1936), one of the first film historians, have assembled this exceptional collection over the years. Today, the stock is still growing, thanks to donations, acquisitions as well as to the funding of la Fondation Electricité de France. As the fragile glass paintings are likewise difficult to access for researchers as for the broader public, it was decided to first restore and then digitise the material. The digitisation has been supported by the Mission de la recherche et de la technologie du Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication. Two important collections are now available online: The “Life Models” series containing colourised photographic slides as well as hand painted large scale slides from the Royal Polytechnic Institution. Further digitised items will be added to the website successively. Coming up next is the “Lapierre” collection in autumn 2009.
 

 

filmarchives online Press Release

2009-01-27 | A groundbreaking project sees its successful completion in January 2009: three years ago, the EU-supported MIDAS project took up the challenge to integrate catalogue information from 18 European film archives and to make these resources accessible online via a single site. Now this outstanding project is realised. Via filmarchives online, about 25,000 cinematographic works are available fast and direct for research via the internet. And the portal keeps on growing: information, images and digitised films are added successively, as further archives are invited to join...

read full release

 

Cinémathèque municipale de Luxembourg looking for head of Archive

2009-01-08 | official job advertisement ...

 

filmarchives online Screening Event in Thessaloniki

2008-11-17 | A further filmarchives online screening showing "Scenes from Europe's Urban Past" will be presented at the 49th Thessaloniki International Film Festival, Greece's grandest film festival. The screening will take place on November 20th in Olympion theatre (10, Aristotelous Square), room Pavlos Zannas, at 13:00. We are looking foward to meeting you there!

Thessaloniki International Film Festival

 

Building the European Film GatewayEFG Logo

2008-06-23 | Work on a joint European online film portal, the European Film Gateway, begins on September 21 with an inaugural meeting in Frankfurt am Main. The 2-day event brings together 20 partners, including 15 European film archives and museums. Their aim is to set up a central point of access to the European film heritage, overcoming institutional and language barriers. The Deutsches Filminstitut is responsible for the co-ordination of the European Film Gateway (EFG), and the project is funded by the European Commission’s eContentplus programme. By the end of the three-year project in 2011, more than 700,000 photographs, posters, texts, audio documents, and of course entire films and film clips, covering more than 100 years of film history, will be ready for access by professionals, students and film buffs. The platform is set to go online in 2010.

official press release

EFG project website

 

New Collections Online

2008-06-25 | The integration of further data contributions is making continuous progress. During the last weeks, catalogue information of Cinémathèque Royale de Belgique (Brussels), Deutsche Kinemathek - Museum für Film und Fernsehen (Berlin), Fondazione Cineteca Italiana (Milan), IWF Media and Knowlegde (Göttingen), LICHTSPIEL - Kinemathek Bern, Magyar Nemzeti Filmarchívum (Budapest) and Tainiothiki tis Ellados (Athens) have been made available online. In total, there is information on more than 20.000 film works available by now. The integration of further data is currently in the state of preparation.

more on the collections made available by the archives