Founded in the sixties, Cineteca del Comune di Bologna has been an active member of the Fédération Internationale des Archives du Film (FIAF) since 1989, and a member of the Association des Cinémathèques Européennes (ACE) since its founding. The Cineteca has furthermore been an autonomous City institution since 1995. In the summer of 2000, with inauguration of its new offices in via Riva di Reno, the Cineteca embarked on a season of re-structuring its activities and projects. This period culminated on June 28, 2003, with the transfer of the Cineteca library and non filmic collections in the renovated area of the ex-slaughterhouse, and the opening of two new theaters. The contiguousness of theatres, libraries and iconographic archives can also be perceived by visitors, students and scholars as a new opportunity to find gathered in a single place screening activities and non-film material consultation. The approach and study of all the different aspects of cinema thus becomes more comfortable, methodical and prolific.

The film archive holds over 18,000 films in 35mm and 16mm. In just fifteen years, the archive has evolved rapidly as a result of its acquisition policy, meeting the demands of those who entrust to the care of experts documents on supports subject to deterioration. In addition to holding positive prints and negatives of films restored by the Cineteca, the archive also preserves collections coming from producers and film distributors as well as from important private collectors. The entire span of film history (from the silent to the sound period to the nineties) is widely represented by the various collections.

In 2004 the Corona Cinematografica Fund was transferred from Rome to Bologna. Corona Cinematografica, founded by brothers Elio and Ezio Gagliardo in the early 1950’s, produced a number of documentaries and short films up to the first half of the 80’s, plus a series of Cinemondo newsreels produced from 1965 to 1985, which approximately add up to a total of 360. A unique occurrence, the producer kept documents that mirror more than 50 years of Italian history. The company has granted the Cineteca all its material, i.e. positives and negatives of more than 3000 titles. The overall number of pictures to examine, catalogue and digitalise adds up approximately to 12,000.

The Cineteca has become an internationally recognized center for film preservation and restoration. In particular, the Chaplin Project stands out among its most important projects. The Cineteca has been entrusted with the task of restoring the entire cinematic oeuvre of Charles Chaplin. The filmmaker’s heirs stipulated an agreement with the Bologna institution for philological reconstruction of over 80 films, including shorts and features.

The Library holds around 20,000 volumes on the cinema, 2500 photographic books, and 2000 texts between graphic arts and comics. It also contains a collection of specialized magazines (around 1100 different titles). The collections are in continual growth. Various foundations are also held in the library, including the Renzi Foundation and the McPherson Foundation, which are currently available for consultation by the public. The Mystery library, the Aristarco Foundation, the Valmarana-Ipotesi Cinema Foundation, and the Premio Solinas Script Collections are still under development. The library collections are directly accessible to the public for consultation through an open stacks system. There are 60 carrels for consultation of library holdings, and 8 internet points for access of online catalogues and electronic documentation on cinema related topics. The library also offers assistance and support for research activities.

Cineteca di Bologna participated to the following European Projects:

FILM ARCHIVES ON LINE (FAOL) is a project issued from the European LEONARDO programme (1996). The network of partners of the FILM ARCHIVES ON LINE project included archives, specialised laboratories and training institutes supported by Internet Communication developers. The objective was to provide a set of programmes conceived to anticipate and respond to the quick and continuous changes of technologies and working procedures of film restoration and to experiment new effective training technologies.

MULTI FAOL- project issued from the European LEONARDO programme (1999).

ARCHIMEDIA - Initiated in 1996 by the Royal Belgian Film Archive and the University of Paris III within the framework of the European MEDIA PLUS programme, the ARCHIMEDIA project primarily aimed to establish a network of archives and universities throughout the European Union.

MEDIAUVIS - Interreg III B, MEDOCC area - The community initiative INTERREG III is one of the Community Regional Policy tools. The project began in 2004. The partners are working for the development of the audio-visual sector in the Mediterranean.

La Cineteca di Bologna